Topic: Staff Uniforms/Dress Code

Does your management company/owners have a uniform policy for all office staff where they are all color coordinated? If so does the management give a semi-annual/yearly clothing allowance or do the employees pay out of own pocket? What are the benefits and what are the cons if any?

Our US Division does have a dress code for both office and maintenance. Clothing allowance is Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.

Maintenance Staff receives five shirts and one jacket. Office staff receives $250 for each season. Must be approved by upper management (usually Calvin Klein/Nine West or Tahari) lines. They do not have to wear the exact same outfit and all pieces are interchangeable. Weekend wear is separate from the $250 which is 3 business are 3 business casual shirts.

Maintenance wear jeans and OSHA approved footwear. Office pant/skirt changes with the season.

Hope this helps.

Back in the day, we had a uniform supplier provide a few different options and we all wore the same color each day. We didn't pay anything for the shirts, but we also didn't get a real choice, either. Not sure what is common at this point.

We spent close to a year trying to decide if we wanted to do uniforms, corporate apparel, etc.
We tried shirts, a specialized company for all pieces, a set cost allowance, etc. And here's what we decided: The people we have hired to work with us are all bright, capable adults. We have put them in charge of multi million dollar assets and feel that they are more than capable of dressing themselves appropriately each day for the position they are in, as well as the weather, all while adhering to company guidelines.

It is easier for us to deal with the singular employee who may not 'get it' than to mandate a uniform across the board.

That being said, we still stuck with Uni's for our maintenance teams for a lot of reasons, but mainly easy recognition from residents and ability to maintain clean and neat clothing.

Hope this helps.

Yes we have shirts with the management company logo. We order all maintenance staff 6 shirts to start plus a nice polo for meetings. Office staff gets 5 tops. They can choose from long sleeve and short sleeve options in a couple of colors that match or company colors - orange, black, white. Office staff wears dress slacks or skirts with the tops except for jeans on Friday. Maintenance can wear jeans, shorts or work pants.

In my observation as a Property Manager Consultant, most companies provide the Maintenance and Housekeeping uniforms. Even to the extent of having them cleaned. This way the companies can rest assured the employee meets all the uniform requirements (except for keeping the shirt tucked in). The office employees are required to wear business casual attire. A name tag with the companies logo. It is the Managers responsibility to monitor and enforce the business casual attire.

I've also observed the office staff wear uniforms. The company splits the cost 50/50. Generally, that dwindles in time due to turnover. Then converting to business casual.

Yes, We have a dress code in our company. The main advantage of that is, it helps to identify all the people of the same organization or company. The company gives us semi yearly allowances for it.