Keyholder – Responsibilities and Duty

Key holder is an employee, generally in a retail setting, who takes on additional responsibilities similar to those held by management. The main unique feature is the ability to open and close the store. Other than opening and closing key holder also have other responsibilities. Below are the basic working responsibilities of keyholder.

Open and Close

One of the most important duties of a key holder is to open or close the retail shop each day. An opening key holder must unlock the doors, inspect the property, deactivate the overnight security system and turn on any indoor or outdoor lights. Closing key holders execute the same procedure in reverse, activating the security system and making sure that the store is secure and locked with no customers or employees remaining inside.

Protect Keys

Key holders are in charge for defending the keys they use 24 hours a day. Because the key holder also needs to know the security code for the alarm, it's important that the key holder never keep the code in the same place as the keys. This means that even if someone steals the building keys, it will only represent a partial security breach since the potential thief would still have to get past the alarm system.

Emergency Contact

Because they can reset the alarm system, key holders are usually entrusted as emergency contacts for local police or a private security firm that monitors the property. In the occasion of an alarm activation or suspected security violation, one of the key holders must go to the retail location to deactivate the alarm and ensure that the store is safe, before locking up once again.

Leadership

Besides their duties as key holders, most of the retail employees entrusted with keys is also managers of high-ranking sales associates. This means they carry out standard duties such as setting employee schedules, customer service, and restocking merchandise, placing product orders and maintaining a clean and organized retail space.

Customer Service

The key holder is a member of the staff and assumes the duties of a normal associate. Depending on the store, driving sales and doing jobs on the floor such as moving boxes or stocking shelves.

Staff Development

Some key holders also get on the duty of training and encouraging other staff members and serving as a liaison between staff and management. Key holders may help out in the hiring of new associates and in the training of new staff. Approving the achievements of other staff and contribution positive response may also fall to the key holder.