[Plankton]

No I agree I'm not taking money off them for this but who should I give a warning to for being careless with equipment.

At the end of the day its the guy who carries it in his van who is responsible for it, would it be fair to give him a warning  if he wasn't the last to use it, I don't know.
As has been said I think your only option is to give them both a warning.

Give both a written warning as it sets the president for any future mishaps, also implement a vehicle check sheet to cover yourself.

[Michael Peterson]

It was an accident I wouldn’t worry about the warnings if stuff like this hasn’t happened before they will be careful in future if they are decent people

[AuRavelling79]

Give them both a bollocking but not make it official and tell them that from now on the last person to use it is responsible to put it away and it will be the responsibility of the driver to ensure everything is on board. If anything is lost in the future the team of two may be held jointly responsible financially.  Put it in writing.

[Spruce]

Let the man who doesn't sin throw the first stone!

In the past 12 years we have left some of our equipment behind unintentionally quite a number of times.

 The first was a squeege , but as the guy cancelled us immediately we had finished the clean we believe he stole it. It was written all over his face everytime we saw him after that.

The second was another squeege and was my fault. We had a couple and it just disappeared without us realising it.  I never worked out where I left it. When we did the round the next time, a customer had found it and gave it back to us.

I left a carbon fibre pole on the verge of the pavement once. We drove off to find some lunch. Next clean we saw it was missing - shot back and it was still there where we left it.

I left an Unger teleplus pole behind doing a house for an old dear. The lady next door rescued it and gave it back to us when we were doing a search for it. She later got us to clean her windows which we are still doing 10 years later.

I left my CLX22 pole behind in a customers garden. He put it in his garage and we got it a couple of hours later.

Left my ali pole with a hook on it at a back gate whilst I cleaned the backs of a terrace house. Pole was gone when I came the shut the gate after rolling the hose back in. I was never more that 4 steps away from it.

If its a regular occurrence then action must be taken, but we certainly can't cast that first stone.

.

[robbo333]

Accidents happen (especially if you are pushing them hard!)
Is the pole insured? Are the guys good?
Let them know that you have to cover that cost (and the inconvenience to you...and them)
Put systems in place to try and minimise future losses.
Forget and move on...

[windowswashed]

Let them work with an old fashioned omnipole, they'll respect any decent pole after using one of them. If you left an omnipole lying around, chances are it would be where it was last left the next time around

[Jonny 87]

This one seems pretty obvious to me.

Tell them both they need to decide who is responsible for the missing pole.

If they can t decide then they are both responsible

In which case issue a formal warning to them both. Verbal or written up to you but witnessed and documented.

Thats it, replace the pole yourself and move on, mistakes happen, if they keep happening then it will lead to further disciplinary action.

I bet that is going to lead to a good working relationship between the employees going forward. 

As has been said, just give both a verbal warning and put rules in place so it’s obvious whose accountable in future.

[Matt.]

If the last lad to touch/use it is saying it's nothing to do with him coz it's not out of his van I would just suspend him til I have decided what further action to take.

The lad who's van it goes in is accepting that he's partly to blame as it should go in his van and honesty is the best form when employing .......

I would sack the first lad and give the second a warning  then ring me an buy the 40ft streamline pole that's sitting on the floor behind the shed and put it down to a bad day.

Would be a disaster had it been a gardiner 

[STEVE-UK]

I would be offering employees a bonus paid on a monthly basis, terms would include, no complaints, no damage to van, loss of equipment etc

As a mechanic by trade, we were to supply our own tools, maybe this is an option for window cleaning?

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

if your going to give them any warrnings at all and are unsure where you stand then you need to speak to some one that does

 spending 200 pounds now may just save you 15k down the road when they take you to court for not following the law

[Shrek]

I would be offering employees a bonus paid on a monthly basis, terms would include, no complaints, no damage to van, loss of equipment etc

As a mechanic by trade, we were to supply our own tools, maybe this is an option for window cleaning?

