Dress Code 1,2,3 | CPA Practice Advisor

Do you remember back when you were a kid dressing up to school and you used to do that a lot, and I mean lots of occasions to make your parents freak out about what you could wear to school? Sometimes the logic makes sense, you want to dress to impress, other times your logic is flawed. The color is itchy, the pants are uncomfortable, or you just need to wear shorts in the middle of winter. No matter what generation you are, we can all remember that morning getting dressed for school and now we who are parents, see the other side of the situation.

Luckily for all of us, once we get a job at work, we still have to dress to impress, but modern business casual wear provides a pretty versatile range of work wear. Gone are the days of suits and dresses, like we’ve all come back to life through madmen. In the accounting landscape, we also tend to avoid the super casual workplace scene in shorts and flip-flops. After all, we are the most trusted advisors and trusted advisors don’t wear flip flops, at least most don’t.

Our dress code in the workplace at the most basic level is about representing the brand that our corporate organizational team culture represents. A dress code is an external visual example of what you stand for and what makes your organization and you unique to the people you interact with. The nice thing about this, unlike many other subtle or non-verbal social cues, is that clothing is rarely misunderstood. For most people, a suit is a suit and they don’t differentiate between a $10,000 and $1.00 suit. Whereas the line between suit and tie, business casual, and flip flops is big and distinctive.

With this in mind, we have all had to adapt to working remotely and the line between business casual and flip flops is getting grayer by the day. After all, on a zoom call you can wear shorts and flip-flops because no one is looking at them. But what does your upper half represent and represent and does your new virtual work outfit send the right message?

The Right Message

As we talked about earlier, your attire whether at the office, working from home, or virtual meetings isn’t just about your comfort. The goal at the granular level for any organization is for your clothing to represent its brand and culture. Your culture is what makes your organization unique and different from others around and many articles have been written at length about the values ​​and purposes of culture so we will not retell those stories here, you can go and read the previous issues, believe me . As you enter the post-covid world, now is a great time to think about your dress code and make sure it aligns with your culture to drive true success.

Apostle Dress Up

Now when it comes to dress codes at work, you can’t go back to one single answer, you need alignment. This means before you take the common workplace and virtual meeting policies you find online and apply them to where you work, stop and think about where you actually work. Answer this question instead:

What makes you unique, do you strive to be the best, the most customer friendly, or the most economical provider?

The answers to those questions will help you structure your new dress code policy and actually take successful steps toward aligning the culture and behavior of your team members. Each of the three questions is a very different culture, all of which can be very successful with different dress codes both in person and virtually. Your goal is to match the two, such as making sure your kids don’t go to school in neon polka dot pants and a mismatched top.

Three buckets

• Best: If this is your answer, then your dress code both in person and virtually would benefit from being more formal. Think about a high-end restaurant or a high-end car dealership, the dress fits the high price tag and pushes to be the best.
• Customer Friendly: For those who choose this one, you will want to continue to maintain a certain level of business casual attire in all situations to keep your brand strong and formal for the professional level of work we do. Focus on not dressing too fancy for your clients, but showing them how trustworthy and reliable you are.
• Economical: In this area, customers are looking to you for a product that has great value across everyone on the team. For those who describe this culture, your dress code will shine with style and consistent color choices. Consistency helps customers feel valued and they get the same level of service no matter who they work with.

As we all adjust to working more virtually, now is not the time to ditch business casual ideas and just give up on wearing t-shirts, it is time to focus on success and growth. With this one small step, you can help give people in your organization better direction and actually take a big step in aligning your culture and actions, a step that guarantees success.