How much does Workwear cost?

When it comes to budgeting for workwear and PPE, there’s no fixed sum of money that will see you right. The amount you need to invest will depend on your business priorities and the requirements of the specific job role.

Price is just one element that can help you to make informed choices faced with a wide range of options. Nick Grinnell explains why cost per item doesn’t tell the whole story…

Price vs value

When it comes to choosing workwear and PPE, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. There is so much choice out there, often with wildly differing price tags, it can be very confusing.

But in reality, as with anything you buy, purchasing workwear and PPE comes down to a choice of priorities – price vs value or unit cost vs life cost.

To work out where you sit, some questions to ask are:

• What are the safety standards you need to meet?
• How long do you want or need each item to last?
• How much variety do you want or need to offer your employees?
• Is cost per item more important to your business than whole-life cost?
• How important is it that your employees look smart at work?
• Are you willing to spend more money on items that are more comfortable for your employees to wear?

Taking time to establish your priorities at the outset will help avoid potentially costly errors in judgement. The true cost of workwear and PPE can be so much more than the initial outlay. Buying cheap will normally end up costing you much more in the long run especially if it means shorter replacement cycles due to poor quality, degrading your brand image by making your employees look scruffy, or damaging employee morale.  Although the old adage 'buy it cheap, buy it twice', is so well known, it's all too often overlooked.

Let’s play out some scenarios…

Case study – 18 months in the warehouse

     Karl, warehouse worker

Karl’s employer provides him with a cheap polo shirt, sweatshirt, fleece jacket, and pair of trousers. He doesn’t like wearing them. The fabric they are made from makes him sweat, and he is self-conscious about it. He tries to freshen them up by washing them regularly, but the colour fades with each wash. It is only a matter of weeks before he asks for a new polo shirt, and less than six months before his sweatshirt and trousers are badly faded and have lost their shape. Boxes of gloves are readily available in Karl’s work environment. He chooses a fresh pair each morning when he starts his shift, and throws them away at the end of the day – sometimes earlier if they tear, which they often do. Karl is allocated a budget of £25 to purchase his own footwear. He then has to claim back through the business which is a frustrating process for him and the admin team. To his annoyance it can take several weeks for the claim to be processed. The shoes Karl brought online were labelled ‘safety trainers’. They make his feet sweat a bit, but he thinks that is to be expected. Before long, the stitching on the upper is coming apart, and the soles are split. Karl is concerned they do not actually conform to any safety standards, but his budget doesn’t stretch to anything superior, so he purchases another pair. Again, these only last around six months before they are falling apart. After 18 months, Karl finds he is getting regular back and knee pain, but puts this down to being on his feet all day.

                           Amy, warehouse worker

Amy’s employer gives her an annual allocation of workwear and PPE, which she has to get special permission to exceed. She has her own unique login to an online ordering portal, offering her a choice of items which have been pre-approved by her employer as meeting the required quality and safety standards. Amy chooses her allocation of polo shirts, sweatshirts, fleece jacket and trousers. The material they are made from feels good quality, and she finds them comfortable to wear for her entire shift. Even after washing, they hold their shape and colour well. She also orders some safety trainers, which come with an 18-month warranty and relevant certification proving their safety credentials. Again, these are comfortable to wear all day long. After 18 months’ continuous wear, Amy is surprised that they still seem to have lots of life left in them. Amy’s PPE allocation requires her to ensure a pair of safety gloves last at least a month. This concerns her at first, but she finds it easier than expected. Her employer provides her with a belt clip that she can attach her gloves to when she takes a break or goes to the toilet, so she doesn’t lose them. The gloves easily withstand the demands of her job and she finds them comfortable to wear all day long.  She doesn't need to take them off when using her touch screen device and her dermatitis has all cleared up since she started wearing these gloves. They can even be washed which helps her to keep them fresh.  Amy enjoys her work and tells her friends she feels really valued by her employer. They ask how she manages to be on her feet all day and she tells them she doesn’t experience any problems and that it's all about having such brilliant footwear, they're comfortable, supportive and comfortable!

In these examples, Amy’s employer is saving £269.49 per employee compared to Karl’s over an 18-month period, for just over £27 more up front.

For an employer with 100 employees, that’s a whopping £26,949.33 saved in just 18 months!

Reducing whole-life workwear costs

What did Amy’s employer do that made the difference? We suggest there are three main areas worthy of highlighting:

• An element of control over workwear and PPE spend Employers offer their employees choice of workwear and PPE within agreed parameters which prevents usage abuse and reduces rogue spend.
• Assurance of compliance Control of the PPE and Workwear selection meaning that all items are pre-approved by Health and Safety management.
• An investment in good quality products This is absolutely key. Not only do good quality items last longer, they are safer and more comfortable to wear, leading to lower long-term costs, increasing compliance and reducing the risk of accidents and injuries that can prove costly in their own right.
• A focus on employee comfort and wellbeing Comfortable employees are happier, more loyal, more creative, and work both harder and smarter, making your business more profitable.

Raising the bar

iSB Group is different from most workwear suppliers, who focus solely on selling products. Our mission is to raise the bar of corporate wellbeing, meaning we are all about providing long-term value for money. We do this not only by providing businesses with the highest quality products that reduce the number of replacement cycles, but also by helping to improve their productivity and reduce profit leakage.

Our three-step process is:

• Analyse – We perform a deep-dive on your business to get to the root of any issues you may be facing, analysing your costs and benchmarking them against what we know is possible.
• Satisfy – We work with you and your stakeholders to select the right products and solutions for your team, conducting user trials and collecting feedback that enables you to have peace of mind that our recommendations will make the difference to your business.
• Deliver – we deliver on our promises, including providing ongoing solutions to manage and optimise your workwear supply.

You might also be interested in:

Workwear prices 2022: Why are workwear prices rising? (isb-group.com)

Why choose iSB Group for all your health and safety needs (isb-group.com)