Occupational safety for advertising and creative agencies

• Advertising & creative agencies

Advertising and creative agencies: training at the pace of new hires

Agencies hire continuously, often young people and often for short periods. Safety training therefore comes up all year round: every new person has to be trained before starting work, regardless of when the next group session is in the diary.

Freelancers often sit at agency desks for weeks at a time. The Occupational Health and Safety Act counts persons similar to employees as employees (section 2 (2) ArbSchG). Anyone who is economically dependent on the agency and in need of protection much like an employee therefore belongs in safety training and emergency arrangements. Genuinely self-employed people should also know how to get out in an emergency and who gives first aid before their first day on the premises.

School work placements with under-18s fall under the Young Persons Protection of Employment Act: before young people start, the hazards of their work have to be assessed (section 28a JArbSchG). Pitch phases with work into the night touch on the Working Hours Act. Unless a collective agreement provides otherwise, the Act as it currently stands does not permit more than ten hours on a working day, even before a presentation. A rest period of at least eleven hours follows the end of work.

Advertising and creative agencies classified under DGUV Regulation 2

For the threshold of more than 20, what counts is the number of employees, however many desks there are under desk sharing. 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. An agency whose headcount moves between 18 and 24 should therefore convert its part-time staff proportionally first. Only then is it clear whether an occupational safety committee is required.

What an agency's risk assessment has to cover

• Training for every new starter. The obligation attaches to employment, not its duration. Interns and short-term staff must be trained before starting work.
• Open plan and acoustics. Open floors are the norm in agencies. Acoustic disturbance is the most frequently named strain factor there and belongs in the mental stress assessment, not only in a furniture decision.
• Changing desks. Where nobody has a fixed desk, nobody adjusts the chair. With desk sharing, showing people how to set up chair, desk and monitor is basic equipment.
• Productions and events. Shoots, trade fair stands and events bring set-up and take-down, electrical equipment and work with ladders. None of that occurs in ordinary office life, and it needs its own assessment.

Where photographers, lighting crews or stand builders from other firms work on shoots or events, the employers have to coordinate (section 8 ArbSchG). Event and stage technology businesses appear in the BG ETEM's hazard tariff, so such a service provider may be insured with a different institution from the agency.

Walkthrough in an agency: typical findings on open floors

Typical here are open-plan floors with high occupancy, hot-desking and a lot of equipment in little space. Recurring findings are cables across traffic routes, escape routes blocked behind partitions or props, and screen workstations meant as overflow that are used permanently without ever having been set up.

Safety training for agency teams with constant turnover

For safety training the rhythm matters more than the content. With high turnover the annual group session misses its target. What works is a short, always identical induction block before work begins, plus the annual core session for everyone. For productions, set-up and take-down, electrical equipment and ladders are added.

If an office dog is allowed, it belongs in the training too: where it may be, what applies to allergies, and how an accident involving it is reported.

Related

• External occupational safety specialist: Scope of services and support models, from the small agency to the agency group.
• Occupational safety for marketing and PR: For teams with lots of trade fairs, travel and channel management.
• Young workers, apprentices and interns in the office: What applies to placements and training under 18.
• Training-interval calculator: Works out the next training date for every member of staff.
• Setting up a screen workstation correctly: How to adjust chair, desk and monitor.
• Safety training in the office: how often and on what?: Mandatory topics and the training cycle.

Legal basis

• Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG)
• DGUV Regulation 2 (occupational physicians and safety specialists)
• Occupational Safety Act (ASiG)
• Social Code Book VII (SGB VII), statutory accident insurance

Frequently asked questions