Retail Assistant Manager: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a Key Holder?

A Key Holder is a team member who typically has store access and limited supervisory duties. This employee is responsible for opening or closing the store, assigning tasks to others, reporting incidents and handling customer concerns. Key Holders often serve as the first point of contact when the manager is off-site or unavailable.

Why hire a Key Holder?

Key Holders help ensure smooth store operations during manager absences by opening and closing the store, leading shifts and handling customer issues. They provide critical coverage during early mornings, evenings and weekends, helping maintain consistency and accountability across shifts.

Your business might benefit if you’re experiencing staffing gaps during non-peak hours, frequent manager absences or delays in addressing customer or operational issues.

Contributions of a great Key Holder:

• Secure store access and adherence to opening and closing procedures
• On-floor leadership during shifts without a manager or supervisor present
• Clear communication of shift priorities, tasks and store updates

Defining your hiring needs for Key Holder

Before hiring a Key Holder, think about your store’s current scheduling structure and whether shift coverage gaps are impacting the team. List the responsibilities this role will include, such as opening, closing, cash handling, team oversight or customer issue resolution.

Decide whether the position should be full-time, part-time or seasonal to business needs. Use a clear job title to differentiate this role from other positions, including Store Key Holder, Team Leaders or Assistant Managers.

What are the types of Key Holder?

Key Holders may be assigned different responsibilities depending on shift structure, store size or operational needs. Common variations include:

• Opening Key Holder: This employee arrives before the store opens, completes entry procedures and prepares the store for business. They may also check register readiness or review the daily task list with team members.
• Closing Key Holder: This role focuses on end-of-day duties such as shutting down registers and locking the store. The Closing Key Holder might verify deposit procedures and confirm that safety protocols have been followed before exiting.
• Floating Key Holder: This role provides coverage for holidays or stores with multiple locations. A Floating Key Holder is expected to follow procedures consistently while adapting to different team structures or environments.

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Where to find Key Holders

Key Holders can be found through internal promotions, job boards, referral programs and local training initiatives. Using multiple sourcing methods can help you identify candidates with leadership potential and retail experience.

To find the right Key Holder for your team, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Internal promotion: Offer the role to employees who already know your store systems, follow procedures and demonstrate consistent reliability. 
• Retail job boards: Post your opening on platforms that attract hourly workers with shift leadership experience. 
• Referral programs: Ask your team to recommend people they’ve worked with who maintained dependable attendance and handled daily tasks without reminders. 
• Local training programs: Connect with workforce readiness programs that prepare job seekers for store leadership roles. 
• Post your job online: Try posting your Key Holder job on Indeed to reach a large pool of applicants who are actively searching for leadership opportunities in retail.

Skills to look for in a Key Holder

A successful Key Holder candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• Experience using point-of-sale (POS) systems to complete transactions, process returns, and troubleshoot register issues with minimal supervision
• Ability to oversee shift operations by assigning tasks, monitoring staff productivity, and coordinating with off-site managers when needed
• Strong conflict resolution skills for handling escalated customer concerns while maintaining adherence to store policies
• Familiarity with opening and closing procedures, including alarm systems, lockup routines and store access protocols
• Clear communication skills for sharing shift objectives, product updates and policy reminders with team members
• Proven reliability in maintaining attendance, following daily routines and executing store procedures accurately

Writing a Key Holder job description

Now that you know the main skills, salary expectations, popular job seeker search terms and hiring insights for a Key Holder, you’re ready to write a job description.

A Key Holder job description typically includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also want to include information about your company culture, benefits and perks to attract candidates to your open role.

Ready to get started? See our full guide for writing Key Holder job descriptions.

Interviewing Key Holder candidates

Strong candidates for Key Holder positions will be confident answering questions about:

• Leading a shift without a supervisor present and making operational decisions
• Handling customer complaints or responding to minor safety issues
• Assigning tasks to team members and following up with performance checks
• Securing the store at the beginning or end of a shift and managing the alarm system
• Responding to unexpected challenges such as last-minute call-outs, equipment failures or procedural concerns