It is our 100th anniversary and we are going to offer a 100th year clothing line for our employees to purchase. They will have a selection of blazers and sweaters to choose from. Prices range from $30 to $100 each. Management feels that the employee should pay something for each piece they choose. What are other banks doing in this situation? Maybe a clothing allowance of $100 (total)to be used, but they still would have to pay 25% of the item. Example, blazer costs $100, employee pays $25. They would still have $25 allowance to use on sweaters or towards another blazer. Anyone with suggestions, I'm listening. Thanks!

Well, first things first. If you allow for a $100 per employee allowance, and the employee spends $25 for a blazer, that leaves them $75 dollars, not $25...

Now, next question. Does your bank require the employees to wear a uniform? If so, do you pay for the uniform? Or subsidize? Or is it all from employees pocket? Will the employees be allowed to wear this every day? Or only on special occassions for the year?

Seems kind of cheesy to "require" employees to get a 100th anniversary clothing line but too have to pay for it.

When I worked at a community bank, everyone was given a shirt or sweater (we got to pick which one) to wear on Casual Wednesdays. We received new ones 3 times a year. If we wanted to purchase anything beyond the one the bank paid for, we were able to purchase them.

Since you'll have items ranging between $30 and $100, I like your idea of a clothing allowance, but I'm curious why management feels the employee should still pay for part of it? If they are being required to wear something that they can't buy themselves at a cost they can control, expect some grumbling!

For our 150th anniversary everyone received a free T-shirt to mark the occassion. Our only choice was the size.

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but I'm curious why management feels the employee should still pay for part of it? If they are being required to wear something that they can't buy themselves at a cost they can control, expect some grumbling!

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I'll second that. They should be expected to cover the cost of dry cleaning, however. But purchase cost should be borne by the bank.

The allowance is $100. If the blazer is $100, the employee uses (a maximum) $75 of their allowance towards the purchase and pays $25 out of their pocket. They would still have $25 to spend on another item of clothing, plus their 25% of the purchase price. Purchasing the 100th-year clothing is not mandatory. Management thinks the employee will not take care of the clothing if they have not put any of their own $$$ into them. (It's not up for discussion.) We currently offer a very limited clothing line with the bank logo on them. The employee pays for 1/2 of the cost, 1 shirt or 10 shirts. How are other banks handling this?

I'd check your state statutes on this one. We used to be required to wear bank polo's on Fridays. The bank paid for your first one and then you paid for any others. Our statutes say that if you are required to wear clothing (like a uniform), your employer is required to pay the cost of that uniform. Consequently we are no longer "required" to wear bank polo's on Friday....we have a choice, we can either wear the polo or our normal suit and tie attire.

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I'd check your state statutes on this one. We used to be required to wear bank polo's on Fridays. The bank paid for your first one and then you paid for any others. Our statutes say that if you are required to wear clothing (like a uniform), your employer is required to pay the cost of that uniform. Consequently we are no longer "required" to wear bank polo's on Friday....we have a choice, we can either wear the polo or our normal suit and tie attire.

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Excellent point. If you require employees to wear a "uniform" you may also need to provide them a clothing allowance to have the clothing laundered. Don't make it mandatory, and you will avoid the pitfalls.

Our President selects a piece of clothing at least once a year for employees and gives it as a gift. We are not required to wear them but are allowed to wear them on Fridays if we so choose. We also wear a bank shirt when we volunteer at a local elementary school (which an employee does each Wednesday.) We were given our 100th Anniversary shirts. They were a white long sleeve dress shirt with the 100 anniversary logo. Those we were allowed to wear any day during our 3 month celebration.

My employer does not require that we wear or purchase bank clothing, however, if we would like to purchse an item of clothing with the bank logo, the bank will pay for half of it. We are given a catalog with a wide variety of items and we can choose whatever we like. It works pretty good for us.

My husband and I own a company aside from our "day" jobs. Just recently, we bought new jackets and shirts for our employees (granted, we only have 5...but still!!!) We had our company name and phone number plastered on the back of the jacket and on the front of the shirts. We also had each item personalized with the employee's name. This cost us about $600 for all. The employees LOVED them and cannot stop saying enough about the jesture. They are wearing the jackets everywhere which is great. Let's see, all of the shirts and jackets cost $600. One advertisement in a local newspaper, 1 day, costs $450. It's not hard to see the benefit of buying these items for our employees. We are a very small business...we couldn't possibly afford the cost of all of the advertising we are getting through our employees. As an added benefit, the employees are proud to wear them because we bought the items for them. EVERYONE WINS! It's many times over worth the expense to provide these items for employees.

We just went to a more relaxed dressed code this month. Employees may wear professional dress or the company shirts. We can buy the shirts for 50% of cost. Our intranet has the company "store" that we can go to and select a shirt. The problem is that the descriptions are off. The sizes are listed as S,M,L,XL. Your can't tell what size to order by listing them this way. I ordered a large in one item and whenI received it last week it turns out that the size is really an 18-20. I usually wear a 10 so it was rather big. Here's the kicker we are not allowed to exchange or return any items. The reason that we were given is because of the company logo being printed on the items. So I'm stuck with this shirt that is 4 sizes to big unless I can get a co-worker to buy it from me.

I really feel that this is unfair because 1) this was the first time that employees ordered from the "store" so were not sure about the sizing. 2) listing sizes as SMLXL instead of actually number 6-8-10-12 etc. does not allow employees to make an informed purchase decsions.

I sent an email to our Training and Marketing Departments regarding the size issues mentioned in the my previous post yesterday. They are in charge of the style selections and ordering for our logo shirt. I suggested that they include a size chart on our intranet. Most retail websites have size charts. The marketing department thought that was a great idea and posted our shirt vendors size chart on our intranet yesterday.

Apparently a few other employees voiced concerns regarding problems with sizes.This morning the training department sent an email stating that the "virtual store" will no longer be placed on the intranet.Employees will have to look at the actual catolog to view and select the shirts. ONE catalog will be available for 100 employees at 5 different buildings to use.

Each department can "Check Out" the catalog for 1 day only. Some of the pages in the catalog have been stapled together. We cannot not order from those pages. The pre-printed price in the catalog has been crossed out and employee's cost is written in ink.

I don't know but it seems like the training department over reacted a little bit to employee feedback.

Bank's I've worked at have always provided employees with attire when they are asked to wear it (ie during an anniversary celebration we would be given a shirt to wear with slacks). We could buy additional pieces if we wanted, but the first was ALWAYS given 100% free of charge.

I'm lost on your bank's feeling that the employees won't take care of the clothing they are given. Granted I use my "old" bank (not the one I work for now) logo items to wash my car But why on earth would I damage a logo shirt? Are they showing up in dirty, uncared for items currently?

My current bank has given each employee a fleece jacket or vest. The staff love them, and the advertising is worth every cent. I see the things EVERYWHERE and we have just 800 employees. Our clients want the danged things too.

I own three jackets of different weights, arctic, fleece and golf, all of which I wear to represent the bank, and I was not asked to pay for them. I give my staff appropriate clothing with bank logo's as well when they are representing the bank, at no cost. This isn't unusual in our organization. If my staff want two Hawiian golf shirts they pay for the second, but the first is free.

I haven't seen many (none) staff showing up in "uncared for" bank sponsored clothing. Perhaps we just respect our appearence more than your bank staff do...but I'd guess not Your management sounds cheap. We're saying this and we don't work there. How will the staff feel???