Giving employee keys

[Bushman]

We are a small business (9 employees) and I am considering giving one of our trusted employees a set of keys for opening up and locking up at night. Is there anything we should take into consideration, in particular should we have a policy/rules in place to cover this?

TIA

 

[Mr D]

Yes you should have policy to cover this. Inform insurance, maybe alarm company etc?

 

[Bushman]

Yes you should have policy to cover this. Inform insurance, maybe alarm company etc?

Thanks for the reply, what would you suggest should be included in the policy?

 

[paulears]

Does s/he want the responsibility of being a keyholder? Will he go on the police key holders list so he gets called out in the middle of the night if you're not available? What if s/he messes up locking up and you get a walk-in theft and the insurance refuses to pay out? Are they going to suddenly have big legal responsibility? Years ago, I did holiday relief and was given a big bunch of keys to get me into most of the local buildings the firm owned. I hated it. If in their stocktaking, they lost a few high value items, I always thought I'd get the blame. When we got burgled and they called me out - the police would put me on the spot. Which firm do I want called out to make the premises secure, and then sometimes I'd end up staying all night to keep idiots out!

Are you planning a salary increase to cover the extra responsibility, and does the person have the pips on the shoulder to act on things that happen to key holders in the emergencies when they need to exercise judgement and initiate action. Giving people keys can be problematic for reasons you never thought about.

 

[Bushman]

Does s/he want the responsibility of being a keyholder? Will he go on the police key holders list so he gets called out in the middle of the night if you're not available? What if s/he messes up locking up and you get a walk-in theft and the insurance refuses to pay out? Are they going to suddenly have big legal responsibility? Years ago, I did holiday relief and was given a big bunch of keys to get me into most of the local buildings the firm owned. I hated it. If in their stocktaking, they lost a few high value items, I always thought I'd get the blame. When we got burgled and they called me out - the police would put me on the spot. Which firm do I want called out to make the premises secure, and then sometimes I'd end up staying all night to keep idiots out!

Are you planning a salary increase to cover the extra responsibility, and does the person have the pips on the shoulder to act on things that happen to key holders in the emergencies when they need to exercise judgement and initiate action. Giving people keys can be problematic for reasons you never thought about.

Yes, they are quite happy to take on the responsibility, they already look after the place when I go out during the day and are quite capable of taking any action required. And a pay increase has been agreed for the extra responsibility.

 

[paulears]

Then probably sensible to get the responsibilities itemised and agreed, and you're done. I don't do this but one of my colleagues always credit checks people he gives equipment to - it's B2B, but many are self-employed people and many seem to have money history that is worrying.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I never ever thought for one minute that all employees should have a set of keys. Do you trust them or not. If you don't trust them get rid of them.

 

[Bushman]

I never ever thought for one minute that all employees should have a set of keys. Do you trust them or not. If you don't trust them get rid of them.

I haven't said anywhere that I don't trust them, If I didn't trust them I wouldn't be giving them keys.

What I was asking is what policies or rules should be in place.

 

[andygambles]

Will they be locking up on their own? If so you have certain H&S requirements including the need for a lone worker policy. To be safer they lock-up as the last person leaves so there are always two people and they can only open up once someone else arrives.

That is not a trust thing that is making sure they don't fall over and end up laying on the floor all night until someone turns up in the morning.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

That is not a trust thing that is making sure they don't fall over and end up laying on the floor all night until someone turns up in the morning.

Really? What about the boss?

How many people fall down in your business? In 40+ years it never once happened to me.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Really? What about the boss?

How many people fall down in your business? In 40+ years it never once happened to me.

I used to work in an industry where people would fall down all now and again; and I happen to know of one exact instance where a keyholder was found dead on the floor the following morning. It wasn't from a great height either, a simple trip by all accounts.

 

[Mr D]

I used to work in an industry where people would fall down all now and again; and I happen to know of one exact instance where a keyholder was found dead on the floor the following morning. It wasn't from a great height either, a simple trip by all accounts.

