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Risk Assessment & Safety Management System

Getting Started with Office Workplace Risk Assessment | Easy-to-Overlook Risk Factors in the Office Space

2026.10.15 13:34

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Risk Assessment and Safety System

Getting Started with Office Workplace Risk Assessment | Easy-to-Overlook Risk Factors in the Office Space

The statement that “we are not subject to risk assessment because we only have an office” is only half correct. While workplaces with only office workers are exempt from certain provisions of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, The risk assessment (Article 36) is not omitted. Along with the changes from the June 2026 revision, I have summarized the frequently overlooked risk factors in office spaces and the order in which to start.

short answer
Workplaces with only office workers must also conduct a risk assessment. The provisions in Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that do not apply to workplaces with only office workers are the safety and health management system, safety and health management regulations, safety and health education, and some safety measures by the contractor, but Article 36 (risk assessment) is not on that list. The risk It is not that there is nothing, but rather that there is little. You simply need to identify and record risk factors relevant to the office space, such as falls, VDT work, indoor air quality, customer service, and job stress, together with your employees. Starting June 1, 2026, employee participation, sharing of schedules and results, and the recording of designated items with a three-year retention period are specified in the law and enforcement regulations, and penalties for violations will apply. 50 or more on January 1, 2027, and fewer than 50 on January 1, 2028 It will be applied starting from.

📌 Is a risk assessment required even if there are only office workers?

The Occupational Safety and Health Act does not apply certain provisions depending on the type or scale of the business (Article 3 of the Act, Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree). 'Workplaces employing only office workers' are one such example, and this includes places where only office workers are employed and the location is separate, such as a headquarters. However, the exclusions are limited to the following scopes.

division	Workplace with only office workers	reason
Safety and health management system (safety and health manager, industrial safety and health committee, etc.), safety and health management regulations	Exclusion from application	Chapter 2, Sections 1 and 2 of the Act
Worker Safety and Health Education	Exclusion from application	Chapter 3 of the Act
Safety measures by the contractor (excluding some, such as rest facilities)	Exclusion from application	Chapter 5, Section 2 of the Act
Risk assessment	apply	Article 36 (Chapter 4) of the Act
Employer's safety and health measures, protection of customer service workers, rest facilities	apply	Articles 38, 39, 41, and 128-2 of the Act

If a company has both a factory and a headquarters office, it must be assessed on a workplace basis. For workplaces where field workers are employed, there is no exemption from this application, and risk assessments apply in any case. Additionally, since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act applies regardless of industry if there are five or more regular employees, workplaces with office workers must also have assessment records to substitute the 'procedures for identifying and improving hazardous and dangerous factors and inspections at least once a half-year' under Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Enforcement Decree with a risk assessment.

Changes in 2026

Article 36 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act was amended and has been in effect since June 1, 2026, and Articles 37 through 37-4 of the Enforcement Rules were newly revised on the same day. The amended regulations apply to risk assessments conducted on or after the effective date.

item	Current standards	reason
Scope of Risk Assessment	Identify hazardous and risk factors → Determine if at an acceptable level → Establish improvement measures implementation until	Article 36(1) of the Act, Article 37(1) of the Enforcement Rules
Worker participation	Workers from the relevant workplace must participate. On-site inspections are the principle method, but surveys and interviews may be conducted in parallel. If requested by the employee representative, the representative may also participate.	Article 36(2)(3) of the Act, Article 37-2 of the Enforcement Rules
To inform the worker	Share the schedule prior to implementation, and the results of hazardous/risk factors, risk assessments, improvement measures, and implementation results after implementation through training, briefings, postings, written documents, electronic methods, etc.	Article 36(4) of the Act, Article 37-3 of the Enforcement Rules
Implementation period	Initial evaluation (before work begins), regular evaluation (at least once a year starting from the following year), ad-hoc evaluation	Article 37, Paragraph 2 of the Enforcement Rules
Records and preservation	Record the implementation period, person in charge, participating workers and worker representatives, and shared results, and preserve for 3 years.	Article 37-4 of the Enforcement Rules

