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Onboarding temp warehouse staff in a single shift
When an agency worker arrives at short notice, onboarding has to fit inside the first shift. That means a short safety briefing before they touch anything, one task they can do safely, a clear list of what they must not do and a record that shows they were told about the risks of their job.
Temporary warehouse worker training usually assumes there is time to plan: a start date, modules completed before day one and a ramp over the first weeks. A lot of warehouse work does not happen that way. An order spike, a no-show or a late truck, and the agency sends someone who will be on the floor in a few hours, sometimes for a single shift.
That worker still needs to be protected. Under EU law, temporary agency workers must be informed of the risks they face before they take up any activity, and must receive sufficient training appropriate to the particular characteristics of the job.¹ This article covers how to fit that into one shift: who does what between the agency and the site, how to organise the first hour and what to record.
The duties are split between the temporary work agency and the site where the person works. In Spain, the occupational health and safety law sets the split clearly: the agency is responsible for training and health surveillance, while the user company is responsible for information on the risks of the job and for safety and health conditions while the work is done.²
| Duty | Temporary work agency | Warehouse (user company) |
|---|---|---|
| Know what the job involves | Receives the job description from the site | Tells the agency the job's characteristics and the qualifications required, before the assignment¹ ² |
| Training for the job | Responsible for providing sufficient and adequate training² | Provides site-specific content the agency cannot know |
| Information on risks | Passes on what the site has told it¹ | Informs the worker before they start² |
| Safety during the shift | Keeps its duties as employer | Responsible for working conditions related to safety and health¹ ² |
In practice, the agency can train a picker in general warehouse safety, but it cannot know that dock 3 is closed to pedestrians after 18:00 or that the reach trucks in aisle 12 work at height. That part only the site can deliver, and with a same-day call-in it has to be delivered on the day.
Even with a few hours' notice, ask the agency what training the worker has already had and whether they hold any equipment authorisation, such as for forklifts. The answers decide which tasks are open to them today. If the site has a short safety module, send the link to the agency so the worker can watch it on the way in.
The first half hour covers what keeps the person safe on that site, and nothing else:
A short module that every new person watches, followed by a walk along the route they will use, delivers the same message on every shift, whoever is on duty.
Choose one task the person can do safely without equipment authorisation, such as picking from floor-level locations or packing. The supervisor shows it once, the worker repeats it and the supervisor checks it. One task done correctly is enough for one shift. Adding a second task in the same hour is where errors start.
The worker does that task for the rest of the shift, with a named buddy nearby. A check-in halfway through the shift catches the questions people do not ask on their own: a scanner error, a damaged parcel, a pallet that looks unsafe.
| Usually suitable for a first shift | Usually not suitable without prior training or authorisation |
|---|---|
| Picking from floor-level locations | Driving forklifts, reach trucks or order pickers |
| Packing and labelling | Working at height or in narrow aisles with lift trucks |
| Sorting returns | Handling dangerous goods |
| Simple loading by hand, with a lifting briefing | Loading and unloading at the dock alone |
The exact line depends on each site's risk assessment. What matters is that it is decided in advance and written down, so the supervisor on a night shift does not have to improvise it. For lift trucks, our guide on what a good forklift training course covers explains why authorisation needs more than a quick demonstration.
For each temporary worker, keep a simple record of:
If the briefing is a short module sent through a link, the completion is recorded automatically. With platforms like Vidext, the safety lead builds that briefing from the site's own procedures and risk assessment, reviews it and gives the go-ahead before anyone sees it, and each completion is recorded, which avoids depending on a paper sheet that gets lost.
A distribution centre receives an unexpected volume of orders at 16:00 and asks its agency for four pickers for the night shift.
For a planned intake with more lead time, our 14-day ramp plan for seasonal staff covers what to do across the first two weeks.
Onboarding temp warehouse staff in a single shift works when nothing about the first hour is improvised. The briefing exists before the call comes in, the first task is already chosen and the list of what a new person must not do is written down. Then the supervisor's job is to deliver it, not to invent it at 22:00.
Responsibility is shared. The temporary work agency is responsible for providing training suited to the job, while the warehouse must tell the agency what the job involves, inform the worker of the risks of the job before they start and keep safe working conditions during the assignment. The exact split depends on national law.
At minimum: pedestrian walkways and no-go zones, how to behave around moving vehicles, emergency exits and alarms, who to ask for help and which equipment and areas they must not use. After that, one task they can do safely, shown and checked by a supervisor.
Only if they already have the training and authorisation required for that equipment and the site has checked it. Without it, a first shift should be limited to tasks that do not need lift trucks.
For a same-day call-in, the safety briefing and the first task can be covered in the first hour of the shift, with supervised work for the rest of it. Longer assignments need a longer ramp over the first weeks.
Keep the worker's name, agency, date and shift, confirmation that the safety briefing was completed and which version, the task they were shown and by whom, and the restrictions they were given.
¹ Council Directive 91/383/EEC on the safety and health at work of workers with a fixed-duration or temporary employment relationship - legislation.gov.uk ² Ley 31/1995 de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales, artículo 28 - BOE
Programme to promote permanent employment of qualified young people within the framework of the National Youth Guarantee System. Vidext has received a grant of €25,401 awarded by LABORA (Valencian Employment and Training Service) for the permanent hiring in 2024 of qualified young person(s) registered in the National Youth Guarantee System, an action eligible for co-financing by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) 2021-2027 or any other European Union fund. Expediente ECOGJU/2024/550/46. This publication is made in compliance with the transparency obligations established by Spanish Law 19/2013 of 9 December.
