Keep Your Company’s Reputation Safe with Uniform Destruction

Security is important for every organization. It’s common for business to have systems in place to store and destroy their important documents and data according to regulatory requirements. But, even if you’re doing everything right when it comes to document destruction, you might still be leaving yourself at risk in other ways.

At Gilmore Services, we work with our clients to ensure that they do everything possible to protect themselves from fraud or damage to their reputations. One of the ways we do that is by providing uniform destruction services. Here’s what you need to know about uniform destruction and its benefits.

What Are the Risks Associated with Unsecured Uniforms?

When an employee leaves your company, you probably collect their employee ID and other items, but you might forget about getting their uniform. What’s the worst that could happen if an employee held onto a uniform after they stopped working for you, right?

Let’s look at just one example. An employee from an Australian transportation company wore his uniform shirt when he harassed a public official using racial epithets. A video of the harassment went viral and ended up costing the company a client it had worked with for over 18 years.

That’s an extreme case, but even minor events can have a big impact on your company’s reputation. An employee who leaves under good terms might still have a bad day. Can your company afford to take the hit that would result if one of these things happened?

• An ex-employee wearing your branded uniform gets in a traffic accident and argues with the police
• An ex-employee wears your uniform while out drinking and gets rowdy or violent in a bar
• An ex-employee loans your uniform to a friend or relative who does something objectionable
• Someone steals one of your uniforms from an ex-employee’s home or vehicle and uses it to defraud a client

These are all things that could happen if you fail to collect and destroy old uniforms when they are no longer being used.

What Do Uniform Destruction Services Do?

A uniform destruction service works in a way that’s very similar to document destruction services. Ideally, you want a company that will:

• Collect the uniforms you wish to destroy and transport them safely and securely to the location where they will be destroyed
• Allow you to track the uniforms’ progress
• Provide written confirmation that they uniforms have been destroyed

You also need a service that can destroy a wide array of items, so that they may not be used by anybody in the future. Items to be destroyed may include:

• Uniform shirts
• Uniform pants
• Jumpsuits
• Hats
• Sweaters
• Jackets
• Sweatshirts
• Shoes
• Badges

Any branded item of clothing that your employees wear while working for you should be considered part of their uniform. Even a stand-alone item, like a hat, may be enough to allow an unscrupulous person to damage your reputation or defraud a customer.

The key when hiring a uniform destruction service is to make a full inventory of uniform items and confirm that they will be able to destroy all of them to your satisfaction. You also want a company that will destroy items in a way that is environmentally safe, and in a location that’s private and secure.

Conclusion

Even trustworthy ex-employees may leave uniforms in an unsecured location or engage in less-than-ideal behavior while wearing your branded uniforms. To prevent loss of income and damage to your reputation, you should always destroy uniforms that aren’t being used.

To learn more about Gilmore Services’ uniform destruction service, please click here now.