The fine has not yet been implemented. According to Annex 35 of the Enforcement Decree revised in July 2026, the penalty for failure to conduct a risk assessment is 5 million won for the first offense (7 million won for the second, and 10 million won for the third and subsequent offenses); the penalty for non-participation of workers or worker representatives and failure to share the schedule or results is 1.5 million won for the first offense each; and the penalty for violations of record keeping and preservation is 500,000 won for the first offense. These regulations apply from January 1, 2027, for workplaces with 50 or more regular employees, and from January 1, 2028, for workplaces with fewer than 50 regular employees; there are criteria for reduction based on the scale of the facility. As the draft for the complete revision of the "Guidelines on Workplace Risk Assessment" was subject to administrative notice in September 2026, the detailed methods may change once finalized.

🔎 Easily Overlooked Risk Factors in Office Spaces

The most common reason office risk assessments end up being just a formality is that standard forms filled with "Not Applicable" are used as is. Below are the locations in the office space where accidents or inconveniences actually occur frequently. Please take a walk around your office and mark the spots that apply.

Areas and duties	Risk factors	Verification points	Reference Standards
Passages, stairs, and entrances	Falling/Slipping	Wires and power strips on the floor, moisture at the entrance on rainy days, boxes piled up in the hallway, stair lighting	Article 3 of the Safety and Health Regulations
Cabinets, shelves, warehouses	Hit by an object, falling	Stepping on a chair to reach heavy document boxes on the top, unsecured cabinets, or items on high places	Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the Safety and Health Regulations
PC work	Strain on neck, shoulders, and wrists, eye fatigue	Distance between screen and eyes: 40cm or more, 10–15 degrees below the screen's field of view, height-adjustable chair/desk, screen glare	Article 6 of the VDT Guidelines, Article 667 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations
Long-term data entry	Whether it constitutes musculoskeletal burden work	Jobs involving intensive keyboard and mouse work for more than 4 hours a day	Notification on Musculoskeletal Burden Work, Article 657 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations
lighting	Visual fatigue	Work surface illumination (150 lux or higher for normal work), 300–700 lux recommended for VDT work depending on the screen background.	Article 8 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, Article 7 of the VDT Guidelines
indoor air	Headache, fatigue, infection	Operation of ventilation equipment, management standards such as 1,000 ppm carbon dioxide, radon in underground offices, ventilation in printer rooms	Article 646 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, Office Air Management Guidelines
Electricity and Fire	electric shock and fire	Octopus-style power strips, personal electric heaters, storage in front of emergency exits, fire extinguisher locations	In-house fire and electrical inspection standards
pantry	burns and cuts	Water heater location, moisture around microwave and coffee machine, knife and glass storage	Article 3 of the Safety and Health Regulations
Parcel delivery and document transport	Back strain, hand pinching	Methods for transporting heavy copier paper and bottled water, availability of trolleys	Practical verification
Customer and Complaint Response	Health impairment caused by verbal abuse, etc.	Posting of notices prohibiting abusive language, voice guidance, response manuals, and criteria for temporary business suspension	Article 41 of the Act, Article 41 of the Enforcement Rules
Workload and work patterns	Job stress, long working hours	Concentrated deadline periods, frequency of overtime, workload per person, availability of breaks	Article 669 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations (Relevant Work)
Rest facilities	Lack of rest	Whether rest facilities are provided and whether there are 20 or more people at all times are subject to compliance with installation and management standards.	Article 128-2 of the Act, Article 96-2 of the Enforcement Decree

Not all items meet the criteria for a statutory 'violation'. The guidelines consider risk factors for which exposure has been confirmed or reasonably foreseeable as subjects for evaluation, allowing only very minor ones to be excluded (Article 5-2 of the Guidelines). Therefore, it is advisable to include near misses and employee complaints as potential risk factors. The method for investigating musculoskeletal disorders in jobs involving prolonged PC work is Investigation of Musculoskeletal Hazards in Atypical Work | How to Divide Unit Work It was covered in.

