OSHA says your evaluation can include the following:

• Discussions with employees;
• Observations of employees operating the forklift;
• Written documentation of previous training; and
• Performance testing.

When new employees or temporary workers claim to have prior work experience operating forklifts, you must still evaluate their skills before allowing them to work on one of your forklifts. However, OSHA does allow you to evaluate the applicability and adequacy of any training the new employee has already had. You can consider the type of equipment the employee worked on, the amount of experience the employee has had on the equipment, how recent the experience was, and the type of jobs the employee worked. Site-specific training is always necessary.