Personal grooming is not just about self-care but also about fulfilling professional requirements at work. Employee grooming is essential in creating respectability and upholding health and safety standards. Since grooming touches personal aspects of employees' daily habits and life, business owners need the best approach to make sure that grooming standards are fulfilled.
Employee grooming is vital in all jobs, not just obvious ones like medical or chemical industries. Almost all industries, including Retail businesses, require employees of all lines and departments to keep perfect personal grooming habits, especially for those who may serve customers on a daily basis.
Good grooming habits contribute to customer experiences, improving their trust and positive impressions toward retail workers in their interactions. Nimbly's clients have said that solving the employee grooming issues can help them realize 20% of increased revenue by ensuring customer satisfaction through personalized interaction with their customers and motivates them to stay longer and purchase more in stores.
Have you checked your employee grooming regularly and thoroughly? What are the types of grooming retail workers need to do? These are 6 employee grooming types that need to be standard at retail stores.
The most obvious is body hygiene, which refers to the practice of keeping the basic level of self-cleanliness on a daily basis. It usually consists of bathing or showering regularly. They are important to keep a good appearance and protect the body from germs, dirt, bacteria, and sweat residue.
Body hygiene can be achieved by bathing or showering twice a day (could be more depending on the activities), washing face before bed and after waking up, and washing their hair at least once a week.
Although we can't really control how our employee takes care of their body hygiene, we still can do regular training to keep giving them the information they need to know the benefits of this and know how to maintain their body hygiene properly.
Body scent is essential in employee grooming. Workers who have body odor problems can affect customers' experiences and willingness to spend more time in the store. Body scent is affected by various things, from personal hygiene to food and medical conditions. Although there is still no specific treatment for body odor until now, we can still prevent it with some general preventive measures such as regular bathing, shaving, and using antiperspirants or deodorants.
Grooming tasks related to body scent generally involve bathing or showering and wearing cologne or other fragrant products. Employees should also pay attention to their food and ensure their outfits are always clean.
This part of hygiene is critical to drive more sales and maintain the customer experience during their visit to our store. Some customers will be susceptible to the smell around them, especially when the scent is different from what it is supposed to be. Smells can be very impactful for customer experience and decision-making. Just like Mr. Colin Shaw, from what he wrote on his blog, who smelled the damp basement of a coffee shop, he immediately canceled his intention to buy the coffee.
Hair hygiene is also crucial to keep the appearance and prevent dandruff and hair fall, which are health hazards that also cause negative impressions from customers. Haircare also keeps hair and scalp in their best conditions.
The most basic hair care steps are:
As described previously, clothing is related to personal and employee grooming. Retail employees must keep their outfits clean without releasing any unpleasant odor. It involves washing the outfits regularly using detergent. However, this strategy must be applied based on the actual activities. For example, if the worker sweats a lot, their outfits require extra washing to prevent dirt and odor.
Providing multiple uniforms from the company for a week will also be very helpful. This will prevent the reuse of the dirty uniform.
Dental care is important because it determines the quality of life. Plus, it has a strong relation with customers' experiences. For example, good dental health keeps your breath pleasant and your talk more articulate (no wobbly teeth or bleeding gum, for example). They will, in turn, create better experiences for customers.
Maintaining dental health is not complicated, but the steps must be done regularly.
Do you think skincare is just for beauty and vanity? Think again! Skincare is essential for retail workers. Aside from keeping up the appearance, skincare prevents problems like itch, dry skin, acne, and other common skin problems. Taking care of the skin also reduces the amount of germs and bacteria that stick to the surface.
Good retail business owners or managers ensure that their company policies or SOP include standard employee grooming categories. Then, they use a digital checklist tool like Nimbly to ensure that all the grooming standards are followed. Employers can create grooming checklists and schedule when the employee should fill the checklist regularly with this tool.
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Once the checklists are uploaded into the system, employees will get a notification at the scheduled time, and they should fill in all the questions from those checklists. Whether they already go to the dentist, change to the new uniform, tidy up their hair before the operation begins, and many others.
The management team can directly see all the answers from employees in real-time through their web dashboard analytics. This way, they have the visibility of the actual condition in the store and can solve the problems if there are any. Employee grooming is one of the keys to high-quality service and customer experience. Ensure to employ grooming standards in the company, and use Nimbly as a tool to keep the hygiene standard among employees.