Three occupational safety duties are missing particularly often in office businesses: the assessment of mental stress under section 5 paragraph 3 number 6 ArbSchG, the testing of electrical equipment under DGUV Regulation 3 and the record of annual safety training under section 12 ArbSchG. All three apply from the first employee and have no lower threshold.
The three share a pattern: none of them generates a date by itself. Appointing a specialist, buying a first-aid kit or registering a first aider each produces a visible event. These three duties run in the background and only announce themselves when an inspector is on site or something has happened.
| Duty | Legal basis | Due | Evidence expected during an inspection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment of mental stress | section 5 paragraph 3 number 6 ArbSchG | with the risk assessment, updated whenever conditions change | its own section per activity with measures and an effectiveness review |
| Testing of electrical equipment | section 5 DGUV Regulation 3, sections 3 and 14 BetrSichV | portable office equipment usually every 24 months, fixed installations every 4 years | equipment register, test records, test labels on the devices |
| Safety training for employees | section 12 ArbSchG, section 4 DGUV Regulation 1 | on hiring, whenever conditions change, and at least annually afterwards | record with date, topics, names and signatures |
Duty 1: Mental stress in the risk assessment
The assessment of mental stress has been an explicit part of the risk assessment since 2013 (section 5 paragraph 3 number 6 ArbSchG). Mental stress is defined in DIN EN ISO 10075-1 as the totality of all assessable influences that reach a person from outside and affect them mentally. In an office it is often the single most relevant hazard.
It is nevertheless the duty most often missing, for three reasons. There is no measuring device for it, unlike illuminance or insulation resistance. It cannot be read off a workstation but only surveyed among the employees. And many businesses fear the survey will open a discussion they cannot steer.
The Joint German Occupational Safety Strategy (GDA) divides mental stress into five areas: work content and task, work organisation, social relations, working environment and new forms of work. In offices and public administration the hits are almost always the same: interruptions by phone and chat, unclear responsibilities, deadline pressure around monthly and annual closings, public contact with conflict potential, and constant availability when working from home.
In practice the survey runs either as an anonymous questionnaire, from around ten usable responses upwards, or as a facilitated workshop per activity group. What matters is the sequence afterwards: evaluate the result per activity, record measures with owners and deadlines, set a date for the effectiveness review. A sentence such as "no mental stress identified" without a survey documents an assumption, not a result.
The assessment of mental stress is not a second procedure alongside the risk assessment but one of its mandatory components, kept in the same documentation. Which measures actually help in an office is covered in Mental stress in the risk assessment, the wider framework in Risk assessment in the office.
Duty 2: Testing electrical equipment under DGUV Regulation 3
Electrical installations and equipment must be tested under section 5 DGUV Regulation 3 before first use and at recurring intervals afterwards. For portable office equipment the usual guide value is 24 months, for fixed installations 4 years. The binding interval is set by the business itself in the risk assessment under section 3 BetrSichV.
Portable equipment is equipment that can be moved or easily carried from one place to another while connected to the supply circuit. The base guide value in DGUV Regulation 3 for portable equipment is 6 months and may be extended to a maximum of 2 years in an office environment if the tests show a fault rate below 2 percent. A business that has never documented results cannot rely on the extended interval.
Four reasons why office businesses forget this duty:
- The inventory is unknown. As a planning figure, count around 8 items of portable equipment per screen workstation plus shared devices. Counting only computer and monitor gets you to a third of the real total.
- Power strips slip through. Power strips, cable reels and appliances with heating elements count as heavily used and are usually tested every 12 months.
- The fixed installation is left out. Sub-distribution boards, fixed lighting and the water heater in the kitchen fall under the 4-year interval. For rented space, responsibility belongs in the lease.
- The IT department is not automatically qualified. Testing is done by a qualified electrician, and for portable equipment additionally by an electrically instructed person under the supervision of a qualified electrician.
