Any company that works with hazardous materials is required to put employees through hazmat employee training. Without hazmat employee training, you may be open to suit from an employee who gets hurt or goes through health issues as a result of the work you ask them to do. Because of this, it is essential that you remain current on your hazmat employee training practices, since the standards change and get updated regularly.
Some hazmat employee training may be as simple as spending 30 minutes working with a new employee on the requirements for disposing of cooking oil in a fryer that gets to extremely high temperatures. Since the oil can seriously harm an employee and because the oil cannot just be poured down the drain, some sort of training is required. However, it is usually as simple as training a cook early in their work that the oil must be drained and the fryer cooled off before it gets cleaned, and the oil stored for proper disposal away from the kitchen. This is easy enough that hazmat employee training for line cooks is a part of your health rating inspection, since it can be a part of other safety training and there is not a need for offsite training or certification.
However, hazmat employee training for an engineer at a nuclear power plant is much more involved. Any worker who may come in contact with radioactive materials must attend a course on the safe handling of the materials, as well as what to do when exposed. In most cases, the worker must also sign an insurance policy or waiver that shows they know what they are getting into when they agree to work with radioactive materials.
Whatever need your business might have for hazmat employee training, be sure to stay current. There is always a chance of employee suit or being shut down by local, state or federal agencies when you do not properly train employees who do a dangerous job. Be sure to lower risk as much as possible and tell every worker to be safe at all times. Be sure to let your hiring staff and managers know that any worker who might like horse play or who may not take their job seriously should not be hired if you are going to trust them with hazardous materials. That hire may be a risk to him or herself, to other workers and to your business.