In the past, workplace clothing regulations were strict; office workers were expected to show up to work looking as smart as possible in the traditional suit and tie combination. Nowadays however, businesses have been taking a more relaxed approach towards corporate clothing. Whilst it is important for employees to be comfortable in the workplace, relaxing uniform regulations can lead to potential issues. For example, making the switch towards more casual clothing could negatively impact your brand image. In this article, we take a look at corporate vs casual workplace clothing and evaluate which is best for your business. 

Changing demographics

Despite the fact that the younger demographic tends to prefer more casual workwear, this can be a problem for brands. Brands that have adopted the casual-clothing idea are seemingly allowing their staff to wear their own clothes that fit specific style/colour requirements at work, which could have a negative impact on their productivity, duties and other colleagues.

Your staff won’t fully understand what materials and styles work well for different jobs. If your staff decide to wear a tight material, this could prevent them from reaching up to a shelf for example — the limitations an item of clothing has on their abilities will be the last thing on their mind.

This doesn’t mean that staff shouldn’t be allowed to dress more comfortably or causally, there are just better ways to implement these rules. With technology and design opportunities advancing at a rapid rate, uniform providers are now able to facilitate any requirements when it comes to corporate workwear — whether you opt for professional or a more relaxed style of attire. By opting for a professional service, you’ll won’t have to worry about design regulations that are required for your working environment that have been set out by governing bodies; as the responsibility will fall with them. Not only this, they’ll likely organise a consultation with your business to fully understand the requirements of the job and how the uniform needs to be designed to meet them.

Branding

As competition on the high street increases, brands are having to change the way that they present themselves to customers. With reports suggesting that the high-street is experiencing a dramatic decline, stores are trying to become more innovative to improve customer and staff retention. Uniforms have recently become a big focus for many businesses. To connect with customers on a personal level, more organisations are allowing employees to ‘dress-down’, to encourage uniqueness and to show shoppers that they’re able to adapt with the times.

If you enjoy a coffee on your daily commute to work, you might have noticed that Starbucks have recently changes their uniform requirements. Previously, baristas would wear buttoned-up black or white shirts with name badges and black or khaki pants, accompanied with their signature green apron. But now, rules have become lax surrounding what they’re allowed to wear beneath the apron.

Starbucks staff now have the opportunity to express themselves through their workwear in a way that traditional uniforms never allowed. The Starbucks employee lookbook states that baristas can wear black, white, grey, navy and brown shirts as a solid or for a subdued, small-print, low-contrast pattern. However, sweatshirts, hooded shirts, cap-sleeve and short-sleeve V-neck or T-necks are forbidden. Although you may remember some baristas wearing caps with a Starbucks logo, their options have now varied too, with flat caps, trilby hats and beanies becoming an option. Employees are also allowed to wear scarves, but they must be tucked behind their apron!

Uniforms: An employee perspective

Rather than looking at uniforms as an additional expense, businesses should think of them as a long-term investment. Not only will uniforms allow you to stay within workwear regulations, it will also reduce the time you spend monitoring clothing if staff do choose to wear their own styles for work.

Although employees might enjoy the idea of wearing casual clothing to work, it could raise problems when you consider other expenses and factors. These could include rent, groceries as well as general clothing. If they have the responsibility to also purchase suitable workwear, this will be another deducting factor that comes out of their wage.

Having a set uniform for your business would help create a strong brand image and unify your employees.

When you’re designing something that will help better market your business, it’s important to get it right first time. As you’ll likely be printing in bulk, one mistake can impact the entire production line and leave your end-product unusable. Together with Direct Letterbox Marketing, providers of leaflet distribution services, we investigate the best design techniques to make your print effective — from call to actions to bold lettering. We’ll also address what you shouldn’t do with your designs by looking at some of the biggest mistakes marketers have made with their printed materials.

The impact of print marketing

Surveys have found that 89% of people remember flyers they received through the door. On top of that, almost half of those who responded admitted that they keep leaflets in a drawer or on a board for future reference and 48% claimed to have visited a store, bought a product, or sent for information because of door-drop advertising.

