Yes. Every employer with regular staff must ensure both safety and occupational health support, as the Occupational Safety Act requires. There is no lower threshold. Which support model applies and whether you must formally appoint a specialist follows mainly from headcount: a permanent appointment is only required above 50 employees, and simplified models are permitted below that. The duty to have support in place does not fall away, only its form changes.
The obligation applies, the form is yours to choose
The Occupational Safety Act requires employers to appoint occupational physicians (section 2 ASiG) and occupational safety specialists (section 5 ASiG). It makes no exception for offices, for very small businesses or for low-risk sectors. What differs is not whether, but the scope and the permitted form of organisation.
DGUV Regulation 2 makes this concrete and grades the permitted form of organisation by business size. Since the revision effective 1 January 2026:
- Up to 50 employees: the Unternehmermodell under Annex 3 is permitted, with no lower limit. Owners take part in motivation and information measures, qualifying themselves, and bring in safety and occupational health expertise as the need arises.
- More than 50 employees: standard support is mandatory. An occupational safety specialist and an occupational physician must be formally appointed, with a defined number of hours.
Both routes satisfy the obligation. The difference lies in how much responsibility and time stays in house. The duties quick-check shows which route is open at your size, and which further duties attach to it, in under a minute.
The thresholds that actually matter for offices
In practice it is not one number that decides but a chain of thresholds. These four matter for office and administrative businesses:
- From the first employee: risk assessment (section 5 ArbSchG), safety training (section 12 ArbSchG), first-aid organisation, and appointing a specialist and a physician at all.
- Above 20 employees: an occupational safety committee must be set up, meeting at least once per calendar quarter (section 11 ASiG). Details in Occupational safety committee (ASA): from when?.
- From 50 employees: safety officers must be appointed (section 22 SGB VII, since 29 May 2026; between 20 and 49 only where there is a special hazard, in a classic office usually not). More in Safety officers in the office.
- Above 50 employees: the Unternehmermodell ends and standard support with a formally appointed specialist becomes mandatory.
Most of the change happens around the 50 mark. When an office grows past 20 employees the occupational safety committee is added; from 50, safety officers and standard support with a formally appointed specialist follow. The 20-employee threshold for the committee is often missed in practice, because it is not tied to a relocation or a new activity but arrives quietly with the next hire.
How much support an office actually needs
Office and administrative businesses fall into support group III, the lowest of the three risk levels. Since the revision of DGUV Regulation 2 on 1 January 2026, a simple per-head factor applies there: 0.5 hours per employee and year for basic support, shared by the occupational safety specialist and the occupational physician.
What is new, and matters in practice, is the floor: at least 20 percent of the hours must fall to the occupational safety specialist. The previously common workaround of assigning the entire share to the physician, effectively dispensing with the specialist, is therefore ruled out.
Three worked examples make the scale tangible:
- Office with 12 employees: 12 times 0.5 hours gives 6.0 hours of basic support per year. With a 60 to 40 split that is 3.6 hours specialist and 2.4 hours physician. A formally appointed specialist is not required at this size; the Unternehmermodell is enough.
- Office with 35 employees: 35 times 0.5 hours gives 17.5 hours per year. In this range, up to 50 employees, the Unternehmermodell is permitted.
- Office with 65 employees: 65 times 0.5 hours gives 32.5 hours per year. The Unternehmermodell is ruled out; standard support with an appointed specialist is mandatory.
In every case business-specific support is added, driven by the actual occasion. The support-hours calculator gives you your own figures, split included.
Which model fits your office?
Four questions produce a clear answer in most office businesses:
- Do you have more than 50 employees? Then the question is settled: standard support with a formally appointed specialist.
- Are you below that but growing noticeably? Then it pays to move to standard support straight away rather than switching in a year or two and building two systems.
- Are the owners willing and able to complete the training themselves and steer occupational safety permanently? If so, the Unternehmermodell is a genuine option (permitted for up to 50 employees). If the time realistically is not there, it turns into a gap in the documentation.
- Are there particular events this year, such as a relocation, a refurbishment, the introduction of remote work or a recent accident? Then the business-specific share rises and external expertise is needed anyway. What an external occupational safety specialist delivers, and how to recognise a sound quote, are set out there in detail.
What the specialist actually does in an office
The idea that an occupational safety specialist is mainly there for machinery and hard hats is persistent. In an office business the work looks different but is no less concrete. It typically includes:
- Walkthroughs of the workstations: screen height, lighting, traffic routes, trip hazards, storage in shelves and cabinets.
- Producing and updating the risk assessment, including mental stress under section 5 paragraph 3 ArbSchG.
- Advice when things change: relocation, refurbishment, new work equipment, introducing remote work or desk sharing.
- Support with safety training under section 12 ArbSchG and with the record keeping. The training-interval calculator shows when the next one is due.
- Participation in the occupational safety committee and advice to the safety officers.
- Accident investigation and deriving measures, see Accidents at work in the office.
The time required is small, the effect is not: a large share of accidents in administrative businesses involves slips, trips and falls, which is exactly what a walkthrough picks up.
When the business grows past 50
The switch from the Unternehmermodell to standard support does not happen automatically and is rarely noticed in time. Anyone hiring three people in spring and growing from 49 to 52 is subject to standard support from that moment.
In practice that means: an occupational safety specialist must be appointed in writing, the scope of support must be defined and documented, and tasks previously handled in house move into structured support. Anyone who only notices this at the next inspection is left with a gap in the documentation that cannot be closed retrospectively.
Two habits stop you missing the switch: check your headcount against the thresholds of 20 and 50 deliberately once a year, and switch support early when growth is foreseeable rather than waiting until you cross the line.
What you must actually be able to produce
When a letter from the employers' liability insurance association arrives or a major client asks for evidence, the question is rarely about your support model. The question is about documents. These five should be within reach:
- The written appointment of the safety specialist and the occupational physician, or proof of participation in the Unternehmermodell.
- The risk assessment including mental stress, documented under section 6 ArbSchG.
- The training records with date, content and signatures.
- The support record covering the hours actually delivered.
- Above 20 employees the committee minutes, and from 50 additionally the appointment of safety officers.
If something is missing, that is usually not grounds for an immediate fine but for a deadline. It becomes uncomfortable only when, after an accident, you have to demonstrate retrospectively that the organisation was in place.
That is exactly the part Safety Club takes on for office and administrative businesses: an occupational safety specialist on site plus digital, audit-proof documentation. How getting started works is set out in the four-step process.
This article is general guidance and does not replace legal advice on your individual case. What governs is the current version of the ASiG and DGUV Regulation 2, together with how your employers' liability insurance association (Berufsgenossenschaft, BG) interprets it.
