by Roy Taylor, Business to Business Coorespondent

State Farm Insurance Company-Margee Conroy, Public Affairs Manager: “We don’t have an official, written dress code at State Farm. Both new hires and current employees are educated by management on our policy, which is ‘dress for a proper business atmosphere.’ We don’t seem to have any problems concerning employee dress. If there were, it would be up to that employee’s direct supervisor to resolve the situation. We also do not have regular casual days, but occasionally everyone is instructed that they may dress in business casual attire, such as our summer park day. During the holiday season, casual days would allow for festive, holiday-type outfits.”

Heartland Bank-Fred Drake, President: “We don’t have any type of written dress code, but we expect all employees to dress professionally because they are meeting the public on a daily basis. Men are expected to wear at least a shirt and nice tie, and women need to wear appropriate attire for meeting the public. The one exception is on Saturdays when our dress is more casual. Sweaters and golf shirts are certainly acceptable and it works out good for our employees and customers. Our customer base is made up of professional people, and while they dress professional during the week, they dress a little more casual on the weekend. Customers have expectation on how we should dress during the week, but Saturday offers a more relaxed, friendly environment people like.”

Country Companies Insurance-Jeff Bensing, spokesperson: “Women are required to wear dresses or dress slacks, men are required to wear at least a shirt and tie. This is appropriate business attire. On Friday, we do have a casual day during which employees may wear nice jeans, casual shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts and tennis shoes. We do have several night shifts in data processing, and their dress is more casual. Also, our mail room people are allowed to dress a little more casual than the rest.”

Growmark-Bob Howland, Director of Corporate & Member Relations: “In a nutshell, we decided that every day is casual day at Growmark. We knew that a lot of companies in town were doing casual Fridays, and we thought, ‘What’s so magical about Fridays? Why can’t we do this all the time?’ Our dress code becomes an individual thing. There are still a good percentage of employees who dress in the traditional suit and tie, and some prefer the open-collar look. There are, of course, restrictions. There are no blue jeans or tennis shoes allowed, but a nice shirt and slacks is fine. Overall, no one takes advantage of the situation.”

BroMenn Healthcare-Deborah Block, Director of Human Resources: “Our dress code is spelled out in the personal appearance and conduct section of the employee manual. For customer service purposes, those interacting with the public must be appropriately dressed for their particular position. In other areas, leadership personnel are in charge of setting standards for dress in their areas. Defining what is appropriate dress is at those leaders’ discretion, as is deciding what steps to be taken for violations. As for casual days, some departments support casual business attire, while others might at times allow blue jeans, although that’s not a common practice.”

Anderson Financial Network-Lynne Wright, Director of Human Resources: “We have a formal, professional dress code during the week. Men must wear a shirt, tie and dress trousers; women wear dresses, suits, skirts or slacks, most anything as long as it looks professional. We also have a casual day on Friday, during which we allow anything as long as it doesn’t look ragged: dress shirts, shorts with a finished hem, sweatshirts, or sweaters. Our dress code has been published in writing in the employee handbook for over a year. The code did not change from what it was before we wrote it down, but it did need to be formalized.”

Lincoln Office-Paula Pratt, Account Representative: “We have an informal dress code-not anything that is written. We ask that all employees dress in business professional wear, not business casual wear. The only thing that is specifically not allowed is blue jeans. There are no casual days; we always dress professional. We do, however, have different business functions that require less than professional dress. For example, we have installers who wear uniforms that are provided by Lincoln Office. We also have a warehousing operation where employees may dress less professionally because they do not come in contact with the public. In our corporate office, we have customers coming in, so we all dress business professional.”