I know of an instance where a keyholder was locking up, as required by his company he was not alone. And he had a heart attack.
Ambulance was there in 10 minutes, and he recovered to be back at work 2 weeks later, however if he had been on his own to lock up the odds are he would have died.

 

[DavidWH]

Mrs used to be key holder, and if the alarm did go off, they had a meeting point near the premises, and two key holders would have met there then go to switch it off, just in case some toe rags were there.

Cant always rely on the police being there.

 

[WaveJumper]

Mrs used to be key holder, and if the alarm did go off, they had a meeting point near the premises, and two key holders would have met there then go to switch it off, just in case some toe rags were there.

Cant always rely on the police being there.

Yes also as above I would strongly suggest you have a policy in place for dealing with out of hours call outs, always two people to attend, again as above mentioned meeting at an agreed location not in front of your premises. if you have an alarm system fitted check the weekly logs, is anyone entering or leaving the building at times they should not be.

You would not believe over the years how many (trusted) people from local retailers we have caught out (in shopping centres) filling up the backs of their cars with stock .......... you would have thought they had realised the areas are covered by CCTV too.

So yes have a key holder but put rules in place and my advice is make sure you audit and check.

 

[deniser]

I never really thought about the implications of someone having an accident and not being found. But then we never employed anyone who lived alone and who wouldn't be missed by their partners or parents when they didn't turn up for dinner.

I trust my employees to switch the alarm on and lock all the exits properly but my main concern - because we had portable fan heaters - was that they turned off the electrical things so that they weren't a fire hazard.

We stuck a note to the burglar alarm panel saying "Heaters?" so that they would see that before leaving and another one saying "Alarm" on the door so that they would be reminded of that.

The other thing that used to worry me was in summer, that they closed all the windows. I learned in the end that they were a lot less stupid than I thought and we never had any problems.

On the keyholder point, we left our keys with other businesses rather than any employee as we felt that was too much responsibility.

 

[WaveJumper]

I never really thought about the implications of someone having an accident and not being found. But then we never employed anyone who lived alone and who wouldn't be missed by their partners or parents when they didn't turn up for dinner.

I trust my employees to switch the alarm on and lock all the exits properly but my main concern - because we had portable fan heaters - was that they turned off the electrical things so that they weren't a fire hazard.

We stuck a note to the burglar alarm panel saying "Heaters?" so that they would see that before leaving and another one saying "Alarm" on the door so that they would be reminded of that.

The other thing that used to worry me was in summer, that they closed all the windows. I learned in the end that they were a lot less stupid than I thought and we never had any problems.

On the keyholder point, we left our keys with other businesses rather than any employee as we felt that was too much responsibility.

Yep it's why you find a lot of the big high street retailers have for the won't of a better description a kill switch by the exit, flick it off as you leave and it kills all the power to lights, heaters etc, except for servers, fridge and and other essentials.

 

[paulears]

Purely on the safety side, rather than security. I'm frequently in the position where I become a lone worker. Status wise, I'm considered to be a contractor, carrying out work usually on my own, but in a building with hourly paid and salaried staff and members of the public. However on numerous occasions, the most recent last week, I've found myself locked in, with everyone having gone. I'm talking about theatres in the main, or performance spaces that are large and have many exit routes for everyone. What seems to happen is that the people who knew I was there go home, new staff come on and they forget my presence. A couple of hours later, I pack up to discover the alarm set and the door locked. In this venue, I suspect I'm probably the oldest person, and the one who has been in the place frequently since 84! As such, I know at least 8 ways out of the building that won't trip the alarm, and will auto lock after I have gone out. Sometimes my complete exit involves hopping over a fence because the security grill will have been locked down.

For my own safety, I always have a phone or radio with me so assuming I was conscious I could summon help. If I was unconscious, then it's a different storey.

