OPINION! Top 25 HR Manager Robindro Ullah: Men have to catch up in fashion!

Robindro Ullah was, among other things, recruiting manager at Deutsche Bahn. Today, in addition to other activities, he is a lifestyle magazine for the HR-Industry out of here. A Conversation about employer branding and dress code, the right charisma, fashionable gender differences - and 5 tips for the perfect Business-Look.

As a trained business mathematician, Robindro Ullah discovered human resources management only in the middle of 2007. After working internationally for Deutsche Bahn and Voith GmbH, the blogger and author was recently listed among the TOP 25 most influential HR managers in Germany. Recently he has published together with Anja Schölhorn and Manuela Marcus the first HR lifestyle magazine hr-life.de.

The Chancellor recently presented the Digital Council - the group picture in the Bundestag also shows the entrepreneur Ijad Madisch in shorts, baggy shoes and a superman cap. Is such an outfit now ready for business?

Basically: yes! You have to do that relatively clear say. Several favorable topics are mixed up here, which together ensure that we look more at the content than at the packaging. On the one hand, this changed business style is driven by digitalization, on the other hand, of course, above all by the changing labor market.

Sorting out a top specialist on the basis of clothing has not been allowed for years. These favoring ones are slowly sloshing around circumstances also on others Features that until recently were not on the endangered species list.

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The question, rightly coming from the conservative camp, is about the mutual respect that should be shown. However, I personally think it is weak to only attach it to clothing. Wherever we are in business eye level where there used to be a gap, the issue of respect should be reconsidered. Respect is based on reciprocity and therefore cannot be tied to clothing across the board.

You were a long-term HRaler - with a corporation and a Swabian medium-sized company. What would have happened if someone had come to the job interview?

You would probably have looked funny and would have been curious about the story that led to exactly the outfit. As with so many things, this depends on the sale – ie how they package Candidate the story or does he use a story at all. But let's be Honestly, we deal far too often with recruitment in the academic field, but the needs are in the area of ​​​​skilled workers, where the Term Business dress code is completely different. I've often had applicants in shorts in this area.

Remembering my past activities, I remember conversations in which, for example, the shoes of the applicant (white espadrilles - I wear randomly today) were commented on in the aftermath. Also, I once had the case of being told that my intern could not walk around the boardroom with short pants. So to the job interview appear, is the one story, the style in the Companys to maintain, the other. How strongly do I adapt to the company? How exactly did I clarify this in advance?

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We also have the opposite case, when companies suddenly “forbid” the tie and command the “DU” in the context of digitization. Clothing conflicts exist both ways and are ultimately signals for a deeper cultural one Konflikt.

IT professionals and related job profiles are being vigorously courted, but are fashionable as idiosyncratic. Example: Sitting barefoot in the office to think better. When will it be disrespectful?

As already indicated, respect is mutual. However, I actually think that the respect discussion does not belong here. The first priority for most companies is productivity. When a Employees can increase this by sitting barefoot at a desk, then I would initially accept that. But if this violates occupational safety, for example, because the desk is in the factory, the Health of the employee. Should this make other employees uncomfortable feel or harassed, then we have a conflict that needs to be resolved.

Let's take another example from the work context. In recent years, I have very often Jubilare in my areas. Depending on the Group, funds will be made available to celebrate this or to honor employees. In this context I let the respect discussion apply. This is about paying respect to the employees and here I see the theme of possibly festive even more important clothing.

The IT industry in particular has changed the dress code a lot, jeans and sneakers are suitable for business even for corporate bosses. Are there any rules at all or can everyone do what they want?

With our magazine HR Life we definitely don't want to Regulate set up. That's not what we're about. Ultimately, of course, everyone can do what he/she wants. But that's exactly what it is right now Problem. There is not enough guidance in the area – recommendations, tips, inspiration, etc. What looks good or not is in the Eye of the viewer, but of course certain outfits have a certain Effect.

You can also think of a few combinable basics, which we want to give our readers with the help of very different examples. The dress code of a Company is unfortunately very often just as individual as their culture. Ultimately, the dress code can also be an expression of the individual company or departmental culture.

We try to refrain from putting things in the wrong and correct way. Ultimately, fashion is about what I want to achieve as a person and where I move. How do I want to be perceived? Or maybe I'm just interested in practicability. Take, for example, the topic of sweat stains. The best tips against damp shoulders - we like to talk plain and try to actually help.

HR professionals want to dress appropriately for an important business event. Your 5 tips for the perfect outfit?