The test-interval calculator calculates which interval applies to a specific device and when the next date falls due for around 70 typical office devices. Test steps and the content of a sound record are covered in Testing electrical equipment in the office.
Duty 3: Annual safety training with a record
Under section 12 ArbSchG and section 4 DGUV Regulation 1, all employees must receive safety training: on hiring, whenever their work area changes and at least annually thereafter. For young workers the training must be repeated every six months. Training takes place during working hours and relates to the specific workstation.
In most office businesses it is not the training that is missing but its record. Training given verbally and never written down counts for nothing during an inspection, because there is no way to prove it happened. A sound record contains the date, the topics covered, the names of the participants and their signatures.
Four gaps come up regularly during initial reviews:
- Completeness. Part-time staff, apprentices, interns, temporary help and employees working from home must all be trained.
- New hires. Training happens before work begins, not at the next group session in autumn.
- Event-driven repetition. A move, new software, new work equipment or an accident triggers training, regardless of the annual cycle.
- Content without a link to the job. A generic presentation on occupational safety is not safety training. The content comes from the risk assessment for the workstation in question.
The training-interval calculator works out which deadlines fall due when. Structure, topic list and record keeping are covered in Safety training in the office.
Three business sizes: what catching up actually means
Effort scales differently across the three duties: mental stress with the number of activity groups rather than headcount, electrical testing with the number of devices, safety training with headcount and staff turnover. The figures below are planning values for a single site without production.
| Business size | Mental stress | Electrical equipment | Safety training |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 employees | 1 facilitated workshop, questionnaire borderline for anonymity | around 114 items, roughly 25 of them in the 12-month class | 1 group session plus records, basic support 6.0 hours per year |
| 35 employees | 1 questionnaire plus 2 to 3 workshops per activity group | around 315 items, sensibly split across 2 test dates per year | 2 to 3 sessions by department, basic support 17.5 hours per year |
| 80 employees | 1 questionnaire evaluated per unit, results fed back in workshops | around 710 items, rolling test plan across the year | 4 to 6 sessions plus individual training, basic support 40.0 hours per year |
Basic support in support group III, which office and administrative businesses fall into, amounts to 0.5 hours per employee per year for the occupational safety specialist and the occupational physician together. The support-hours calculator calculates how those hours split.
Closing all three gaps in four steps
If one or more of the three duties turns out to be open, work through them in this order. The first step takes an hour and decides the rest.
- Take stock in one hour. Answer three questions in writing: does mental stress appear as its own section in the risk assessment, is there an equipment register with test dates, and is there a signed training record from the past twelve months for every person.
- Catch up on mental stress. Survey by anonymous questionnaire or facilitated workshop, evaluate per activity, record measures with owners and deadlines, set a date for the effectiveness review.
- Set test intervals and register equipment. Build an equipment register room by room, set the intervals under DGUV Regulation 3 in the risk assessment, include the fixed installation, clarify responsibility for rented space.
- Schedule safety training for twelve months. Set the annual date, train new hires before they start work, plan half-yearly sessions for young workers, record date, topics, names and signatures.
The duties quick-check shows in minutes which further duties apply at your headcount. A missing duty found during an inspection usually leads to a deadline for remedy first. If an enforceable order is not followed, that is an administrative offence and can be fined up to 10,000 euros under section 209 SGB VII. The heavier case comes after an accident: without documented risk assessment, test and training records, it is hard to show in retrospect that the organisation was in place.
For office and administrative businesses, Safety Club keeps exactly these three points on track: an occupational safety specialist on site plus digital, audit-proof documentation in which test intervals and training dates do not quietly expire. Getting started is set out in the four-step process; open questions we clarify in an initial conversation.
This article is general guidance and does not replace legal advice on your individual case. What governs is the current version of the ArbSchG, BetrSichV and DGUV Regulations 1 and 3, together with how your employers' liability insurance association (Berufsgenossenschaft, BG) interprets it.