The idea of having two key holders who must be called out is a new one to me. Is this now a standard? Certainly calling key holders would bring just a single person. It's also common for the cleaners to unlock individually - I'm wondering if this is no longer acceptable.

 

[WaveJumper]

I have personally worked under several ‘systems’ where we had a large management team is was always the main designated key holder for that week plus one other team member for out of hours call outs. Alarm company would be notified who was attending, both would sign in and out when on site. Head office would get print out of all alarm call out each week and check against records of who attended.

In the good old days you could always rely on the police being in attendance but those days have gone. Have also worked under the scheme where key holder would have to phone a designated security company, who were under contract, they would supply second person to attend.

When opening in mornings key holders were always opening with cleaning team. Now a lot of retailers in shopping centres will use the on site security (if it’s manned 24/7) as a back up to their key holder, again though head offices generally follow this up and check out details.

I am not surprised about the lone working, what surprises me like all these issues why risk assessments have not been carried out and these should form part of any companies H&S plans, just like working at height, working in confined spaces etc etc.

Surly in a large building you should be signing in the visitor’s book as a record of who is in the building, not just for lone working but in the event of a fire. Those managing said building have a duty of care to know where, who and what’s going on in their premises., and certainly not lock them in at night.

With out going totally overboard on the subject regarding key holders, if you took five minutes to dot down what you thought all the risks were to someone holding keys opening and closing, attending call outs, what precautions might you want to put in place ………… a few I would suspect to cover yourself.

When it all goes wrong and you have to face the music you will be wishing you had systems in place and your arse covered.

 

[MBE2017]

I had key holder responsibility given to myself years ago, a few days after locking up I opened the building to find a rear door open.

The actual manager had popped in during the night and used the back door for a crafty fag. Luckily nothing was stolen but he was very unhappy when I reported the incidence to both the police and head office to cover my backside.

Strangely the CCTV had been turned off as well, I decided against the position until I was the manager.

 

[WaveJumper]

I had key holder responsibility given to myself years ago, a few days after locking up I opened the building to find a rear door open.

The actual manager had popped in during the night and used the back door for a crafty fag. Luckily nothing was stolen but he was very unhappy when I reported the incidence to both the police and head office to cover my backside.

Strangely the CCTV had been turned off as well, I decided against the position until I was the manager.

You did the right thing,, I hope they give him his marching orders

 

[Andy Davies]

It totally depends on the type of business and what’s at the premises. We’re a B2B tech company in an office block and every member of staff has a set of keys. There’s no money in the office so all that could be stolen is some computers, but there’s CCTV in the common areas anyway so we’d know if they robbed a laptop.

It’s covered by our normal insurance.

 

[WaveJumper]

Money comes in all shapes and sizes, how about data theft ................ think I have been watching to many spy movies

 

[Andy Davies]

With the ubiquitousness of BYOD and remote working you don't need to be in the office to access data anymore - it's all down to the IT security you have in place and trust in your staff.

 

[DigitalSheppard]

In our office, everyone has a set of keys. Yes, there are policies in place regarding locking up procedures and who to get in touch with in the event of an emergency but I think it all boils down to trust.

When you hire somebody, you are trusting them with your company. If you don't trust certain people to open and close the firm, then I would argue a fault has been made at the hiring stage.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Policy suggestions:

- Inform your insurance company.
- Get the person to sign for it and sign it back in as well. I've seen too many issues which could have been resolved by this one, simple act.
- Need a process for the weekend / out of hours when the burglar alarm goes off and you're not around which I imagine you have.
- If lost or stolen, need to inform you immediately and need a policy in place to pay for the replacement key / locks that both you and the employee are comfortable with.
- I saw a few really weird events involving keys. The weirdest one was in someone else's business. It was a keycard and somehow, someone had cloned one and broken in. We think it was a fired IT guy from the office on the floor below who had installed the system. So who is at fault for the break in? Technically, the employee who had the keycard because the contract was badly written so need to ensure there's a bit of flex in there.