The Strategic Case for Branded Apparel at Financial Institutions

Bank and credit union leaders — many of whom have spent hours brainstorming how to attract and retain great employees — probably have not spent much time thinking about branded apparel. And when they do, they may assume their employees would, at best, tolerate them and, at worst, see them as geeky or old-school, or a marker of entry-level status.

It’s true that the long-term trend has been toward more casual, individualized workplace dress, and away from business attire and rigid dress codes: In Gallup’s most recent polling on the subject, just 3% of U.S. workers across all sectors said business-professional attire was their norm, while 41% wore business casual, 31% wore street clothes, and 23% wore uniforms.

But other factors are in play that have made old assumptions about brand apparel feel increasingly out of step. Today’s programs are no longer as “uniform” as they used to be; modern branded apparel offerings include a wide range of styles and fits that bear little resemblance to the one-size-fits-all mandates of the past. HR experts, including SHRM, increasingly advise employers to consider dress codes — including uniforms — more organically, as part of a strategic vision for their culture that incorporates inclusiveness and individuality.

For many frontline workers, there is also an economic dimension: assembling and maintaining a polished work wardrobe, even a business casual one, can be expensive and time-consuming. Dressing to “belong” can be stressful.

For banks and credit unions, getting it right matters. Employee retention remains a struggle, with turnover hitting nearly 20% versus the national average of ~17% across sectors. Younger team members exiting the banking sector cite a lack of flexibility in their day-to-day roles, low pay, and continuing discontent over work-from-home policies. Gen Z employees in particular expect to work for multiple employers over the course of their careers and place high value on working for organizations with a clear sense of purpose and mission. Meanwhile, Gallup reports that 42% of all employee turnover is preventable.

Against this backdrop, a well-designed apparel program can serve many larger goals and help spark a self-reinforcing cycle in which branded clothing creates as much benefit for employees as for their employer — putting value in their pocket through apparel stipends, supporting individuality through style options, and heightening their sense of belonging and engagement in the institution’s culture.

Choice

Invoking choice as a benefit of a branded apparel program may seem like a contradiction in terms. But that’s the point: The most effective programs start with the consistent look and branding they want to project and then build flexibility, sometimes significant flexibility, within that frame.

A more traditional financial institution program might once have mandated a single standard — e.g., a branded button-down or blouse paired with coordinated pants or a skirt. But a modern apparel program will offer a managed set of options across fit, style, and even design, giving employees agency to choose among them. Providing choices limits the negative tradeoffs associated with having a standard imposed from above, and starts to build a set of positive ones.

At one level, this might mean offering more style options that, for example, leverage your brand’s full color palette (including accent colors) or vary where and how prominently the logo appears. But it also means ensuring comfort across climates and changing seasons — quarter-zips alongside vests, layering pieces for colder environments — providing a much-appreciated option for staffers who tend to shiver when the AC kicks in. And it means options that make sense across contexts: an outdoor community event, say, or paired with jeans on casual Fridays.

A flexible program will also account for deeper human preferences and needs, with sizes and styles that accommodate different body types and guidance that leaves room for gender diversity. In such cases, brand apparel may actually offer more flexibility than traditional business and business-casual standards do, because the latter can be ambiguous and leave many employees with more choice than is helpful.

“Different styles fit different bodies,” said Jill Kenyon, a Senior Account Executive at Lands’ End Outfitters, a provider of branded apparel solutions. “A team member will choose what feels right for them and still be compliant with policy. They can be aligned with the team and still express who they are and be themselves.”

One foundational decision institutions face early is how prescriptive to be. According to Kenyon, larger institutions tend toward mandates, while smaller ones more often treat participation as optional. Both approaches can work; but even within a mandate, the degree of choice offered matters enormously. For institutions trying out apparel programs for the first time, a recommendation-based model can build momentum organically: once employees get their hands on quality gear and see their colleagues wearing it, uptake tends to grow on its own, Kenyon said.

Key insight:

Start with your people and your culture. Community banks and credit unions are accustomed to “know your customer” standards and proud of their deep understanding of their served markets. Similarly, the foundation of an effective apparel program is deep knowledge and understanding of employees — their working style, how they currently dress for work, the official and semi-official contexts they’re likely to show up in after work. Your goal is to offer a curated storefront of options that sustain your brand standard, align with your culture, and accommodate your team’s preference range.

