According to the Pew Research Center, 41% of Millennials have at least one tattoo. Many Millennials are aware that some employers remain uneasy about body art and place their tattoos in areas that are covered by normal business dress. Some applicants have visible tattoos, piercings and bright hair colors.

So, how should your organization respond to this growing trend? A famous exchange between star basketball player Bill Walton and legendary UCLA Coach John Wooden speaks to this. 

  • Walton: “You can’t tell me how I can wear my hair, coach!”  
  • Wooden: “You’re right Bill, but I do get to decide who plays; and we’re going to miss you.”
While Coach Wooden stuck with his rigid policies, other college coaches decided to embrace the long hair trend in the 1970s. Wooden won his final championship in 1975 . The championship teams in ’76, ’77 and ’78 had rosters full of players with longer hair than Wooden would allow. Other coaches lifted restrictions on hair length, while Wooden did not.

The first thing to review is whether your current policies accurately reflect the attitudes of your customer base. You can do this through informal discussions or a short online survey. It is also important to track employee performance metrics.

The workforce looks different. Here are some things to think about regarding piercings and tattoos.

1. Safety first! If the presence of earrings, loops, gauges and nose rings puts the employee at risk for injury or puts your product at risk for contamination, by all means ban those items from the workplace. 

2. Unless you’re going to stick to a “no visible tattoos allowed” policy, distinguish between offensive tattoos and tattoos in general. Gang symbols, confederate flags, sexual images and profanity pose different risks for an employee with ink of flowers, dolphins, doves or children’s names. Your organization must decide what type of tattoos are non-offensive.

3. It is OK to have different policies for different categories of employees. No visible tattoos for outside salespeople, for example, may make sense. Having no such restriction for back office, warehouse or plant floor personnel may also make sense.

It’s a mistake to stereotype a candidate based on the presence of visible tattoos or green hair. Focus your interview on true predictors of success in the role – their knowledge, skills and abilities. And supplement the interview with other tools that will improve your good hire percentage, like benchmark assessment testing. Stereotyping frequently leads to missed opportunities.

Review your policy and decide if it still makes sense for your organization today. The Davidson Group specializes in crafting and updating organizational policies. If you assume your customers won’t like it, find a way to survey them to ensure that your assumptions are accurate. Contact the Davidson Group for assistance with creating a meaningful customer survey to gather their views.