HMV bans staff tattoos to boost customer experience
HMV has banned staff from sporting ‘prominent’ tattoos and body piercings in a bid to boost the in-store experience for shoppers.
The updated policy expects a “high level of personal grooming”, according to the retailer and instructs staff to cover up or remove tattoos and ‘extreme body art’.
A spokesman for the business says ‘discrete tattoos or piercings’, however are allowed under the new policy.
He adds: “This is an update to points that were already covered in our existing policy about how staff should appear in the workplace. We want staff to express their personalities but this has to be balanced with customer expectations.”
In a further statement the company said: “It goes without saying that we want our work colleagues to feel valued as individuals who can express their personalities, but it’s also important that we balance this against the needs and expectations of our customers, who, ultimately, have to be at the heart of everything we do. We’d like to think our colleagues are presentable anyway, so this is just about adopting a more consistent approach, which we believe our customers will appreciate.”
The policy has been brought in by the retailer’s new chief executive Trevor Moore, who joined last month after Simon Fox stepped down from the role earlier in the year.
It is hoped the move will help boost sales at the business after it reported a 12.1% decrease in like-for-like sales to £923.2m for the year to 28 April.
