In brief
Offices are usually in the less hazardous class and the risk assessment is renewed at least every 6 years; but the document must still be specific to that office. In this example, a hazard list is drawn up for an accounting firm with 18 workers, seven hazards are scored with Fine-Kinney and the measures are linked to a person responsible and a deadline. A good office assessment can be short; what must not be missing is the office's real conditions.
Office risk assessment example: the workplace and the team
The office risk assessment example in this article is built around an accounting and financial advisory firm with 18 workers operating on the third floor of a business centre in Bursa. Since the firm's main activity is accounting (NACE 69.20.02), the workplace is in the less hazardous class.
The office layout: an open-plan office with 12 desks, 3 enclosed rooms, a meeting room, an archive room, a kitchen and two toilets. The stairs, lift and fire hose cabinet are in the building's common area.
Under Art. 6 of the Risk Assessment Regulation, the team is made up of the following people:
- The employer (the financial advisor),
- The OHS specialist and the workplace physician,
- The employee representative (one person in a workplace with 2–50 workers; Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety, Art. 20),
- Support staff,
- Workers who know different jobs such as the archive and reception.
In a small office, this team fits around a single meeting table. What matters is that the assessment is not a template filled in by one person at a desk. For the general steps of the process, see our article on how to carry out a risk assessment.
Office hazards list
The hazards identified during the site walk and in interviews with workers are as follows, by category. This table is the first output of an office risk analysis:
| Category | Hazard identified in this office |
|---|---|
| Display screen equipment and ergonomics | Chairs without adjustment, prolonged work on laptops, reflections on screens facing the window |
| Electrics | Daisy-chained power strips under desks, exposed cables, a socket with a broken cover |
| Fire and evacuation | Heavy paper load in the archive, boxes left in the escape route, evacuation plan not posted |
| Slips, trips and falls | Cables across the walkway, wet entrance on rainy days, standing on a chair in the archive |
| Storage and archive | Heavy file boxes on top shelves, cabinet not fixed to the wall |
| Indoor environment | Inadequate lighting in the archive, enclosed room with poor ventilation in summer |
| Psychosocial | Long hours during tax return periods, tense client meetings |
| Kitchen | Burns from the kettle and hot drinks |
| Biological | Shared kitchen hygiene, crowded open-plan office during epidemics |
In workplaces where display screen equipment is used, the risk assessment must take particular account of risks relating to vision, physical problems and mental stress (Regulation on Health and Safety Measures in Work with Display Screen Equipment, Art. 5). The ergonomics row is therefore at the centre of an office assessment; for details see our articles on office ergonomics and working with display screen equipment.
Example scoring with office Fine-Kinney
An L-type 5×5 matrix can also be sufficient in offices. This example shows an office Fine-Kinney application for businesses that want to use the same language as their production sites. Risk = Probability (P) × Frequency (F) × Severity (S).
Scale values used: for probability, 0.2 not expected, 0.5 not expected but possible, 1 possible but unlikely, 3 quite possible; for frequency, 2 monthly, 3 weekly, 6 daily, 10 continuous; for severity, 3 injury without lost working days, 7 injury causing lost working days, 40 death. Classes: below 20 acceptable, 20–70 possible, 70–200 significant, 200–400 high, 400 and above intolerable. For the full scales, see our article on the Fine-Kinney method.
| Hazard | P | F | S | Before | Measure | After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boxes placed in the escape route; delayed evacuation | 1 | 6 | 40 | 240 – high | A separate area for boxes, weekly check, posting the plan and announcing the assembly point | 0.2 × 6 × 40 = 48 – possible |
| Unadjusted chairs and screen position; musculoskeletal disorders | 3 | 10 | 7 | 210 – high | Adjustable chairs, screen raisers, external keyboard and screen for laptop users, break arrangement | 0.5 × 10 × 7 = 35 – possible |
| Cables across the walkway; trips and falls | 3 | 6 | 7 | 126 – significant | Cable trunking, rearranging desks | 0.5 × 6 × 7 = 21 – possible |
| Daisy-chained power strips; electrical fire | 0.5 | 6 | 40 | 120 – significant | Removing the chain, fixed socket line, replacing the broken socket | 0.2 × 6 × 40 = 48 – possible |
| Standing on a chair in the archive; fall | 3 | 3 | 7 | 63 – possible | Step stool, moving heavy boxes to lower shelves | 0.5 × 3 × 7 = 10.5 – acceptable |
| Long hours in tax return periods; stress and fatigue | 3 | 2 | 7 | 42 – possible | Pre-period work plan, work allocation, monitoring overtime | 1 × 2 × 7 = 14 – acceptable |
| Kettle in the kitchen; burns | 1 | 6 | 3 | 18 – acceptable | Current arrangement sufficient, monitored | 18 – acceptable |
The table is sorted by priority and teaches three lessons. First, the evacuation and fire rows, whose severity is death, come to the top even though their probability is low. Second, the ergonomics row is usually near the top in an office because of continuous exposure. Third, not every hazard requires a measure: the kitchen row in the acceptable class is recorded and monitored, but not padded out with a token measure.