That's not quite the case light judge without knowing what event it is. This can be extremely different for each event. But let's start from a general one Perspektive out, I recommend the following procedure:

1. Get the information about the dress code. Unfortunately, the organizers are becoming more and more creative here and sometimes the dress codes given out cannot be assigned to a specific line. Ultimately, however, this recommendation from the organizer is your starting point.
2. Choose your outfit in accordance with the dress code you have issued and decide for yourself if you are interested in attracting attention. If this is the case, you should move your outfit along the edges of the Dresscode corridor.
3. From a personal branding perspective, it would be advisable to focus more on overdressing in the case of uncertainty. Experience has shown that people feel more overdressed than underdressed. A disregard of the dress code leads in the first step to increased attention. Here you should just ask yourself if this is wanted. If you're a contractor like me, it can be brand-building. However, I should then consider a concept with recognition value.
4. Extend your styling and also look at accessories like your smartphone case and the power bank you carry with you. Use these items to accentuate or let your equipment in your style.
5. Prioritize wellbeing a little higher than style. The old saying "If you want to be beautiful, you have to suffer." should no longer be taken seriously. If you can't wear your style relaxed and without pain-distorted pain, that's not your style. Broadcasting is king / queen.

A study by the elite university Harvard wants to find out that you are even better treated in jogging pants in a professional environment. Will not this emphasized understatement become a compulsion again? Or do you recommend jogging pants?

Whether you use this data to make your jogging pants socially acceptable or whether you stay true to yourself and like to wear tailored blazers and trousers with pleats at work is up to you. My only Suggestions is: try it out!

With your magazine you combine two opposites: HR is considered serious, down-to-earth and conservative, fashion as playful, superficial and actually superfluous Fierlefanz. How does that fit together?

The magazine does not exclusively cover fashion, but picks up on everyday issues. Things that could be relevant to me in my HR life. Part of this goes towards fashion. But food and therefore the whole area of ​​nutrition is at least as big. Finally, we also record styles.

This applies more and more frequently to technical gadgets. Of course, they are two very different worlds that we don't bring together. Today it happens all by itself. Driven by the factors I mentioned earlier. The incursion of “fashion” Welt in the HR world is already so massive that the down-to-earth, conservative HR managers who are considered serious are very insecure and are looking for guidance. So what we offer is a kind of world-to-world translation that makes understandable and applicable this current overlay that we feel every day.

Some time ago, the Coca-Cola Labor Director Brigitte Faust a sensation that called in an interview clothing as the first and most important career advice for women. How do you see that?

You send messages with clothing as well as with posture and Appear. In the context of your career, you could also describe it as an additional communication channel. According to Mehrabien's 7-38-55 rule, the non-verbal channel makes up the majority of your effect (55%) in your overall appearance. In addition to facial expressions and gestures, this also includes your outfit and the associated wolf feeling factor.

Now, the only question for you is whether you want to use this percentage to underline your appearance and your messages, or you want to give up this support. As a keynote speaker at various events, you can observe this phenomenon on a small scale.

Of course, the content also counts (7%) and the way you transport it (voice 38%), and yet your personal brand is made up of a good deal of “appearance”. You can also compare it to a conference. If the speakers were exceptionally good, but the food and catering were inadequate and too scarce, everyone will talk about this completely unimportant point afterwards. Satisfied and with a comfortable feeling, content can be recorded better.

Diversity is often propagated, and at the same time there is a trend towards self-acceptance with the deliberate departure from common standards. How much diversity does a company tolerate in this regard?

That's very difficult to say. My personal Opinions is that there should be no upper limit to this. But the fact is more likely that depending on the existing corporate culture, more or less diversity is allowed in this area. So I have to come up with the classic lawyer's answer here: it depends.

Nevertheless, when it comes to trade fairs, for example, many women find that they often walk the miles in high heels - the classic business style. Not exactly healthy. Does something have to change here?

In my perception something is already changing here. Just recently at the Future A striking number of stand attendants wore flat shoes. There is a clear trend towards healthy styling. But that shouldn't be a rule. We often tend to wander from one extreme to the other, if you want to wear high heels, you shouldn't be prevented from doing so by social constraints.

The reverse is of course also true. If we look at all this with fashionable glasses, there are already very elegant ones today Alternatives to the classic high heels, which can easily be worn with chic evening wear. The manufacturers are already reacting to the trend here.

Speaking of trade fairs and business travel: Especially women often carry too much luggage here. Do you have tips on reducing baggage?

I would like to counter this rumor directly with my personal experience. For example, my wife usually has less luggage than me. All in all, what I observe is that men are now increasingly taking on several outfits at trade fairs and business trips.

While you used to be able to wear a suit during the day and simply keep it on in the evening, we have increasingly new requirements here due to the relaxation of the dress code. Women it even plays in parts in the hands. High heels can also be replaced in parts by sneakers, which can basically be chosen so comfortably that the pair of replacement shoes does not even have to be packed.

If you still suffer from lack of space, I can recommend as a longtime business traveler clothes zipper.

Speaking of men: you are expressly addressing them with your magazine. Why is fashion a men's issue?

I don't want to say that men especially need it. But of course we basically have the strongest among the men here change triggered by the digital fashion change. From hardly any creative freedom, we have jumped to a freedom that is equal to that of women. You could also say from 0 to 100.

If we pick up on the topic of targeted styles, then men have to catch up a lot. So far we have been tied to the simple policy suit with tie, with which one could make more or less nothing wrong, today we have such complex requirements on styles that someone who has hardly ever dealt with it could well have his difficulties.

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