On the surface, providing uniforms for your employees may seem simple. Select the uniform pieces, get them ordered, and distribute to your team. However, the reality is far more complicated: there’s different uniform requirements per position, various employee allowances, multiple shipping locations, union agreements, and so on. Without proper controls, your uniform program quickly becomes a nightmare with excess costs and wasted employee time.
Controlling your uniform program saves time, money, and headaches. What exactly does control mean in this situation? Glad you asked! Here are some of the most common ways that you can control your uniform program:
Set Allowances by Dollar Amount or Quantity
Part-time employees may not need as much as full-time employees in the same role. Different positions can have slightly or drastically different requirements depending on job function and safety regulations. New hires require more uniform items than existing employees who already have years of uniforms. You want to make sure that they start out with the correct number of uniforms in each category, such as 5 polo shirts, 2 sweatshirts, 1 jacket and 5 pair of pants. Maybe you are obligated to provide various dollar allowances per your multiple union agreements, such as one position is eligible to order up to $600 per year, while another position is eligible to order up to $200 per year. Controlling all of this is possible with a managed uniform program. Unitec’s Proximity System™ software allows companies to set allowances by item quantity and/or dollar amount.
Limit Available Catalog
As mentioned above, companies often need different uniform apparel for various positions. This could be due to specific safety requirements, such as welders needing 100% cotton clothing and employees working on the road needing high visibility clothing with reflective stripes. It could also be a matter of differentiating managers from other team members using specific colors or different articles of clothing. Whatever the case, a strong managed uniform program limits what each employee or manager is able to purchase based on the predetermined items assigned to each position.
Manage Shipping Costs and Minimize Time for Distribution
Gone are the days of ordering and receiving everything at one location then reorganizing to ship to separate sites. Not only is this time consuming, the cost of shipping can get out of control quickly. With a managed uniform program, items are organized to the correct location(s) based on your approved shipping specifications. Unitec Distribution Systems makes uniform dispersal a breeze by providing staff orders bagged by employee and boxed by location. Once the box arrives, simply distribute the pre-sorted sealed bags to each employee.
Track Everything and Create Clarity
For many companies, the method for managing their uniform program is a spreadsheet and one key employee to keep it all straight. Invoices show bulk orders and there are usually boxes of various sizes in storage collecting dust. At the end of the day, no one really knows who received which items and what is still available.
Unitec Distribution Systems listened to our customers and created a solution by developing The Proximity™ System to revolutionize the way uniform programs are managed. Companies can run various reports, such as when an employee last purchased, which items he/she received and how much was spent per employee per location/cost center, as well as, monitor the uniform program as a whole.
Even providing invoices has options as you can choose to receive separate statements for each individual order or have a summary “manifest” per location created based on your accounting needs. You’ll easily be able to monitor uniform costs by cost center, division, or department.
It’s Controlled, So You Don’t Have to Worry
Unitec includes access to The Proximity System™ for all clients. This software allows employees and/or managers to place orders for particular items based on specific parameters. By setting allowances, limiting the available items, and controlling shipping costs, your organization saves valuable time and money. Plus, knowing that everything is managed properly provides peace of mind without unnecessary administration.
Contact us today to discuss setting up a managed uniform program for your business.
Still not sure if a managed uniform program is right for you?
Uniform Program Evaluation Tool
Use this free online evaluation to see how your program is performing and find opportunities for improvement.
See it in Action
We can customize a demo of our Proximity System™ for your team to see how it works and better understand how Unitec can save you time, money, and headaches.