🧭 5 Steps to Starting Office Workplace Risk Assessment

1) Determining Evaluation Units | Dividing by Floor, Zone, and Task

It is often said that it is difficult to define units for offices because there are no processes involved. However, it is sufficient to divide the work by floor area (office space, meeting rooms, break rooms, storage, entrances) and work type (general office work, customer service, field work/driving, facility management). Please include areas where outsourced personnel work, such as cleaning and security, within the scope, and share with the contract manager that the client and the contractor evaluate the work separately (Article 5 of the Guidelines).

2) Gathering Preliminary Data | Starting with Records of Accidents and Inconveniences

We collect industrial accidents and near misses from the past three years, repair requests from the facilities team, employee complaints, office floor plans, and fire and electrical inspection results from the building management. When referring to health checkup results, they are viewed only at the aggregate level, not on an individual basis.

3) A Round with Staff |巡回審査 + Short Survey

The revised enforcement rules stipulate that participation through workplace巡回 inspections is the principle and allow for the combined use of surveys and interviews (Article 37-2). If you tour each area with one or two employees for about 30 minutes and distribute a three-question survey asking all employees about "places that were inconvenient or where injury was near," a participation record and a list of risk factors are generated. The participation method and recording of opinions are Methods for Worker Participation in Risk Assessment and Standards for Recording Opinions Please refer to this.

4) Risk Determination | The checklist method or the three-step judgment method is realistic for offices

In addition to the frequency and intensity method, the guidelines recognize the checklist method, the three-level risk level (high, medium, low) assessment method, and the critical factor description method (Article 7, Paragraph 5). For offices where most risk factors are at a low or medium level, converting the table above into a checklist to assess them as 'adequate/needs improvement' or dividing them into three levels is a quick and easy method to explain. Please establish acceptable standards before starting.

5) Improvement, Sharing, Recording | Attach the person in charge and the deadline

Actions that can be taken immediately, such as organizing power strips, are processed promptly, while for items requiring a budget, such as replacing chairs or improving ventilation, a completion date is set with the relevant department. Results are announced via bulletin boards, email, and internal messenger notices, and records regarding the implementation period, person in charge, participants, and results are kept for three years. Implementation management is Risk Assessment Improvement Measure Implementation Management Register Excel If you do that, you can continue using it as is during the regular evaluation.

✅ Pre-start Checklist

Inspection items	Confirmation details	check
applied area	I checked whether the workplace consisted only of office workers or if field workers and outsourced personnel worked together.	□
Implementing Officer	We appointed a general manager and managers for each zone.	□
Judgment criteria	Evaluation methods (checklist, 3-step, etc.) and acceptable levels were determined.	□
Worker participation	We determined the participants for the巡回 inspection and the survey method, and established the participation method upon request from the employee representative.	□
Schedule sharing	The schedule was notified to the staff before implementation.	□
Sharing results	We determined the method to communicate risk factors, decision results, improvement measures, and implementation results.	□
Record preservation	We determined the record items (period, person in charge, participants, results) and the storage location for three years.	□
Next evaluation	The timing of regular evaluations and the method for verifying the reasons for ad-hoc evaluations (relocation, remodeling, organizational changes, etc.) have been determined.	□

🤝 The dangers of an office job are sometimes seen in the mind before the body.

When surveying office workers, it is common to find responses such as "no time to rest during deadlines" or "fear of complaint calls" more frequently than falling down. Manage issues that the organization must resolve, such as workload adjustments or response manuals, through improvement measures, while also recommending EAP psychological counseling for the stress and anxiety experienced by individuals. As a general rule, the usage status and content of the counseling should be managed separately from the risk assessment records.

❓ FAQ

Q1. Do we have to do the same for an office with 8 employees?