I would think that spanner’s , screwdrivers etc last a lot longer than a daily used pole. Which wouldn’t be fair on the worker if they have to keep shelling out for new poles & brushes. but saying that , they still need some disciplinary action

[Dry Clean]

I would be offering employees a bonus paid on a monthly basis, terms would include, no complaints, no damage to van, loss of equipment etc

As a mechanic by trade, we were to supply our own tools, maybe this is an option for window cleaning?

Bonuses don't work for instance in the above who loses their bonus ? Iv worked in places where the company has tried to introduce them and all you got was fighting and bickering over who's fault it was that quotas weren't reached and so on.

[p1w1]

i think in reality all you can do is give them both a good talking too and let them know you're angry and what it has cost you.  Only you know in general how good they normally are in working for you and is it worth causing tension between them by blaming one or the other.
To a certain degree you have yourself to blame as well for not having a procedure in place when packing up for the day check list, letting it be known who is responsible for what etc.
Its just one of those things you learn by although an expensive lesson for you its probably one that will never happen again.
In my previous injection molding life my old manager was very good at making you feel guilty/bad for any mistakes made, he never really shouted etc or fired off warnings (but you knew he was fuming mad) just had this knack of making sure in yourself you didn't screw up again and he never held a grudge once it was dealt with it was forgotten about.
 It kind of always made you want to do your best for him and you knew where you stood in that he was a decent guy but he was the boss and most people working there respected that .

Going by his post though never employ Spruce 

[dazmond]

a 50ft streamline pole cant be much money to replace.its not as if its an xtreme 47.

[P @ F]

Daz , i havnt looked at varitechs site lately , but i can bet you a £1 to a pinch of poop that gardiner will blow them out of the water for an equivilent 

[martinw]

You can go about it in two ways to avoid issues in the future :
1. Change of contract with 30 days notice  to introduce new company  terms ie negligence, loss, vehicle policies with wage deduction clauses
2. If you have employee hand book you can introduce new policies without a change to contracts. This would require you to provide details of new procedures to your employees in writing and them signing off receipts for those which you will need to keep.  All subject to wage deduction clause in contract.
All valuable equipment should be signed out by
a  person who takes responsibility for safe return of it.
If two of them are using it both should sign. This way they will not be able to blame one another.

This time your loss as annoying as it is can't be recovered from employees as previously mentioned.
 Bonus schemes  can work really well if they are properly designed, explained to employees and show fairness.

[STEVE-UK]

I would be offering employees a bonus paid on a monthly basis, terms would include, no complaints, no damage to van, loss of equipment etc

As a mechanic by trade, we were to supply our own tools, maybe this is an option for window cleaning?

Bonuses don't work for instance in the above who loses their bonus ? Iv worked in places where the company has tried to introduce them and all you got was fighting and bickering over who's fault it was that quotas weren't reached and so on.

We operate with 1 man per van, so there is no passing the buck,

I used to work for a commercial window cleaning company, Like you say its hard to confirm who is to blame with 2 operators per van

Ive gone down the franchise route, so don't have those worries

[P @ F]

No wonder Steve is peaved , 

Just looked at Varitech , they do 3 poles that fit the bill , one 80% carbon and two 100% carbon , with the vat they range from .........   
 £1000 - £1500

Gardiner comes in at £680 vat added for an SLX , well you know the prices !

Get yerself to Gardiners next time Steve !

[Missing Link]

The worst thing I've ever lost while at work was a baton gun in Northern Ireland.  Inside the wire, not outside.

I had a humongous fine for that, even though it turned up pretty much straight away.

[Soupy]

Give them both a bollocking but not make it official and tell them that from now on the last person to use it is responsible to put it away and it will be the responsibility of the driver to ensure everything is on board. If anything is lost in the future the team of two may be held jointly responsible financially.  Put it in writing.

I agree with that but "the last person to use it" is a bit wooly, make someone responsible for ensuring the kit isn't left behind in future.