Dress Code

Q1. Dear Jenny, I would like your help with a problem I have with one of my staff. She is front of house and is on her feet for the majority of the day dealing with customers. She has started wearing fairly revealing clothes, actually since the summer started and I think it was practical at first, but they have been getting more and more revealing all summer. She also wears really high heeled shoes. I have no idea how to tackle these issues with her without offending her, she is a great worker and I don’t want her to leave.

 

A1. Thank you for your questions, this I actually not an uncommon situation and I understand that it can be quite delicate to deal with.

I would suggest having an informal chat to her, because unless you have a specific dress code policy then this is unlikely to warrant disciplinary action in the first instance. Find a good time to have a private informal chat and broach the subject. In relation to her shoes there could be health and safety issues that you could discuss with her. In relation to the clothes, the way you broach this will depend on your type of business, please contact me if you would like tailored advice on this. At this meeting you can say that if the inappropriate attire continues you may have to invoke the formal disciplinary procedure. You should follow the informal meeting up with a letter to confirm what was discussed.

 

If you wanted to address the issue in more discrete method, you could send a letter to all staff to reinforce your companies dress code and give examples of which kind of attire would amount to a breach of this and would result in disciplinary action.

 

Which ever method you choose, if she continues to dress in the same way then you can commence your disciplinary procedure. But hopefully if it is pointed out, it will stop. If you don’t have a disciplinary procedure then please contact me as you need one in place. It would also be a good idea to have a relevant policy in place to rely on this in the future, again we can discuss this to ensure that it suits your business. This might be a policy in relation to dress code, standards of behaviour or a code of conduct.