Print marketing has a longer life than its marketing counterparts. The likes of social media might be great for short-term advertising, but the online world is a fast-paced environment. How often have you clicked away from a page to never be able to find it again? With print marketing, you’ll always have a hard copy at hand unless you physically get rid of it.

Think of the last time you picked up a magazine or brochure – or indeed any physical piece of print. Chances are you spent more time looking at this than you would at any online content. Print copy is certainly more engaging than digital.

There are also many forms of print marketing, whether it’s a leaflet, brochure, roll-up banner or any other form. This means you can grab your customers’ attention in a variety of ways, be it in long or short form, colourful or plain. It also helps your brand stand out from the crowd when used correctly, helping to build long-term trust and gain repeat customers. This is crucial as nine out of 10 customers would buy a brand they recognised if presented with two of the same offers.

Design must-haves

Designing the appropriate content is crucial. Every layout must engage the reader. After all, if it doesn’t draw the audience in and grab their attention, then you have failed and ultimately wasted time and money. You shouldn’t just settle for dull images – you want to stand out and make people take notice. At the same time, you want to guide the reader’s eye so it’s key to avoid images that distract from your message. Instead, pick images that will help guide them to the content your promoting. It’s necessary to have a pleasant balance of used and unused space. You don’t want to overpower your audience with too much activity, but you also don’t want to waste your opportunity to get information in front of them.

With this information, be sure to include a call to action. It’s no use producing an eye-catching document that has no end purpose. Without prompting an action from a potential customer, the marketing campaign hasn’t done its job. Another must-have, which may sound obvious, is correct spelling and grammar. We’ve all seen the signs or advertisings that have poor punctuation, and this is a sure-fire way to diminish your brand’s credibility.

Alongside a captivating logo, make sure you include your complete contact information. Without this, how do you expect your audience to find you? They are not going to go out of their way to search for your details if they are not on hand. Include this alongside your social media logos to give the audience all the relevant avenues to research your brand.

Print marketing mistakes

Print is here to stay – there’s no getting away from it. However, you don’t want to end up in the recycle bin or be just another sign. Many companies have fallen foul to an array of mistakes when it comes to print marketing.

Some companies forget to think about their audience when creating content and don’t ensure that it’s easy to read and has a simple message. Sometimes, graphics can explain your service better than words for those who have limited English skills. In an ideal campaign, you’ll cater to each audience and tweak your campaigns to suit the needs of each targeted mailing list.

However, such tweaks need to stay within consistent boundaries. It’s extremely important to use the same logos and styling throughout any campaign. This will allow you to speed up the revising and updating process and save you money as you won’t be reinventing the wheel every step of the way.

It’s also crucial to remember any logo and branding you choose will have to go across other marketing forums, such as online. Make sure that any logo and colour scheme you choose will work well across the board. This will make it easier for any potential customers to recognise and relate with your brand.

Sources

http://foundry-press.co.uk/why-is-print-marketing-still-important/

https://www.directletterboxmarketing.co.uk/faqs/

http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/5-print-marketing-mistakes-you-should-avoid-at-all-costs/

https://www.gwayprint.com/resources/the-ideas-collection/5-must-haves-in-every-layout/

https://www.allegrahamilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ALG36067-Mktg-Must-Haves-hires.pdf

To run a business efficiently, most companies, both small and large, will have several employees to support their processes and ensure that the quality of their services is high. However, managing employees can be difficult, and business owners may find that they experience a range of problems when it comes to ensuring employee happiness and motivation, which are vital to the success of your business.

1.   Personal Injury Claims

If your business does not have a sufficient health and safety policy in place to support your employees, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a personal injury claim made against you. Common workplace injuries that occur range from slip and falls caused by hazards such as wet floors and loose wires, as well as office-related injuries such as repetitive stress injuries like carpel tunnel syndrome. If a personal injury claim is made by your employee against you, Aston Knight Solicitors has a history of helping both employees and employers to negotiate the right solution for them, whether that be in terms of compensation, or defending themselves in court. If you want to prevent personal injuries in the workplace, you should create a strict health and safety policy and training regime for every staff member, which you should refresh on a regular basis and which should include elements such as the correct way to lift heavy objects.

