| Skill | What it means | Level needed |
|---|
| Safety & PPE | Follows plant, dock and aisle safety rules, wears the required PPE for the area, spots and reports hazards such as spills, blocked aisles, damaged racking and unguarded edges, and knows the fire, emergency-egress and lockout expectations for the material handling area. | |
| Safe Lifting | Uses correct lifting, lowering and carrying technique on boxes, bags, totes, rolls and awkward loads, sizes up a load before moving it, and calls for a team lift or a mechanical aid instead of muscling a load that is too heavy, too bulky or too low. | |
| Physical Stamina | Sustains a full shift of standing, walking, bending, reaching, climbing and repeated lifting in the 25 to 50 pound range with occasional heavier team lifts, in a building that may be unheated, refrigerated, dusty, wet or loud, and paces the work to finish the shift without getting hurt. | |
| Pallet Jack | Inspects and operates manual and electric walkie pallet jacks, two-wheel hand trucks and platform carts to move palletized and loose material safely, keeps the load under control on ramps, dock plates and in congested aisles, and tags out equipment found damaged instead of running it. | |
| Forklift Awareness | Works safely around powered industrial trucks as a pedestrian and as a spotter, understands load center, the stability triangle and the danger zones, and knows that actually driving a forklift is a separate OSHA 1910.178 certified occupation (SOC 53-7051) requiring employer-specific training and a documented evaluation, not something a new material handler does. | |
| Receiving | Receives inbound freight, counts and checks what actually arrived against the packing slip, bill of lading and purchase order, and writes shortages, overages and visible damage on the paperwork before the driver leaves the dock. | |
| Work Orders | Reads work orders, pick tickets, kanban cards, travelers and verbal assignments to determine what material is needed, in what quantity, and where it has to go, and asks rather than guessing when a document is unclear or does not match what is on the floor. | |
| Order Picking | Works a pick list through the warehouse, finds the right location, matches the product description and part number to the label before taking it, picks the correct quantity, and builds the pick onto a pallet or cart without damaging the goods. | |
| Putaway & Staging | Sorts material by destination or department, puts received stock into the correct storage location based on the location scheme, weight, turnover and any temperature or shelf-life requirement, and stages outbound or line-side material in the marked lane so the next person can find it. | |
| Packaging | Selects the right carton, tote or crate for a part, protects it with the correct void fill or dunnage, closes and seals it to the packing spec, and encloses the packing slip so the part arrives complete and undamaged. | |
| Palletizing | Builds a stable pallet load with a proper stacking pattern and weight distribution, keeps the load inside the pallet footprint, and secures it with stretch wrap, banding or corner board so it survives forklift handling and transport. | |
| Labeling & Marking | Attaches identifying tags, part and lot labels and the correct shipping label to containers and pallets, places them where the next handler and the scanner can find them, and checks the label against the order before the load moves. | |
| Scanning & WMS | Uses an RF handheld or wearable scanner and the warehouse or ERP system to scan product and location, confirm picks and putaways, post receipts and transfers, and stop and correct an obvious mis-scan rather than pushing the transaction through. | |
| Cycle Counting | Performs physical and cycle counts accurately, counts what is actually on the shelf rather than what the system says, records units handled and counted on the daily production sheet, work ticket or count screen, and reports variances instead of quietly adjusting them. | |
| Load Securement | Blocks, braces and secures freight in trailers, containers and on pallets using dunnage, load bars, straps and airbags so that nothing shifts, falls or gets crushed in transit. | |
| Load & Unload | Loads and unloads trailers and containers safely, confirms the trailer is chocked or restrained and the dock plate is set before stepping in, breaks down floor-loaded freight, and builds an outbound load in the order it has to come off. | |
| Shipping Documentation | Prepares and checks outbound paperwork including the bill of lading, packing list and carrier manifest, verifies piece counts, weights and consignee against the load actually on the dock, and records the trailer seal number before the truck leaves. | |
| Hazmat Awareness | Recognizes hazardous materials by placard, label and container marking, knows which items must be segregated, kept upright or kept away from heat and ignition sources, and stops and gets a trained person rather than moving, storing or shipping hazmat alone. | |
| Material Identification | Identifies the raw stock, components and finished goods a plant handles by part number, lot or heat number, form and packaging, and can tell whether the material in hand is actually the material the order calls for. | |
| Damage Check | Inspects incoming and stored material for damage, wear, leaks, moisture, pest activity and short count, tags and quarantines anything suspect, and reports it to a supervisor rather than sending it on to the production line. | |
| Housekeeping & 5S | Keeps aisles, dock and staging areas clear and swept, returns tools and equipment to their marked homes, breaks down and routes packaging waste to the right stream, and takes part in 5S audits and shadow-board upkeep. | |
| Rigging Basics | Assists lifts made with overhead cranes, jib cranes and hoists by attaching pre-selected slings and hooks, guiding the load with a tagline so it does not swing, and staying out of the load path, with a qualified operator running the lift. | |
| Shift Handoff | Works as part of a dock or line-side crew, communicates clearly by radio and face to face about what is staged, held or still open, hands the job off at shift change so the next crew is not guessing, and works alongside coworkers of many backgrounds and first languages. | |
| Warehouse Math | Counts accurately, converts between eaches, cases and pallets, calculates load weight and cube, reads a scale and a tape measure, and checks that the numbers on the paperwork add up before signing for a load. | |
Oregon publishes ten employability skills, the same statewide. Tick the three that matter most for this job.