You’ve gone to great time, effort and expense to craft a team of highly skilled employees who shine on their own yet work cohesively as a team. You’ve mastered the complex alchemy of workplace relations and chosen a workforce based not just on skills and experience, but on temperament and personality. You’ve found employees who complement, contrast and bring out the best in one another while also making your workplace a harmonious and dynamic place to spend your days.

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They’re a team, but they’re also individuals, and you wouldn’t want to sacrifice what makes them individual. This is why some employers may balk at the idea of putting their employees in uniforms. The autonomy over what they wear at work not only ensures that they are comfortable at work but they feel like they have a sense of their own identity rather than being just another corporate drone. Yet, while there are no definitively right or wrong answers as to whether or not employees should or shouldn’t wear uniforms, business owners certainly shouldn’t dismiss the notion out of hand. Here are a few:

They look smart

The thing with uniforms is that they’re… well… uniform. It’s all well and good instigating a “business casual” dress code in your workplace, but this ambiguous phrase is hugely open to interpretation. Some employees may embody the “casual” way more than the “business”. Uniforms allow you to ensure that each and every employee looks smart and is able to make the kind of first impression that you want to make on your clientele.

They allow your employees to own and represent your brand

When employees wear their uniforms it helps them to feel like a part of something. It helps to afford them a sense of ownership of their brand. However, it also brings with it a level of responsibility. When they’re wearing their uniforms they demonstrate a level of professionalism and embody the standards and ideals upon which your brand was built. Their uniform is an ever-present reminder of what you expect of them.

They’re cheap advertising

One thing that all businesses grapple with from time to time is keeping one step ahead of the competition and making themselves visible to all those prospective customers out there. This can result in a fortune spent on marketing your business. When it comes to marketing every little helps. Take a look at these workwear bundles and you’ll see that uniforms are a highly cost effective way of advertising your business. Every time your employers wear them outside of or on their way to or from work, your brand gets a boost!

They help to create an egalitarian culture

Remember no-uniform day at school? Remember the huge disparity you’d see between kids from affluent backgrounds and those whose parents had more modest incomes? That’s part of the reason so many schools have uniforms. They’re the great leveller. They demonstrate to kids that it’s their academic achievements that matter, not how expensive their jeans are. Workplace uniforms operate on the exact same principle.

Employee uniforms may not be for everyone, but all employers should at least consider their benefits before making a decision on behalf of their workforce.