2.   Motivation Issues

However, for many employees, their issues are less physical, but, as a business owner, you should be no less aware of these. With a third of employees feeling unmotivated, motivation issues in the workplace can occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of praise or unsuitability for the job, as well as a lack of promotion. To ensure that you are able to motivate your employees at all times, you should set up rewards for hard work, such as seasonal events like summer barbecues or Christmas dinners, to celebrate your employee’s achievements throughout the year. You should also consider pay rises and promotions in order to show employees that they are valued. You could also set up prize schemes for those employees with the best stats, such as holidays and days out.  

3.   Skills Gaps

One of the major problems for managers dealing with employees is the skill gap, with many employers struggling to find employees who suit the needs of their company. However, even if you are unable to find employees on job boards that match your requirements, it is possible to combat the skills gap easily. To do this, you should create training schemes for your employees on a regular basis, as well as invest in exterior training courses or qualifications, which could boost your employee’s skills and strengthen their weaknesses. You could also consider investing in personal development by giving employees an afternoon off regularly to focus on improving skills that they are interested in, which they can then reinvest into your business.

4.   Human Resource Problems

Along with the skills gap, human resource issues are also becoming problematic, with many businesses unable to find the amount of staff that they need for certain tasks. To find a solution to this, you should consider out-sourcing employees to find the talent or amount of employees you need for a certain project, especially if they are only needed on a temporary basis.

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

Unless you believe that developing AI is a sure way of bringing the events from Terminator to life, future application of artificial intelligence can be a very interesting thing. One industry that stands to gain a lot from introducing aspects of AI is iGaming. Companies are not the only one that will benefit from it, but players as well, both directly through the use of AI and indirectly from having a better experience during playing. AI has been a buzz word that has caused a lot of controversy in the last decade, but so far, we haven’t seen its impact in any significant way. Some indicators say that it may happen in the next year or two.

AI in gaming

Use of AI in gaming isn’t a new thing. Older folks remember Garry Kasparov’s chess battles against a series of IBM’s computers. First, it was Deep Thought in 1989. Kasparov wiped the floor with it. The next iteration was called Deep Blue in 1996. Kasparov won again 4 – 2 but became the first chess world champion who lost a game to a computer in tournament settings. The next year saw a rematch and the unthinkable happened. Gary Kasparov, one of the best chess players in history, lost a match 2.5 – 3.5 to a bunch of electronic circuits and a piece of cleverly written code. Of course, Kasparov blamed his loss on IBM cheating.

Fast forward 20 years later and it is not even a competition anymore. The current World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen, has an Elo rating of 2845. The most powerful chess computer program Stockfish 9 has a rating of 3438. Translated into layman terms, it means that in a hundred matches, Carlsen wouldn’t win a single one. That is how far we have come.

Photo by Vladislav Skripchenko on Unsplash

Creating an Environment for Responsible iGaming

One of the biggest issues some people have with the iGaming industry is that it causes addiction and allows players to continue playing even when in well over their heads. AI can greatly help to curb that trend, by introducing warnings that could prevent addictive behavior and even force players to play responsibly. By analyzing game patterns, it can be easy to recognize players who may develop an addiction and introduce measures to prevent them from it. It can be quite easy to lose track of both time and money while playing your favorite online slot games, but with an AI keeping a watchful eye on you, bad consequences can be avoided.

Fraud Prevention

One of the biggest concerns of online iGaming companies is fraud prevention and AI can do wonders in preventing people from cheating. Ironically, the best tool these cheaters have is AI, so the industry is fighting fire with fire, in a sense. Cheating in modern online casinos is all about patterns and there is no better and faster way of detecting hidden patterns than AI. AI-powered fraud prevention tools can save a lot of money and it is easy to see why more and more companies are using them. Of course, even more, important is preserving their reputation. Nobody wants to play in an online casino that has allowed cheaters to run free, which is a reasonable reaction.

