Running a restaurant isn’t easy. Food service is a business that comes with its own sort of challenges, and restaurant owners and managers — as well as those who own or run other types of businesses within the food service or hospitality industries — have to juggle all of those tricky things while still finding time to focus on the quality of food and services they offer.
There’s a lot to be concerned with, from payroll taxes to facilities maintenance. And then there are your employees. If you’ve hired and trained your team, you’re off to a good start. But don’t forget about the little things, including employee uniforms.
There are few industries in which the way employees dress is as important as it is in the food service and hospitality spaces. Here’s why workers in these spaces need to be dressed in great uniforms.
Uniforms help you build your workplace culture
There’s a reason why so many organizations — from baseball teams to the armed forces— emphasize uniforms. When your employees dress alike, they’ll feel more like a team and be more likely to behave in a disciplined, professional way. Experts say that uniforms can build pride and loyalty within a staff. This means, your employees will actually feel the difference.
Uniforms will put your employees in the right mindset and remind them that they are working together as a team in a professional environment. Such an impression will extend to customers, too, who will identify your workplace’s uniform as part of your business’ brand and will enjoy the feeling of security and comfort that this implies.
Customers prefer uniformed staff
From a customer’s perspective, uniforms are a no-brainer. In addition to improving the quality of the service, uniforms just make it easier for customers to feel comfortable when interacting with the staff.
Uniforms create a sense of consistency and familiarity, which is something customers crave in areas of food service. Just look at chain restaurants, which succeed largely by creating such consistency and familiarity. Additionally, uniforms make it easier to identify employees, which removes the guesswork for customers who want to flag down a waiter or find an employee but don’t want to accidentally turn to a fellow customer.
Uniforms will also help your business stand out: The way your employees look and dress will become a part of your brand identity, and that will keep you on customers’ minds and keep customers coming back for more.
Uniforms keep things healthy and clean
When you’ve standardized the way your employees are expected to dress, you can make sure that your workers are dressing in a way that is ideal for food service or the hospitality industry. The experts at JOBLINE, a Canadian restaurant and hotel supplier that specializes in uniforms and apparel, point out that quality chef’s uniforms, waiter’s uniforms, and maid’s uniforms are all designed with the relevant work in mind. These sorts of outfits protect employees and the items they work with.
Allowing waiters and chefs to choose their own clothes could result in more sleeves hovering over flames or more hair dropping onto plated entrees, and that would be bad for your business and, more importantly, for safety.
In the food service and hospitality industries, looks matter. The way your employees dress will affect everything from the perspective of your customers to the quality of the food or rooms that your business provides. Be smart, and invest in quality uniforms.