The obligation to implement is the same regardless of size. However, according to the guidelines, the preliminary preparation stage may be omitted for regular staff of fewer than 5, and simple methods such as the checklist method or the three-step judgment method may be used. The key elements are employee participation, sharing of results, and record retention for 3 years.

Q2. The management office is responsible for the building's common areas; should they be included in the evaluation?

Since stairs, entrances, and emergency exits used by our employees are also potential hazards, we recommend including them in the assessment and managing improvements through records of requests made to the management entity. Keeping a record of the request date and the response makes implementation management easier.

Q3. What if it has been several years since you founded the company but you have never done it?

Current enforcement rules stipulate that the initial evaluation must be conducted before work begins. If operations are already in progress, it is realistic to conduct the initial evaluation now and continue with regular annual evaluations starting next year. Now is a good time to establish a record-keeping system, as penalties have not yet been applied.

Q4. Should job stress also be included in the risk assessment?

The guidelines cover all reasonably foreseeable risk factors. If there is work involving high job stress, such as long working hours or customer interaction, it is recommended to address it in conjunction with the measures under Article 669 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations (e.g., factor evaluation and improvement, work-rest allocation).

👉 Next step

If job stress and the burden of customer service are identified in the office worker risk assessment, try preparing a counseling channel that employees can use comfortably.

Inquire about EAP Implementation →

📚 Source and Verification Criteria

This article is a practical reference to assist in the preparation of risk assessments for office-based workplaces. The risk factor table and checklist are examples and are not statutory forms. The regulations regarding administrative fines are based on revised standards effective January 1, 2027 (January 1, 2028 for workplaces with fewer than 50 employees). As the proposed amendment to the "Guidelines on Workplace Risk Assessment" is currently under administrative notice, please verify the finalized details. For matters requiring workplace-specific judgment, please consult the competent Regional Employment and Labor Office or the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. Date of legal verification: October 15, 2026.

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Comments4

Unknown User4

멀티탭 문어발이랑 통로에 쌓인 박스 얘기 공감이요ㅎㅎ 사무실 점검 돌면 제일 많이 나오는 게 그거더라구요

2026.10.20 10:22

Unknown User3

과태료가 50명 이상은 27년 1월부터라 아직 시간 있다고 생각했는데 근로자 참여랑 결과 공유는 지금부터 맞춰둬야겠네요

2026.10.19 11:18

Unknown User2

사무직만 있는 회사는 위험성평가 대상이 아닌 줄 알았는데 제36조는 빠지지 않는다는 거 처음 알았어요;;

2026.10.16 11:35

Unknown User1

사무실은 체크리스트법이나 3단계 판단법이 현실적이라는 부분 도움 됐어요. 빈도·강도 점수 매기려니 다 '낮음'만 나와서 고민이었거든요

2026.10.16 11:35

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Risk Assessment & Safety Management System

Getting Started with Office Workplace Risk Assessment | Easy-to-Overlook Risk Factors in the Office Space

Getting Started with Office Workplace Risk Assessment | Easy-to-Overlook Risk Factors in the Office Space

📌 Is a risk assessment required even if there are only office workers?

Changes in 2026

🔎 Easily Overlooked Risk Factors in Office Spaces

🧭 5 Steps to Starting Office Workplace Risk Assessment

1) Determining Evaluation Units | Dividing by Floor, Zone, and Task

2) Gathering Preliminary Data | Starting with Records of Accidents and Inconveniences

3) A Round with Staff |巡回審査 + Short Survey

4) Risk Determination | The checklist method or the three-step judgment method is realistic for offices

5) Improvement, Sharing, Recording | Attach the person in charge and the deadline

✅ Pre-start Checklist

🤝 The dangers of an office job are sometimes seen in the mind before the body.

❓ FAQ

Q1. Do we have to do the same for an office with 8 employees?

Q2. The management office is responsible for the building's common areas; should they be included in the evaluation?

Q3. What if it has been several years since you founded the company but you have never done it?

Q4. Should job stress also be included in the risk assessment?

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👉 Next step

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