Action plan: person responsible and deadline
Scoring is only useful when it turns into an action plan:
| Measure | Responsible | Deadline | How is it verified? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase of adjustable chairs, screen raisers and external keyboards | Employer | 1 month | Desk-by-desk check during the specialist's visit |
| Eye examination plan for display screen workers | Workplace physician | 2 months | Examination records |
| Clearing the escape route and designating an area for boxes | Office manager | Immediately | Weekly check form |
| Posting the evacuation plan, announcing the assembly point | Employer and support staff | 2 weeks | Annual drill |
| Fixed socket line and replacement of the broken socket | Employer, authorised electrician | 2 weeks | Check on completion |
| Step stool, rearranging the archive shelves | Archive manager | 1 week | Site check |
| Work plan for the tax return period | Employer | Before the period | Overtime records |
The legal basis for the eye examination row is Art. 9 of the display screen equipment regulation: the examination is carried out before starting work with display screen equipment, at regular intervals set by the workplace physician, and when visual difficulties occur.
Group gaps in the building's common areas, such as the stairs, lift and fire hose cabinet, under a separate heading. In business centres, OHS coordination is provided by the building management (Law 6331 Art. 23/2); notify the management of these findings in writing and keep the notification.
Less hazardous risk assessment example: simple but complete
Ways to keep the document simple when preparing a less hazardous risk assessment example:
- Do not write down hazards that do not exist. Ready-made templates containing rows for forklifts, welding or chemical stores do not describe an office; in an inspection they show that the document was copied.
- Combine similar hazards. Instead of a separate row for each desk, an "open-plan office, display screen work" row is enough; give desk-by-desk findings in an annex list.
- Write measures concretely. Instead of "ergonomic measures will be taken", write "6 chairs will be replaced, and 4 laptop users will be given an external keyboard and screen".
- Include the method and scale. It must be possible to read which table the scores were given against.
When is an office risk assessment updated?
In a less hazardous workplace, the risk assessment is renewed at least every 6 years. Before the period expires, it is updated in the following situations: the office moving or being re-partitioned, a new service unit opening, a workplace accident or near miss, or health surveillance results requiring it. A worker who slips on the stairs but is not injured is also a reason for renewal; for floor-related measures, see our article on preventing slips, trips and falls.
You can track renewal, drill and training dates in the OHS calendar, and find the other obligations of the less hazardous class in our article on obligations of less hazardous workplaces. Through our risk assessment service, we prepare the document for workplaces such as offices and shops on site, together with the workers; our sector approach is on our office and retail page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a ready-made risk assessment template be used for an office?
A template can be a starting point, but the document must reflect the office's real conditions. The regulation requires the assessment to be carried out at the workplace by a team and the hazards to be identified for that workplace. A template containing hazards that do not exist in the office is seen as an incomplete assessment in an inspection.
Should Fine-Kinney or an L-type matrix be used in an office?
The legislation does not choose a method; it is enough to state the method and scale you have chosen in the document. In small offices, an L-type matrix is practical. If Fine-Kinney is used at the same company's production site, choosing the same method in the office makes the results comparable.
How many years is an office risk assessment valid?
At most 6 years in an office in the less hazardous class. It is updated before the period expires in situations such as a move, rearrangement, a workplace accident or a near miss. The validity date must be written in the document.
Who is responsible for gaps in the building's common areas?
In business centres, OHS coordination is provided by the building management; the management warns employers about hazards that will affect other workplaces (Law 6331 Art. 23/2). For your part, you should notify the management in writing of common-area gaps you see in your own assessment and keep the notification.
A risk assessment that identifies and scores hazards on site, links each measure to an owner and a date, and has a clear renewal schedule.
Bursa SİSTEMER OSGB Technical Team — written from the field experience of our OHS specialists and workplace physicians. Legal information is valid as of the publication/update date; contact us for an assessment specific to your business.