Company Uniforms as an Employee Benefit

It may not be immediately obvious, but providing work uniforms can serve as a benefit to your employees and potential candidates for hire. Many employees prefer the cost savings and safety provided by company uniforms rather than having to purchase their own. While it’s a cost to the company to provide uniforms, the benefits passed down to employees often translate into a greater advantage for the company. Many companies who supply their workers with uniforms find that the benefits provided help to promote a high-performance work environment through positively influencing the efforts of their workers. Here are some direct employee benefits that your uniforms can provide:

Cost Savings on Work Clothes

Passing cost savings down to employees can be a huge benefit, especially when partnering with the right uniform vending company. Companies who provide workers with uniforms can save employees money in three ways:  

Saving on buying clothes

If your company currently provides or is planning to provide uniforms, employees will get direct savings on not having to buy additional clothes for work—and while your employees get the benefit of free clothing, you get the benefit of creating a professional-looking team. Your uniform rental vendor should also be willing to help with size adjustments, so employees won’t have to worry about having to buy multiple shirts or pants if their weight fluctuates.

Saving on maintaining clothes

If your company is renting work uniforms from a vendor, that vendor should also be able to provide maintenance to damaged uniforms, further helping to keep down the costs of buying completely new ones. Employees also won’t have to worry about putting wear and tear on their own clothes. Wearing their own clothes at home and their work clothes at work will extend the lifespan of both sets of garments.

Saving on cleaning clothes

Using a uniform rental service that also provides cleaning will save not only money but the hassle of cleaning uniforms in the first place. This is a large benefit to both the company and its employees. Employees will have the benefit of being supplied a clean work outfit each day of the week, taking any stress off of picking out work-appropriate clothes. This also prevents employees from bringing work contaminants (dirt, ink, and chemicals) into the home. If the employee is working in a heavy soil environment or working with chemicals, using a home washing machine is undesirable, and arranging proper cleaning creates an additional cost.

Higher Quality Work Environment

Providing employees with garments appropriately suited for their daily tasks is a great way uniforms can benefit employees and promote a safe and comfortable work environment. Making sure employees have industry-required personal protective equipment (PPE) where necessary, as well as a workwear that is comfortable to do their job in, is important for creating and maintaining a quality work environment.

Uniforms as PPE

While some industries require specific regulations regarding uniforms, which you are likely already be following, you can also provide employees with additional protection where not necessarily required, but greatly appreciated. For maintenance workers, additional padding for kneeling can go a long way. For lab workers, snap front buttons can make removing a lab coat a lot easier in case of a spill.

Uniforms as a means of comfort

Is your work environment consistently cold or hot? Especially for workers who are exposed to the elements all day, it can be a great benefit to be provided with workwear that is either breathable in hot environments or has additional layers for cold ones. When your employees are comfortable while working, they’re more likely to accomplish what they’re doing at a faster pace with better quality.

Work Equality and Team Unity

Promoting fairness and equality in the workplace is an important benefit to all workers. To most people, it’s important that they feel equal to their peers. Having a uniform makes it so that all employees have the same advantage and benefits as the next. At the same time, it also prevents some workers from having lesser equipment than others.

Work equality

With equality in the workplace, there is less pressure for employees to have to look a certain way or to buy a certain quality of clothing or PPE: it’s all provided for them. All employees will have a uniform that provides them with what they need to safely and comfortably complete their everyday tasks.

Team unity

One of the most important benefits uniforms can bring is the sense of team unity. Being able to work in a team-oriented environment acts as a positive motivator and benefit for all employees. Having a standard uniform can promote equality even among individuals with different levels of experience.

Looking to provide your employees with the benefits of uniforms? Try asking your employees what they think!