Software houses and IT service providers work almost entirely at screens, spread across the office, employees' homes and client sites. The duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Occupational Safety Act and DGUV Regulation 2 are the same as in any other office business. What differs is where the work happens: much of it takes place outside the rooms a specialist gets to see on an inspection.
Software & tech
For this type of business Safety Club provides the external occupational safety specialist: one contract with predictable annual costs, a specialist from the network on site, physician, travel, risk assessment and safety briefings in the price, and audit-proof documentation on our platform, the client portal. See in a few clicks what you pay within this full package, in the quote calculator.
Software and tech: occupational safety for teams that are rarely in the office
Few office sectors work from home as much as software and tech. The risk assessment therefore has to start where the work is done. For many employees, on most days, that is a desk in their own flat.
Legally, it depends on how home working has been agreed. A telework workstation within the meaning of the Workplaces Ordinance only exists once the employer has set it up permanently in the employee's home and agreed weekly hours and duration with them (section 2 (7) ArbStättV). The arrangement common in IT firms, where everyone chooses freely between the office and the kitchen table, is mobile work. The Workplaces Ordinance does not apply to it, but the Occupational Health and Safety Act applies in full. How the assessment works in either case is set out in Risk assessment for remote work and telework.
Since 2021, employees working in their own home have been covered by statutory accident insurance to the same extent as on company premises. On home-office days, the journey to take children to nursery or a childminder and collect them again is covered as well (section 8 SGB VII).
Software and tech businesses: insurer, WZ code and thresholds
Item
Software and tech
Accident insurance institution
As a rule the VBG: its statutes list software consulting, development and production, data centres and internet service providers. Businesses that manufacture IT hardware or install systems may belong to the BG ETEM. What counts is the membership notice.
Economic sector
WZ 62 IT services, WZ 58.2 software publishing
Support group under DGUV Regulation 2
III for both: 0.5 hours of basic support per employee and year, shared between the specialist and the occupational physician, at least 20 per cent each. Company-specific support comes on top.
From the first employee
Risk assessment, safety training, first-aid organisation, appointment of an occupational safety specialist and an occupational physician
Up to 20 employees
Annex 1 of DGUV Regulation 2 with no fixed support hours
Above 20 employees
Occupational safety committee, meeting once per calendar quarter (section 11 ASiG)
Up to 50 employees
Unternehmermodell permitted as an alternative. More than 50: standard support.
From 50 employees in an office
Safety officers (section 22 SGB VII, since 29 May 2026)
Screen work
Occupational health check-up offered by the occupational physician, including the offer of an examination of the eyes and eyesight (ArbMedVV)
Everyone employed counts towards the thresholds, including people who work entirely from home or on the move. Part-time staff count proportionally towards the threshold of 20: up to 20 hours a week as 0.5, up to 30 as 0.75. Working students limited to 20 hours a week during term therefore count as 0.5.
What the risk assessment in software and tech looks at
Remote work as a regular workstation type. When half the workforce works from home half the time, it is no longer an exception. The telework section belongs in the assessment with the same standing as the office screen workstation.
Server room and technical areas. Electrical equipment, heat load, fire load, and the question of who works there alone and how an emergency would be noticed.
On-call duty and availability. Standby shifts and deployments outside regular hours affect rest periods and mental stress. The rest period of eleven hours as a rule applies then too.
Fast growth. IT businesses cross the threshold of more than 20 employees without noticing. From then on an occupational safety committee has to be set up.
If the check-up shows that ordinary glasses are not adequate for screen work, the employer provides a special visual aid. Details are in Screen work glasses: when the employer pays.
Inspection in an IT office: what the specialist finds
The office itself usually reveals little; the workstations are new and well equipped. Two other places are where things surface. First the server room: cable routing, access, fire load and lone working. Second remote work, which simply does not appear during an inspection even though a substantial share of working time happens there. Anyone who only walks the office has missed the larger part of the screen work.
Safety training for development and support teams
From this follows a separate remote-work block: setting up ergonomically with what is available at home, break arrangements, and the reporting route after an accident in the home working environment. Where on-call duty exists, the boundary between working time and rest period is added. For the server room, only those who enter it are trained.
For distributed teams, online training is permitted as long as people can ask questions and their understanding is checked. More on this in Online safety training and home office. The server room section is better delivered by someone on site.
Which employers' liability insurance association covers software companies?
As a rule the Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG). Its statutes expressly name software consulting, development and production, as well as data centres and internet service providers. Manufacturers of IT hardware and installers of systems can fall under the BG ETEM instead. Your business's membership notice settles it.
Does the occupational safety specialist have to visit home workstations?
No. The specialist may only enter a home with the employee's consent, and the assessment almost never requires it. The usual approach is a short checklist on desk, chair, screen, lighting and cables that employees fill in themselves. The specialist reviews it and follows up on any answers that stand out.
How many first aiders does an IT office need if staff are only on site on certain days?
The number depends on the insured persons present (section 26 DGUV Regulation 1): at least one for 2 to 20 people present, and 5 per cent above that in administrative businesses. For hybrid teams this means spreading first aiders across office days so that enough of them are in on every day. The first-aider calculator works it out for your numbers.
