A first-week checklist for new joiners in jewellery retail

The scale on a jewellery counter shows three decimals. A new salesperson who reads the second one and ignores the third can mislead a customer by a quarter of a gram on a chain. That is a small thing until a bill is checked at the end of the day. The first week should catch such small things while the cost is a lesson, not a loss.

Selling skill can be learned over months. Custody habits must be right on day two. A showroom hands a trainee trays worth more than a year of his salary, in an open space, among strangers. Teach the counting, the handing over and the locking before the greeting or the pitch. Show the double-lock vault, the key register and the tray count at opening and closing.

Joiner:               Role:                 Counter / bench: ____.
Buddy:                Manager:              Start date: ____.

MONDAY  PEOPLE AND PLACE.
[ ] Appointment letter, role note and uniform slip signed.
[ ] Walk: vault door, trial mirror, weighing scale, hallmark counter, back exit.
[ ] CCTV zones and the no-phone rule at the tray table explained.

TUESDAY  CUSTODY.
[ ] Opening count of the tray beside the buddy.
[ ] Closing count, with the buddy signing the tray slip.
[ ] Key register shown. No key issued to the joiner this week.
[ ] Customer's metal, repair token and memo slip handling shown.

WEDNESDAY  SCALE, TAG AND BILL.
[ ] Read a tag: gross weight, net weight, purity, stone weight, design code.
[ ] Weigh three pieces on the counter scale, three decimals read aloud.
[ ] Watch two bills, one with old gold exchange and melt deduction.
[ ] Scheme instalment entry shown, with the passbook stamped.

THURSDAY  STONES AND SETTINGS.
[ ] Loupe use practised on a plain diamond and a coloured stone.
[ ] Certificate folder opened, with lab report numbers matched to tags.
[ ] Kundan, polki, nakshi, solitaire and cluster samples handled.

FRIDAY  CUSTOMER AND REVIEW.
[ ] Greeting, seating, tray presentation and farewell rehearsed.
[ ] Incentive sheet or bench payment basis handed over in writing.
[ ] Ten-minute review: what was hard, what confused you, what to repeat.

Buddy:                Manager:              Joiner: ____.

The buddy ticks while the joiner watches or performs. The manager reads the sheet at closing for the first three evenings, with the tray slips beside it. On Friday all three sign. Open lines are not hidden. Each gets a date for completion in week two.

• Monday. The layout of risk. Where the cameras look, which door a customer may not use, why phones stay off the tray table.
• Tuesday. The chain of hands. Who carried a tray, who counted it, who signed it. A gap in the chain is where a loss hides.
• Wednesday. Reading numbers. Gross against net, wastage against making charge, and melt value on exchanged gold.
• Thursday. Vocabulary of stones. Clarity, cut, carat, colour grade, treatment disclosure and why a cabochon needs a different look.
• Friday. Manners. A tray is placed on the velvet pad, the clasp turned to the customer, and a second tray never opened until the first is closed.

• Tunch and karat. The proportion of fine gold, shown as a percentage on the touchstone or as 22K and 18K on a tag.
• Wastage and VA. The loss allowed in making and the value addition charged on top. Mixing them up confuses buyers.
• Old gold melt. The deduction on exchanged jewellery after testing. Show where the XRF or the touch is done.
• Rhodium and polish. The white finish on diamond pieces and how it wears. Customers ask when to bring a piece back.
• Temple, kasu and antique. Traditional ranges, often bought for weddings in the south, with their own tags and weights.
• Eleven-plus-one scheme. A monthly saving plan where the shop adds one instalment. The passbook and the ledger must agree.
• Memo and approval piece. Jewellery sent out for viewing, entered with a number and a return date.

When Dhanteras, Akshaya Tritiya or a heavy wedding stretch falls near the joining date, change the order. Keep Monday and Tuesday untouched. Move the product lines after the billing lines. Place the joiner on the tag table, the packing counter or the repair desk, where footfall hurts less. The customer's table can wait for week two.

A chain showroom adds a head-office master copy, local lines for each branch and an audit of tray counts by the area manager. A custom workshop swaps trays for bench rules: wax, casting, filing, setting, polishing and the weighing of scrap at day end. A gemstone store swaps billing lines for the stone register, the certificate file and the memo to dealers. See jewellery chains and gemstone stores for the roles in each.

Staple each signed sheet behind the appointment letter. Once a quarter, lay out the last ten and see which line is skipped. A line skipped everywhere is a line to cut or fix. A line skipped by one manager is a conversation to have. For the method behind this, read about the employee onboarding process, and for the sector as a whole see HR for jewellery retail.