The New-Hire Shop Orientation SOP

Purpose

The first hour a new employee spends in the building decides what they will do on the day something goes wrong. If nobody showed them the rear exit, they leave by the way they came in, which may be through the fire. If nobody told them the forklift is off limits, they move a pallet with it on day two because it was in the way and they drove one at their last job. This procedure walks every new hire, whatever their role, through the same stations in the same order in their first hour, before they touch a tool or a truck, and ends with both people signing a checklist that records what was shown. It is not training in the trade. It is the building.

Scope

Covers every new employee and every returning employee who has been away from the building long enough that its layout or rules have changed, including office staff, techs who will mostly be in the field, and temporary help.

Does not cover job training, van orientation, ride-alongs or paperwork such as tax forms and benefits. Does not cover hazard communication training on specific chemicals (that happens before the employee first handles each product, under the shop's written hazard communication program), forklift training and evaluation (see related: How to Decide Who May Drive the Forklift and the Pallet Jack), or the content of the emergency plan itself (see related: How to Write a One-Page Emergency Action Plan).

Roles and responsibilities

The guide is a person who works in the building every day, not the owner reading from a list in the office.

Procedure

1. Prepare before the new hire arrives. The shop manager prints the checklist, pulls the key set the role needs, assigns an alarm code, and confirms the guide is free for a full hour. Acceptance: checklist, keys and code in an envelope with the new hire's name, and the guide's calendar blocked. Wrong looks like orientation folded into "shadow Mike today"; the stop rule is to move the start of real work, not the orientation, because once the day starts it never comes back. Hazard: none at this step.

2. Exits and the meeting point. Start at the front door and walk to every exit, opening each one from the inside, then go outside to the assembly point named in the emergency plan. Acceptance: the new hire can point to the nearest exit from the bench, the parts room and the bay, and stands at the meeting point. 29 CFR 1910.38(f) requires the employer to review the emergency action plan with each employee at initial assignment; a shop with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally rather than in writing (1910.38(b)), but the review itself is still owed. Wrong looks like an exit that will not open from inside; that is a finding for the shop manager the same hour, under the monthly shop safety walk's exit rule.

3. How an emergency is reported. Show the alarm pull or the way an alarm is raised, the posted street address and the phone the shop calls 911 from, and say who does the head count at the meeting point. Acceptance: the new hire can say, in their own words, what they do when they hear the alarm and who they report to outside. Wrong looks like a new hire who thinks someone else calls; the guide repeats until the answer is "I leave, I go to the meeting point, I tell the lead I am out". Hazard: do not pull the alarm or test a detector to demonstrate it; describe the sound, or play the system's test only if the alarm company has scheduled one.

4. Fire extinguishers, and the shop's policy on using them. Walk past each extinguisher and say whether this shop expects employees to fight an incipient fire or to evacuate. Acceptance: the new hire knows the policy and the two nearest units. If employees are expected to use extinguishers, 29 CFR 1910.157(g) requires training on their use at initial employment and annually, and the guide does not deliver that in this hour; it is scheduled and the date written on the checklist. Hazard: do not discharge a unit as a demonstration; use the trainer unit or a video.

5. Eyewash and first aid. Go to each eyewash station and the first aid kit. Acceptance: the guide activates the eyewash so the new hire sees both streams, and the weekly activation tag has an entry within the last 7 days. 29 CFR 1910.151(c) requires suitable quick-drench or flushing facilities where eyes or body may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, and ANSI Z358.1 calls for weekly activation of plumbed units. Wrong looks like a tag older than 7 days, a blocked station or a self-contained unit past its fluid date; the guide logs a finding for the shop manager and the new hire is told which other station to use until it is fixed. Hazard: say the rule out loud: hold eyes open in the stream for at least 15 minutes and call for help, do not rub.

6. The cylinder cage. Stop at the cage. Acceptance: the new hire hears the three rules (cylinders chained, caps on unless connected, no cylinder moved without the cart) and sees where fulls and empties are kept. Wrong looks like a loose cylinder standing near the cage during the tour; the guide chains it on the spot and notes it. Hazard: the new hire does not move any cylinder during orientation, even an empty one; handling is taught on the job.

