Retailer reviving workers ID vests

Wal-Mart: Attire to aid customers

SPRINGDALE -- Wal-Mart employees' smock of old is making a comeback in the form of a new lightweight vest that all hourly workers must start wearing by the end of the month.

Workers, called associates within the company, were first notified in July of a change in dress code. They now wear khaki pants and blue shirts. The new rules call for them to wear khaki or black pants and collared blue or white shirts with company-provided vests over the shirts.

The blue vests, made of a jersey-type mesh, has Wal-Mart's signature yellow spark on the backs and pockets, and logo on the fronts.

The intent is to make associates more identifiable to customers who need help in stores -- a move to improve customer service, an area in which Wal-Mart has received low marks of late. Wal-Mart has in excess of 140 million customers per week.

"There are a lot of people in our stores -- a lot of customers -- who are wearing khaki pants and blue shirts," said Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg. "Sometimes it can be difficult to identify an associate, and by bringing the vest back, it's going to make a difference for customers."

Customer service speaker and author Shep Hyken said the uniform is a good idea.

"I think the vest is a great way to spot the Wal-Mart employee from the far distance away," he said. "They can create a consistent look, and customers will get comfortable and start to recognize it."

Hyken used the Ace Hardware vests as an example of good practices in his book Amaze Every Customer Every Time. He said it's not so much what workers wear underneath the vests as it is that all workers are wearing them.

"That identifies them as an employee and [makes them] easy to spot," he said.

Wal-Mart associates were told of the change at least twice in the retailer's internal employee website, and so far, feedback has been mixed, Lundburg said. Some said they were excited about being more visible to customers. Others, not mentioned by Lundberg, said they lacked funds to buy new collared shirts.

"There are a large number [of employees] who already have a collared shirt that they are wearing, but we understand that there may be some who have to buy a new shirt," Lundberg said. "That's why we went out in July and let them know this was coming so we could give them plenty of notice."

"We're hearing some about cost, but most are wondering -- if wearing a collar and a vest -- that they will be too hot," he added.

Every full-time hourly employee will be issued two vests; part-timers will get one each. Management employees will continue to wear button-front shirts without vests. Lundberg did not say how much it is costing the company to buy the vests for its 1 million U.S. store employees.

The pants and collared shirts can be bought anywhere, and they don't have to be new, an internal blog post said.

The previous smocks that employees wore were done away with in 2007. Lundberg said the retailer was then going for a different look for associates in the stores. Associates at a new Wal-Mart Supercenter just off Interstate 49 in Springdale were the first to institute the new dress code and have been wearing collars and the new vests for about a month.

Business on 09/05/2014

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