From Workwear to Workplace Culture: Building a More Attractive Steel Industry
News
Do clothes matter for the industry’s attractiveness?
The project PKAI – Project Dress Code for a More Attractive Industry has analysed how workwear and dress codes influence perceptions of the Swedish iron and steel industry. The results show that clothing plays a role in signalling and shaping impressions, but that workplace culture and values are even more important for attractiveness and a sense of belonging.
The feasibility study PKAI set out to examine whether industrial dress codes affect the sector’s attractiveness and, consequently, its ability to secure the skills it needs.
A central part of the work has been to make visible the images and associations linked to the Swedish iron and steel industry, and to understand what signals workwear sends to the outside world. Clothing helps shape society’s perceptions of different professions and can therefore influence the status of a job. By studying workwear and personal protective equipment, the project also aimed to highlight how employees perceive themselves, each other and their work, and how this relates to professional identity.
Previous research shows that uniforms and dress codes can strengthen community and pride within occupational groups, but there has been a lack of studies specifically addressing industrial dress codes—particularly in the Swedish iron and steel industry. This is a sector with significant variation, where both white-collar and blue-collar employees operate under different conditions and with differing requirements for clothing.
“Addressing this issue is important because the development of workwear can be part of changing attitudes towards industrial work and helping to raise its status,” says Amanda Källén, process leader at Jernkontoret and project manager for PKAI. At the same time, improved workwear can create better conditions for an inclusive working environment where different bodies and needs are accommodated, strengthening the industry’s social sustainability.
The project’s main objective has been to examine the relationship between dress codes, attractiveness and skills supply. During the project, some challenges arose. The original plan included a survey targeting students, but due to time constraints—and the assessment that the interviews already provided sufficient information—this was never carried out. In the ongoing follow-up project, interviews with upper secondary school students are planned, and this work has already begun.
Collaboration within the project consortium has worked well, largely thanks to a broad competence base where different perspectives complemented one another.
“The most important results are based primarily on interviews with employees at several steel companies. These show that the need for entirely new dress codes is not particularly great, although there is room for improvements in existing workwear. The changes being requested are more often about individual preferences than general shortcomings,” says Amanda Källén.
The interviews also show that professional identity and a sense of belonging are primarily linked to workplace values and culture, rather than to the clothes themselves. Employees describe their workplaces as open and welcoming and highlight positive aspects of both the work and the lifestyle in smaller towns, with proximity to nature and outdoor life. These results align with other projects within both Swedish Metals & Minerals and the strategic innovation programme Metalliska material.
Students at a vocational higher education programme connected to the sector were also interviewed. They describe the industry as relatively invisible and say it is characterised by stereotypical perceptions and lacks an association with success and status in today’s youth culture. At the same time, it emerges that younger generations place greater emphasis on the working environment and are more careful about using personal protective equipment than older generations.
In the ongoing full-scale project, PKAI2.0, the results from the feasibility study are being taken further by continuing to include the clothing perspective, but placing it in a broader context. The focus is on how working life in industry is perceived by external audiences, particularly regarding the working conditions and tasks of blue-collar employees. The new project combines technical development with social innovation and a gender equality perspective. Through this holistic approach, opportunities are created to strengthen working conditions, gender equality, attractiveness and skills supply in the Swedish steel industry at the same time.
Project partners: Jernkontoret, Högskolan i Borås, Naim Josefi AB och Umbilical Design AB
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