Photo by Laurens Derks on Unsplash

Data Processing

Data processing is one of the most boring AI applications, but also one of the most powerful ones. It is also an area where we are seeing a massive use of artificial intelligence and machine learning today. Analyzing terabytes of data is a task no human being can accomplish in any reasonable time frame. AI, backed by a powerful computer, can do it in an afternoon, if not faster. By extrapolating the results, AI can make meaningful suggestions on playing styles and create useful feedback to both companies and players.

iGaming has always been at the forefront of technological advancement  and the industry is keen on developing and applying any new solutions that benefit it. AI is no exception and many companies have already incorporated it in some form. There is no reason to doubt that iGaming industry leaders will continue to do so in the future, benefiting both themselves and their players. Well, at least until Skynet takes over.

As we all know, most boardrooms want immediate action when a downturn in business performance occurs. Unfortunately, it’s generally not quite as simple as that.

Markets are volatile things, particularly nowadays, and it means pinpointing these downturns can be more difficult than ever before.

This is one of the reasons why accounting companies like 3 Wise Bears are so popular nowadays. By keeping on top of your accounts, you can at least spot holes a lot easier – and make things like a PESTLE analysis simpler.

For the purposes of today we are going to focus on external factors when it comes to running your business. Let’s now take a look at four issues that often slip by the net when it comes to scrutinizing performance.

The weather

It might be something of a headline-grabber, but you might be surprised at just how much the weather can impact the performance of a business.

For example, if a winter is particularly warm, a ski company might struggle much more than in previous years. Or, if there was a particularly cloudy and rainy summer, a window blinds company might have similar difficulties.

To some, this might seem like the easy excuse, but there’s no doubt that some businesses are affected by the weather much more than others.

The seasonality

In some ways, this is similar to above. However, all businesses have waves of seasonality, and it’s worth looking at this as a priority before you dig any deeper into your company’s performance.

To coin an example, for a lot of brands December is a particularly slow month. This is because people are off work, and generally having downtime. When one considers the festivities, buying products tends to be at the back of their mind (at least after the 25th December).

The political factors

Like it or not, politics can play a part as well. We’re not going to dive too deep into politics, but suffice to say certain legislation is going to impact some businesses more than others.

If we were to coin a real-life example, it could be with high-interest loans in the UK. Legislation was passed which meant that companies offering such a service were under much tighter regulations – and this had severe effects on the way they operated.

The economy

Finally, let’s leave one of the biggest macro factors until the very end. Granted, the economy is going to vary between nations, but as a whole it would be fair to say that it is struggling at the moment .

For most companies, the repercussions are obvious. Customers just aren’t willing to spend the money that they once were – and they are a lot more conscious about price than they may have been in the past.

It can mean that companies offering more of a budget service can start to grab market share, while it can also mean that markets start to shrink. Either way, this is an external factor which is really difficult to affect.

Do you have aspirations of being an entrepreneur? Many people like the idea of starting their own business ventures, and it is easy to see why as it can be incredibly rewarding to build a successful company from the ground up. As any experienced entrepreneur will tell you, this is no easy feat and it will take much more than a good business idea to succeed. You see many aspiring entrepreneurs make the same mistakes time and time again so it is important to know a few tips which should help you to hit the ground running and hopefully find success in your ventures. Here are a few key tips. Continue reading “Top Tips For Aspiring Entrepreneurs” →

So this week we sat down for a bit of a chat with a former background checks clerk, which is basically just somebody who follows up on the information presented in situations which involve the appointment of professionals. Her job was specifically to make sure employees who are already working for the companies that employed them were sincere in the information they included in their CVs or resumes. A very interesting job indeed, but she had some valuable lessons learned to share with us. Continue reading “Lessons Learned from a Background Checks Clerk” →