From small outfits to large corporations, West Michigan is matching a national trend of common-sense employee dress codes.
A recent report by Chicago-based global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed employers have eased stringent dress codes nationwide in the years following Silicon Valley’s dot-com boom.
Changing dress norms aren’t just true for startups, tech companies and remote workers. They have spread to multinational entities like General Motors, whose now-CEO Mary Barra trimmed a 10-page corporate dress code down to two words, “dress appropriately,” in 2009 when she was vice president of global human resources.
Target in 2014 instituted a “dress for your day” policy. JPMorgan Chase in 2016 began allowing business casual clothes every day. Walmart in April said workers in participating stores can wear shirts of any solid color, blue jeans and jeggings instead of the usual blue polo and khakis.
For these companies, as well as businesses closer to home, changing the dress code can mean happier employees, which can lead to more productivity, less turnover and better hiring rates.
Lisa Cooper is a people strategist at Grand Rapids-based HR Collaborative, which provides human resources support and consulting for small to large companies.
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