A new lab employee can complete every required safety course and still not be ready to work independently.
Online modules, policy reviews, and orientation sessions provide a foundation. They do not show whether someone can recognize a hazard, select the right PPE, operate equipment safely, or respond when something goes wrong.
Initial training should lead to lab-specific instruction, competency checks, and supervised experience. Dwayne Henry, instructional lab manager of chemical and biological sciences at Montgomery College, views those early requirements as the starting point.
“This is not the end of the onboarding process; it is only the beginning,” Henry says.
Build onboarding in layers
Henry uses three levels of safety onboarding for lab personnel.
The process starts with a general, in-person safety education course provided by the college’s Public Health and Environmental Safety department. Everyone must attend before working in a lab, regardless of how long they have worked at the institution.
Employees must also complete and pass a series of online safety modules. The college requires both the general course and the online modules to be repeated every three years.
Once those requirements are complete, Henry conducts one-on-one training based on the individual’s assigned labs, equipment, hazards, and planned experiments.
This layered structure separates what every employee needs to know from the information required for a particular role or workspace. It also gives the trainer a chance to connect general safety principles to the work the employee will perform.
Henry stresses the importance of explaining why procedures exist instead of handing new employees a list of dos and don’ts.
“When individuals understand why these things are important, it tends to stay in their subconscious and directs them at times when quick thinking may be needed,” he says.
A lab can use the same approach by dividing onboarding into three questions:
- What does every person need to know before entering the lab?
- What must they understand about this specific lab, process, or hazard?
- What must they demonstrate before they can work without supervision?
These questions can help managers assess whether onboarding has prepared employees to work safely, not just whether they completed the required steps.
Introduce the people behind the safety program
New employees need to know more than where to find emergency equipment and written procedures. They also need to know who can answer questions, help assess a new process, or respond when a concern arises.
Henry introduces new hires to members of the college’s safety team, including EHS personnel, security staff, facilities personnel, and the lab manager. These introductions take place before an emergency occurs. That familiarity can make it easier for a new employee to ask for help. Someone who has already met the EHS manager may feel more comfortable involving them in experiment planning or reporting a possible issue.
Henry says this approach also helps reduce the fear that reporting a concern will lead to blame or discipline. Instead, it reinforces the idea that safety is a shared responsibility. A contact sheet remains useful, but it should not replace a brief personal introduction and a clear explanation of each person’s role.
Require employees to demonstrate what they know
A quiz can confirm that someone remembers a rule. It cannot show whether they can apply that rule during actual lab work.
Henry observes new hires as they perform relevant tasks. Employees must demonstrate that they understand both the theory behind a procedure and how to complete it correctly.
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“An actual live demonstration ensures that they know not only the theory of what must be done but also how to do it in real time,” he says.
Competency checks may include:
- Reading and applying information from a safety data sheet
- Selecting and using the correct PPE
- Segregating and storing chemicals
- Operating emergency equipment
- Recognizing hazards and assessing risk
- Preparing for spills, exposures, or other emergencies
- Starting, operating, and shutting down equipment safely
Once the employee demonstrates competency, the person conducting the assessment documents the result through a hazard-specific sign-off.
The individual responsible for the sign-off will depend on the lab’s structure. At Montgomery College, Henry usually performs the checks in his role as lab manager and safety officer. An EHS manager, principal investigator, lead scientist, or another qualified designee may also fill that role.
The documentation should identify the task or hazard assessed, who evaluated it, and when the demonstration took place. A general signature stating that an employee “received training” provides little evidence that the person can perform the work safely.
“I need to know that you know not only how to do something, but also why you do it and when you should or should not do it,” Henry says. “I look for competency as well as compliance.”
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Do not assume experience transfers from one lab to another
Prior lab experience should not exempt an employee from site-specific onboarding.
A new hire may understand general chemical or biological safety practices but still be unfamiliar with the organization’s equipment, emergency procedures, waste practices, reporting expectations, or building layout.
Henry identifies this assumption as one of the most common gaps in safety onboarding. Experienced employees or temporary personnel sometimes receive reduced training because they completed similar courses elsewhere, but that shortcut can leave important gaps. Two labs performing similar work may use different equipment, chemical inventories, storage systems, emergency contacts, or procedures.
At Montgomery College, everyone completes the same foundational requirements. The one-on-one portion then changes based on the individual’s role, assigned labs, and planned work. This allows the college to adapt training for full-time employees, interns, visiting researchers, rotating students, and temporary staff without lowering expectations. The amount of task-specific instruction may differ, but everyone receives the preparation needed for the work they will perform.
The same principle applies when an employee’s work changes. Henry conducts additional assessments when someone begins a new experiment, scales up a process, moves into a different lab, or makes a significant procedural change. Onboarding should follow the work, not just the employee’s start date.
Use shadowing to reinforce formal training
After formal instruction, Henry’s team pairs new employees with someone who has experience in the lab for approximately another week.
This shadowing period helps employees see how written safety expectations apply during daily work. It also gives them a consistent person to approach with questions as they become familiar with the lab. New employees can observe how experienced staff prepare equipment, manage waste, maintain housekeeping, report problems, and communicate about hazards.
The mentor does not replace formal instruction or competency checks. The role is to reinforce expectations and support the employee while they gain experience. Pairing a new employee with someone who ignores procedures or takes shortcuts can undo much of the formal onboarding. The person chosen should model the same habits the lab expects from the new hire.
Turn the checklist into a working tool
A checklist can help maintain consistency, especially when several people share responsibility for onboarding.
Henry’s checklist covers general safety information, emergency preparedness, PPE, chemical safety, equipment safety, waste management, good laboratory practices, and final sign-offs.
The checklist works best when each item requires an action or demonstration.
Instead of marking that the eyewash station was “reviewed,” ask the employee to locate it, explain when it should be used, and demonstrate how to activate it. Instead of noting that incident reporting was discussed, ask the employee to explain how they would report a near miss and who should receive the report.
A practical checklist may include:
- Lab safety policies and emergency procedures
- Locations of manuals, SOPs, and hazard communication documents
- Chemical, biological, physical, radiological, ergonomic, and psychological hazards
- Fire extinguishers, safety showers, eyewash stations, evacuation routes, and assembly points
- PPE selection, storage, cleaning, and disposal
- SDS use, chemical labeling, storage, and spill response
- Instrument startup, operation, shutdown, and lockout/tagout procedures
- Waste segregation, labeling, storage, and disposal
- Housekeeping, proper attire, lone-work restrictions, and near-miss reporting
- Trainee and supervisor sign-offs
The final signatures should confirm that the employee completed the required instruction and demonstrated the listed competencies. They should not suggest that safety development is complete.
Show that safety continues after onboarding
New employees notice how managers and experienced staff treat safety requirements. When leaders approach refresher training as a burden, employees may view it the same way. When managers participate alongside the team, they show that safety expectations apply to everyone.
Henry completes refresher education and training with his staff and sometimes schedules the sessions as a team activity. “As science evolves, so does the need for lab safety to evolve,” he says.
That message should begin during onboarding and continue throughout the employee’s time in the lab. Asking questions, reassessing risk, reporting near misses, and completing refresher training should feel like normal parts of the work.
A completed checklist may close out the initial onboarding period. It does not prove that the employee will remain prepared as the work changes. The stronger measure is whether the employee can recognize hazards, make sound decisions, respond appropriately, and contribute to the lab’s safety culture.