Value

For most workers, the cost of clothes, especially work clothes, quickly adds up. Consider that Business Insider recently advised young professionals to set aside 5% of take-home pay for clothing, while reminding the newest recruits not to “go into debt” when they establish their first work wardrobes. For bank or credit union tellers, who make about $39,000 annually, that implies personal apparel spending of $1,100–$1,300 a year.

In this context, branded apparel programs, especially when coupled with a purchase allowance, start to look more like a means of compensation than a means of control — because the program absorbs costs the employee would otherwise have to carry alone.

For financial institutions, Kenyon said, clothing allowances can range from $50 to $100 for lighter-touch programs to as much as $500 for some institutions. Some banks or credit unions may also give new employees a larger initial allocation so they can assemble the basics up front without resorting to out-of-pocket spending.

Quality, too, is part of the value equation. A well-made fleece or a durable polo that holds its color and shape over time is worth more to an employee — and ultimately to the institution — than a cheaper garment that shows wear and needs to be replaced sooner. The economics of a higher-quality program can work in the institution’s favor, Kenyon said; a larger upfront allowance may be easier to scale back in subsequent years because employees’ core wardrobe pieces hold up.

Branded apparel programs also return value to the employee in the form of time and reduced friction. That benefit has only grown since the pandemic, as returning office workers gravitated toward a looser version of business casual, which ultimately introduced more ambiguity. An employee today may reasonably feel that softer pants, pullovers, and performance fabrics are appropriate within a business-casual standard; what is less clear is how those choices will be read by managers, coworkers, and customers.

A good apparel program eliminates guesswork and eases decision fatigue. Employees can look polished without having to decode their institution’s written and unwritten rules. “They don’t have to make as many choices every day,” Kenyon said. “From the employee’s perspective, it’s: I know what I’m going to wear. I have it. It’s ready to go. I look professional.”

Tellers — among the hardest positions for banks and credit unions to fill — are in an especially challenging position when it comes to dressing for work. They sit at the low end of most institutions’ pay scales while occupying perhaps the most customer-facing role in the building, expected to look professional and on-brand at their own expense. A well-designed, balanced apparel program can relieve both pressures at once.

Key insight:

Consider offering allowances and be strategic in how you structure them. Branded apparel programs naturally bring connotations of control and erasure of individuality, but even a modest annual allowance starts to tilt the balance in the opposite direction, signaling investment in employees. Consider offering new hires a larger initial grant so they can build a functional wardrobe from the start, then calibrate ongoing allowances based on both the institution’s and the team’s experience.

Culture

If an institution’s mission reflects its larger purpose, and its culture defines how that mission is realized and experienced every day, a branded apparel program can help connect the two. It gives employees a way to carry the institution’s identity with them when they move from the branch or office setting into the community, knowing that it confers status, embodies value and reflects choices they themselves have made.

A branded apparel program can play an important role in building and sustaining your institution’s culture. The impact on culture is backed up by the employee’s experience: they see the value (confirmed by the institution’s investment in them) and they appreciate the choice (demonstrated by an institution that trusts and respects them enough to make room for their individuality).

At its best, a branded apparel program enables all employees to “represent” in the fullest sense of the word — to broadcast to each other and to their community that they belong to something they care about. Kenyon offers the example of a junior team member encountering the institution’s CEO wearing the same branded vest. “The junior staffer no longer feels categorized or labeled, and starts to feel like, yes, I am a part of the team.”

Employee onboarding is a case in point. Research consistently suggests that new employees form lasting impressions of an organization within their first weeks, and often decide quickly whether they see a long-term future there. Receiving branded apparel early can affect that calculus. According to Kenyon, many banks and credit unions now make sure employees have their branded apparel before they complete training and move into customer-facing roles. “They don’t want to feel like the new kid on the block,” she said. “They want to feel like they are a part of the team.” They also see that the institution is fully invested in their success before they’ve had a chance to prove themselves — which in turn builds their self-confidence.

The degree to which your program fosters engagement may also support performance. Gallup has found that highly engaged teams achieve 10% higher customer loyalty and 23% higher profitability than low-engagement ones. In Gallup’s framework, engaged employees agree with statements like these: The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important; I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right; My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

Key insight:

Think of your apparel program as a transmitter of culture. Such thinking should impact the guidelines you set up — what’s mandated and what’s recommended — as well as the dollars you invest and the zone of choice you create. Consider use cases and guidelines that cover all team members, at every level of the org chart.

Ultimately, the mark of a successful apparel program is when your employees feel good enough in their branded gear that they wear it out to dinner after work or to the soccer field to watch their kids’ practice from the sidelines. Anyone who encounters these team members out in the world will also recognize your bank is part of the community, too.