Womens workwear: A priority or an afterthought?

We want to ask you a question:

What workwear and PPE are you providing to your female employees?

Do you offer them products that are expressly designed to fit their bodies and meet their specific needs? Or do you encourage them to opt for smaller sizes of men’s fit clothing and safety footwear?

Womens workwear: A priority or an afterthought?

The workwear and PPE you provide to your team can make a huge difference to employee morale and productivity. Investing in appropriately fitting, comfortable, high-quality items plays an important part in showing your employees how much you value them, as it shows your willingness to invest in their safety and comfort.

We’ve talked before about the problem with ‘one size smaller’ and so-called ‘unisex’ designs for women’s workwear and PPE. Women’s bodies are a different shape to men’s, and clothing and PPE that fits badly as a result may not only be uncomfortable but could also be dangerous.

Regardless of this, surely it is high time the UK logistics industry properly catered for the more than 300,000 women currently working in it, as well as the next generation of female workers to come. Unfortunately, though, we see it time and time again that women’s workwear and PPE remains an afterthought for many.

Insufficient provision, insufficient demand

You only have to do an online search for ‘women’s workwear’ to see the problem. Pretty much the entire first page of search results encompasses tailored office wear rather than the utility wear more suited to most logistics environments.

Many workwear and PPE manufacturers don’t make products designed specifically for women.

Those that are leading the way simply can’t compete with the big fashion retailers dominating the search algorithms.

And logistics industry purchasing managers and female workers alike may not be as clued up about the need for women’s workwear and PPE as they could be – creating a vicious circle where there is insufficient provision, but also insufficient demand for that provision because few people know the options are out there.

Making womens workwear a priority

At iSB Group, we believe that most female workers will benefit from wearing workwear and PPE designed specifically for women’s bodies. That’s why we are partnering with the likes of safety footwear manufacturer MTS and hi vis clothing specialists Leo Workwear, who are leading the way in this area.

We often have to prompt clients to think about women’s specific clothing and PPE for their teams. Many of those who do mention it do so as an afterthought, once they have already chosen the products they want for their team.

However, as we have already mentioned, not all manufacturers provide women’s fit options and – if they do – they might only offer that option for one or two items in their range.

If standardisation is important to your business – such as if you’re looking to create a new uniform for your team – it is important to ensure your workwear provider is primed from the beginning to recommend only items that are available in both men’s and women’s fit.

Even if you have no women working in your team at the moment, having the option of purchasing women’s fit uniform down the track if required will help future-proof your investment should the make-up of your workforce change.

To talk to our team about women’s workwear and PPE, you can give us a call or drop us a message and we’ll be happy to talk you through the available options.