do all your staff memebers get a key to the salon? how do you know when to trust someone enough to stay and do the till etc when your not around, i would hate to install cameras but i would also hate to be ripped off by someone i trust. what do you do in YOUR salons, and have you ever mistakenly trusted somone and had it go haywire?

As they say in the X-Files...... Trust no one!!!

I give my staff keys after about 12 months. If I feel they are trustworthy, and that is based on how I feel about them. Even then, when it comes to the till, I leave a bear minimum and always double check it the next day. I would never put two friends to work together alone, chances are they will conspire against you. I prefer two people who thinks the other might be watching them, to keep them honest.

At the end of the day I don't trust them, I give them a short leash so far I have never been disappointed by staff. I have however been robbed blind by people I thought were friends. The only current staff member to have a key is great she comes on time without fail, which is great when I am late and I can trust her to lock up and look after the place if I need to leave early. They never get to take the till home, I prefer they leave it there and I will comeback later that night to collect it. And like I said it is always the bear minimum needed to get by.

The only problem I have had with staff is that they will sometimes turn away work when left by themselves. Although clients, will usually tell you when things like that have happened so you always find out.

I am not sure if you can get police checks on staff but it might be worth checking out.

As Anthony said, I found that the only people who robbed me blind were supposed "friends" in the early days. Friends who I had worked with and then offered a job to. Going from friend to boss is not something I would EVER recommend...it's much easier to have staff as staff from day one; it also saves your friendships.

I run a similar system to Anthony (12 months, leave money in the salon safe instead of having it removed etc.)

You need to be clear when trusting someone with the keys what you will and won't tolerate.

I remember when I was a young stylist, I had a friend who had a hair disaster (thankfully not in my hands THAT time) on a Saturday night. I took her to the salon where I worked on the Sunday afternoon to fix it as I needed access to hair colour etc. Now, if I went past one of my own salons today and saw this, I would go mad...but I honestly saw nothing wrong with it back then.

Any keyholder also needs to sign a contract stating that if they lose the keys, they will pay XX amount towards having the locks changed.

When you first open your salon, I'd imagine you will be there a fair bit (at least 5 days per week), so it might be a good idea to have 2 sets of keys. Keep one in your house as a spare set, and the other in your handbag. Give those keys to another stylist after you have locked up on say Tuesday night if you won't be in on Wednesday. They can then hand the keys back to you on Thursday morning. Build trust this way.

Good luck.

After learning the hard way...
I had two salon keys. One for the salon door and one for the draw [till] wich was hooked into the salon software on the computer w/ password needed.
The Desk manager and I only had the draw key. And the salon floor manager had an extra door key.
No stylists were allowed behind the desk. The less hands in the draw the better.

Now as an employee, I do not accept a key :}

all my staff except the trainees have keys, I trust the staff I have, but I still keep an eye on everyone, I have in the past had problems with staff but I caught them then got rid of them. I now know what to look out for, everyone in my team are aware of whats happened in the past and they know the consiquences if I did catch anyone.
I agree you cant fully trust anyone.
I have 2 people cashing up, and we have a save. There isnt much cash now anyway mainly card sales.
my satff arent allowed in the salon when its closed.

helen
xxx

chris the limey wrote:Any keyholder also needs to sign a contract stating that if they lose the keys, they will pay XX amount towards having the locks changed.

Yeah right! I've been a key holder before taking on the responsibility of being called out at all hours by the alarm company as I was the nearest, opening up to get the heating on and man the reception maybe a hour or so before the salon 'offically' opens, and of course being a key holder I can be more flexible for my clients and extend my hours without putting anyone else out waiting to lock up, So if I accidentally lost a key I'd expect the replacement costs to have been covered by the above! No way would I sign any contract like that unless the same contract include a 'call out' rate and 'after hours' rate as well

Works both ways this key holding!