7. The chemical room. Stand at the door. Show where acids and chlorine products are kept apart and why (mixed, they release chlorine gas), the spill kit, and the posted rule on who may enter. Acceptance: the new hire can say who is allowed in and that they are not, alone, until they have had hazard communication training on what is stored there. Stop rule: any chlorine or acid odor at the door ends the tour of that room; close the door and tell the shop manager. Hazard: the new hire does not enter or handle containers during orientation.

8. Where the safety data sheets are. Show the binder or the device that holds them, find one product together, and open it to sections 4 (first aid) and 8 (exposure controls). Acceptance: the new hire finds a named product's sheet without help, in under a minute. 29 CFR 1910.1200(h) requires training on hazardous chemicals at the time of initial assignment and whenever a new hazard is introduced, and knowing where the sheets are is part of it, not all of it (see related: Keeping Safety Data Sheets Accessible in the Field). Wrong looks like a binder that cannot be found or a product on the shelf with no sheet; finding for the shop manager.

9. The forklift and pallet jack rule. Show the trucks and say who may drive them. Acceptance: the new hire can say they may not operate a powered truck, including a powered pallet jack, until the shop has trained and evaluated them under 29 CFR 1910.178(l), whatever card they carry from a previous job. 1910.178(l)(5) lets the shop skip training a topic the operator has already been trained in and shown competent at, but this shop still evaluates them on its own truck before they drive it. Hazard: walk the new hire through where pedestrians stand when a truck is moving, and that a horn means stop and look.

10. Keys and codes. In the office, hand over each key and the alarm code, record them in the key log, and have the new hire sign for each one. Acceptance: one log line per key with its number, and the code recorded as issued (the code itself kept where the log rules say, not on the checklist). Wrong looks like a key with no number or a shared code; issue a numbered key or a personal code, or log the exception for the shop manager (see related: How to Set Up Key and Code Control for the Shop).

11. Sign the checklist. Go down every line together. The new hire initials each item they were shown, not each item they were told about; anything not shown is left blank with a date to complete it. Acceptance: both signatures, every line initialed or dated. Wrong looks like the new hire signing a blank form; the guide does not accept it. The signed checklist goes to the shop manager before lunch.

The record this produces

The signed checklist (each station initialed, open items dated), filed in the personnel file; the key log entries; and any findings raised during the walk, entered on the shop's findings list. The shop manager reads open items weekly until they close. After an injury or an evacuation, an insurer or an inspector asks two things: was this person shown the exits and the eyewash, and was the forklift rule communicated. The checklist answers both, in the employee's own initials.

Worked pass

Monday 7:00 am, new warehouse helper, guide is the parts lead.

• Step 1: envelope ready with 2 keys (numbered 14 and 15) and a code. Pass.
• Step 2: 3 exits opened from inside; meeting point is the light pole at the lot entrance. Pass.
• Step 3: new hire answers in their own words. Pass.
• Step 4: shop policy is evacuate, not fight. Pass, nothing scheduled.
• Step 5: chemical room eyewash activates, both streams. Bench eyewash weekly tag last initialed 12 days ago. Fails the 7-day acceptance. The guide activates it (streams good), initials the tag with today's date, and logs a finding for the shop manager: "weekly eyewash activation missed one week, no owner". New hire told both now work.
• Steps 6 to 8: pass; new hire finds the liquid chlorine sheet in about 40 seconds.
• Step 9: new hire says they drove a sit-down forklift for two years and holds a card from that employer. The guide holds the rule: not until evaluated here. Checklist line marked "evaluation scheduled Thursday", and the shop manager is told so the warehouse lead does not hand them a pallet job Wednesday.
• Steps 10 and 11: keys 14 and 15 logged and signed; checklist signed at 7:58 am, open item dated Thursday.

The finding at step 5 was not about the new hire at all. It surfaced because orientation looks at the tag, which is one reason the guide is someone who will notice a stale date.

References

• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38 (emergency action plans), 1910.157(g) (extinguisher training where employees are expected to use them) and 1910.151(c) (eye and body flushing).
• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200(h) (hazard communication training) and 1910.178(l) (powered industrial truck operator training and evaluation).
• ANSI Z358.1, the emergency eyewash and shower standard, which OSHA and inspectors use as the reference for weekly activation.
• See related: Keeping Safety Data Sheets Accessible in the Field; How to Write a One-Page Emergency Action Plan.