DHL Executives Put on Employees’ Promotional Clothing

Thursday 20th of May 2010 03:09:09 PM

The workers at DHL Express wear bright yellow and brown promotional clothing which are the company colors. The short sleeve polo shirt and long sleeve jackets are distinctive with their bright colors. All 70 couriers wear the uniforms which make them easily identifiable as they load and unload trucks while making deliveries.

Recently the executives of the company donned the uniforms and paired up with the delivery drivers to get a firsthand look at what the company’s employees experience each day. The DHL Chief Executive Officer is Ian Clough. He said, “The idea is if the CIO or the CFO is evaluating an investment proposal for new equipment for couriers, and he’s sitting in his nice warm office, he’ll have first experience of knowing what it’s like to be out on a truck in a wet and windy place like Boston.”

Employees enthusiastically support this program. At each stop on a route, the executive would talk to the businesses and ask about their satisfaction with services or what DHL Express could do to get more international shipping business. The goal is to assess company policies, pricing, customer service and much more. DHL Express had recently streamlined its Boston operations with great success and that’s why Boston was used as for the new program first.

Because of union rules, there were many hands-on activities the executives could not do so they mostly observed. But as the executives wearing promotional clothing tagged along from stop to stop they learned a lot about what the employees are experiencing in the field and were able to observe areas where efficiency could be improved.

The promotional clothing is considered important to the company because it helps develop employee unity and a sense of pride in their work. Executives donning the promotional clothing did so with pride as they worked to find ways to expand the business .