Companies have the right to decide what image to portray to their customers and prospective hires. Should dress-code enforcement be a top priority?

Many employers would say yes. But with alarming turnover rates among Generation Y employees (the 18-to-25 group is the most frequent offender), some firms are calling a truce.

Reason: Apart from educational benefits, surveys show that a flexible company culture is the single most coveted benefit among these employees — far more than health coverage, a 401(k) plan, or other big-ticket plans most firms consider their core benefits.  

Every employee defines company culture and flexibility differently, but for a large segment of younger employees, freedom to dress down at work is part of the equation.

Employers that go on a dress-code enforcement kick run the risk of winning the battle but losing the war, hurting employee morale and retention.  On the flip side, the inmates shouldn’t be allowed to run the asylum when it comes to dictating the company image that senior management wants to create.

In either case, people who handle HR and/or benefits duties at their company get caught in the middle of what the top brass demands and what employees want.

Setting limits

For employers, the problem becomes one of re-defining what is and isn’t appropriate dress for employees. Here are four questions many of your colleagues are grappling with at their companies:

• Are flip-flops OK at work?
• How about visible tattoos and/or body piercings? 
• Should your handbooks spell out examples of appropriate and inappropriate attire (e.g., shorts are OK, but short shorts are prohibited)?
• What is the disciplinary process – if there is one — for dress code violations? Alternatively, how heavily is dress code compliance weighed in employee’s annual reviews?

Consistency is key

Consultant Eric Chester, author of Getting Them to Give a Damn,  is of the opinion that it doesn’t really matter how your organization answers these questions, but it’s crucial to define these expectations to employees up front — and then drum home to supervisors that they need to be consistent in how they enforce or relax these rules.

I agree wholeheartedly.  As long as the employer sticks to its policies, the burden falls on the employee to conform or find another place to work.

Communicating these expectations upfront — and addressing questions or concerns right away — saves endless hassle down the road.

Example: It’s reasonable to spell out dress-code expectations to candidates during job interviews. This is also the time for would-be hires to ask questions about dress expectations. 

If your policies don’t match up to the job candidate’s preferences, he or she may not be the right fit for the job. Better to find that out up front. 

Flip-flop Friday

If you already find yourself in the middle of a dress-code war at work, there are still ways to regain control of the situation.

Here’s how one What’s New in Benefits & Compensation reader helped turn an area of discord into a win-win situation for management and employees.

She suggested an update on the old “Casual Friday” idea. Two days each month, the company relaxed the dress code to suit employees’ tastes: They had a “Flip-flop Friday” and a “T-shirt Tuesday.” Since then, morale is up and there have been fewer dress-code battles.

There was still a related, more contentious issue: a policy banning visible tattoos and body piercings.

No, the firm didn’t launch “Tattoo and Tongue-ring Thursday.” Instead, it created a compromise policy as a performance incentive for employees who felt strongly about the issue.

The deal: Keep productivity high and we’d relax the rule prohibiting their display at work.  But if performance slipped or customers complained, the privilege would disappear. So far, it’s worked out well, and the affected employees have lived up to their end of the bargain.

A similar strategy may work — or be all wrong — for your organization.  The only approach that’s guaranteed to fail, however, is to do nothing and hope the problem gets better on its own.