Avoid suits: Draw up a dress code
By Jay MacDonald • Bankrate.com

You ran the classified ad. You reeled in the perfectly attired professional applicant. But when you arrived at work Monday morning, you could barely find that bright-eyed new receptionist beneath the wild pink hair and enough piercings to set off an airport metal detector.

Got dress code?

An employee's attire and grooming can play a pivotal role in how your customers, shareholders and even your employees perceive your company. You want your work force dressed in an manner that's appropriate for your business: Suits can be just as disruptive to a surf shop or tattoo parlor as multiple nose rings and Day-Glo hair might be to a law office.

Loosening the collar
Employers tinker with dress policies to loosen as well as tighten them. Business casual, while not the hot business topic it was a few years ago, still exists in many a firm, thanks to the work-in-your-jammies home office advocates and the need for cheap but attractive employee perks.

"Casual dress has actually forced more dress codes," says Kristin Accipiter, spokeswoman for the Society for Human Resource Management. "The more companies go with casual dress, the more they are also setting some sort of dress code just so it's understood what is acceptable and what isn't. Common sense isn't so common."

Goodbye, business suit
While no one is tolling the death knell for the business suit, there is little doubt that America still is dressing down today. The key is to make it work within the office setting. SHRM research shows that a business casual policy helps employees contribute to the feeling and reputation of the company.

Consultant Sherry Maysonave, author of Casual Power, says the business casual movement has already accomplished more than the Summer of Love did in terms of battling the coat-and-tie establishment.

"Even in the '60s, with the hippie movement and the flower children, business fashion did not change," she says. "What's happening now is the technology explosion has really emphasized the casualization of America, more so than in the Sixties. The Sixties really changed society, but it didn't impact the way business was conducted, it didn't impact professional dress as a whole."

Dress codes were indeed challenged in those rebellious days as an infringement on freedom of expression. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion or gender. Together with state and union regulations, they constitute the legal out-of-bounds lines for dress codes.

While the courts generally have upheld an employer's right to set and enforce dress standards, including separate codes for male and female employees, such policies must be applied and enforced equally.

"Unless someone can make a legitimate argument that it's somehow interfering with their freedom of speech or expression, in a private workplace, you can control the standards," says Adrienne Berry, a lawyer with Segal, Stewart, Cutler, Catlet, Lindsey & Janes in Louisville, Ky.

"But it must be equally enforced," she cautions. "Nowadays, it would be very difficult to force women to wear skirts, for instance. To say that men could wear a business suit that would include slacks and women couldn't might be difficult under a sexual discrimination standard."

Setting standards
Dress codes do not need to be etched in stone to be effective. Smaller companies often agree informally to general standards of appearance and grooming, based on degree of customer contact, safety considerations and employee morale issues. Where piercings, tattoos or grooming are concerned, complaints by customers or coworkers may prompt more specific dress policies. In the case of business casual attire, a dress code can be a welcome guide for employees who are confused about the whole concept.

"You don't want the emphasis placed on the word 'casual' instead of the word 'business,'" says Maysonave. "Casual could be jeans and sneakers and T-shirts, it could be shorts, whereas business casual is a relaxed version of business dress. It's how you might dress to go out to dinner on the weekend, not how you would go to the grocery store."

While there is little consensus on what constitutes business casual, "corporate casual," "high corporate casual" and the like, experts agree the following have no place on the job:

• Capri pants
• Tank tops or sleeveless shirts
• Halter-tops
• Flip-flops
• Revealing attire
• Torn clothing
• Jogging suits
• Inappropriate or offensive T-shirts

Women face a particular challenge in nailing the right look for the new workplace, according to Maysonave.

"That's because it's still a male business world," she says. "Fashion bombards women with more social attire than business attire. What a man would wear to a social event or a party, he could also probably wear to the office. That's not true for a woman."

America's business casual movement has other cultures scratching their heads, too.

"They're trying to get in sync with America," says Maysonave. "The French have always known how to do that smart casual look, but the Japanese have had a particularly difficult time aligning themselves with the casual dress code because they're very formal; formal is the way they conduct business. They're perplexed by it, especially meeting with these high-tech companies that are so very casual."

Best advice: To avoid a fashion gaffe, always dress for business when meeting customers. You can always remove your jacket or tie if the occasion warrants.

Casual spoken here
Accipiter says business casual is both a blessing and a curse for small businesses. On one hand, it's an inexpensive perk that companies can offer to attract younger workers; on the other hand, who has time to be the fashion police?

"Casual dress is a very popular benefit. In today's labor market, it behooves employers to create policies that are popular with employees," she says. "We are long past the days when gentlemen wore suits to ball games and it's not surprising that our workplace would change as well."

Beyond the obvious recruiting benefits, Accipiter says companies find that casual dress often spiffs up the bottom line, as well.

"People are more productive when they're comfortable, it saves them a good amount of money not needing two different wardrobes, and it helps break down the hierarchical structure. It also allows for a little more cultural and ethnic diversity at work, as long as it fits within the overall company guidelines."

Maysonave predicts that business casual will coexist with traditional business suits well into the future. She hopes the new dress codes will serve to eliminate instances of underdressed and inappropriately dressed employees, and soon.

"Companies are now realizing the headaches of casual and that they have to define it for their employees, because if they don't, the door's wide open," she says. "They don't have a legal leg to stand on if they haven't defined some kind of dress code.

"Yes, dress codes are back in, it's time consuming, it takes policing and enforcing. But that's very important if you're going to be successful with the business casual dress code."

Jay MacDonald is a contributing editor based in Mississippi

-- Updated: July 29, 2003