With Fall upon us, many employers start their planning process. Looking forward to the busy holiday season, for example, those who own gift shops or other retail establishments, start to think very seriously about how to stand out during that very important, and very competitive. Similarly, those who own restaurants, realize that Fall means a change in seasons and, of course, a change in cuisine. Anyone who is involved in a business that has any type of seasonality can benefit from doing an inventory of their brand look and feel, and the relationship between that brand and their employee uniforms.
Conducting an Employee Uniform Headcount
One of the most important tasks that can be done, after, of course, brainstorming the general look and feel of your brand as it relates to employee uniforms, is to do a headcount of the various types of employees and the various types of employee uniforms that will be needed. We are not talking about merely tallying the number of employees and realizing that you have 10 or 50 employees. Rather, the trick is to think of each employee as an archetype of a typical employee. For example, a restaurant would have a cook uniform, a busboy uniform, and a waitress and or waiter uniform. Each type would be unique and different, but they should all work together. 
To use an example, let’s look at this idea of restaurant uniforms. One easy way to do this is to literally get up and walk around your restaurant, as if you were a customer, and chart the various types of employees you see. So for example we would have the following. First, the maître d’, or the first person who greets the customer when he or she enters the restaurant. Note that this may be male or female, which goes for generally all of the different categories of employees, so one type of employee will need two variations, one for the male and one for the female.
Second, there would be the person who seats the customer, which may or may not be different than the maître d’ in a restaurant. Some restaurants have very specific roles, and one person seats the customer, while another person takes their order. It depends on how you set your restaurant up.
Third, there would be the waitstaff uniforms. Obviously in a restaurant setting this is the primary point of contact between your business and the customer. You won those waiters and waitresses to look sharp and to reinforce your brand image! This is why employee uniforms are so important in the restaurant business.
Fourth, you might think about all of those busboys and busgirls. We don’t want to be sexist and assume that they are always male, although typically they are male. The customers do not have a lot of direct interaction with the busboys, but still you want a consistent look and feel when it comes to your restaurant employee uniforms.
Fifth, let’s talk about cooks and the cooking staff. In some restaurants, these are all but invisible, whereas in others, it is easy to see the cooks and the cooking staff. Inventory your cooking staff and the types of uniforms that they may need.
Summing up Your Employee Head Count
In summary, therefore, a restaurant would have somewhere between one and 10 different types of employees, and related employee uniforms probably. For all intents and purposes, it is probably going to be more in the five number. However, your restaurant is unique, and the point of this blog post is to get you to take out a pen and paper and walk around your restaurant and literally categorize the types of employees, and relative employee uniforms that you will be needing.
In terms of the big picture, you need to brainstorm the look and feel of your brand as it relates to your employee uniforms. In terms of the middle picture, you need to inventory and audit the types of employees for whom you will need employee uniforms. And in terms of the micro picture, reach out to one of our friendly employee uniform idea consultants and will be happy to ship out an employee uniforms sample for you. We can work with you so that every individual employee has an excellent employee uniform, and that your ensemble of employees works together to reinforce your brand image!