Professional Services
Protect your people and keep your compliance records in order across offices, home workstations and hybrid teams. We provide professional services businesses practical health and safety advice and ISO certification support.
In growing professional services and office-based businesses, clear health and safety management is essential for meeting legal obligations, reducing risk, and maintaining a compliant workplace.
Professional services work may look low risk, but harm often builds over time. Long screen use and poorly set-up workstations contribute to neck, back, upper-limb and eye problems. High demands, low control and organisational change drive work-related stress. Spills, trailing leads and clutter cause falls; electrical faults and weak evacuation arrangements raise fire risk. Your risk assessments must cover every place your people work, including home-based display screen equipment users where the regulations apply.
Office-based businesses are subject to many of the same statutory health and safety duties as industrial premises. These include maintaining a written health and safety policy, completing suitable and sufficient risk assessments, carrying out DSE assessments for each screen user, undertaking a fire risk assessment in accordance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and appointing competent assistance under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Responsibility for maintaining these duties typically sits with a director or manager who holds it alongside other work. With 38% of the workforce now hybrid or remote, the same duties extend into employees' homes. The practical challenge is keeping responsibilities, assessments, training and evidence current as your people, premises and working patterns change.
How we help professional services and office-based businesses
Office and hybrid risk assessments
We complete suitable and sufficient risk assessments covering your premises, working practices and relevant home or hybrid-working arrangements. Each assessment documents the hazards identified, existing controls, further measures required, responsible persons, completion priorities and circumstances requiring review.
DSE and hybrid working compliance
Employers must manage the risks faced by workers who habitually use display screen equipment, including eligible home and hybrid workers. We establish a documented DSE process covering fixed workstations, home setups and shared-desk arrangements. This includes user assessments, escalation procedures, remedial action and records demonstrating that findings have been addressed.
On-demand health and safety support
Give your business direct access to the competent health and safety assistance required under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. A named consultant provides practical advice, supports your compliance arrangements and keeps you informed of relevant changes to legislation and HSE guidance.
Work-related stress controls
Work-related stress must be considered and managed as a workplace health risk. We apply the HSE Management Standards to assess demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. The resulting action plan records the issues identified, the controls required, responsibility for implementation and the process for reviewing effectiveness.
Policies, documents and training
We develop practical health and safety policies, procedures and supporting documentation that reflect how your business actually operates. This can include your health and safety policy, statements of responsibilities, risk assessment templates, DSE records, fire safety arrangements, incident reporting procedures, inspection checklists, training records and action trackers.
Training is then aligned with the risks and responsibilities within your organisation. This may include DSE awareness, fire warden training, manual handling, manager responsibilities, incident reporting and first-aid needs assessment. We can also help you maintain a training matrix, monitor renewal dates and record completion so that competence is supported by clear evidence.
ISO certification support
Transform existing processes into a structured and auditable management system. We support certification to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 through gap analysis, process mapping, documentation, internal audit preparation, management review and corrective action support.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to employees and other people affected by its work. If you employ five or more people, you must record the significant findings.
For an office-based business, the assessment will normally cover display screen equipment, work-related stress, slips and trips, electrical equipment, manual handling, first aid, fire arrangements and home or hybrid work where applicable. The assessment must reflect your actual premises and working practices; changing the name on a generic template is not enough.
They do when the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 apply. A person is generally treated as a DSE user when they use screens daily for continuous periods of an hour or more.
A trained worker can usually complete a self-assessment without a home visit. If someone works both at home and in the office, the assessment should cover both setups. You must review the findings, address identified risks and provide suitable equipment where the assessment shows it is needed.
There is no fixed legal annual interval. Review your assessment when you have reason to believe it is no longer valid or when a significant change affects the risk.
Common review triggers include an office move, new equipment, changes to staffing or working patterns, an accident or near miss, and reports of pain or discomfort. Setting an annual review date is sensible for many office-based businesses, but it does not replace a review when one of those changes occurs.
Yes. Duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 apply to home and hybrid workers in full. The HSE identifies three priority areas: stress and mental health, display screen equipment, and the working environment, including lone working. Employers must assess the risks of home working, though home visits are not required; self-assessment checklists, photographs and video calls are accepted methods of gathering the necessary information.
Yes. In England and Wales, the responsible person for a non-domestic workplace must carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment. They must maintain suitable precautions, plan for emergencies and provide staff with information and instruction.
In a shared office, the employer, landlord, managing agent and other responsible persons may each hold part of the responsibility and must coordinate their arrangements. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate fire safety legislation, so the assessment and records must follow the rules that apply to the premises.