Safety briefings: scheduled and evidenced per person

The basic rule is set out in Section 12 of the German Occupational Safety and Health Act (ArbSchG). The employer has to brief employees sufficiently and appropriately during their working time, namely on hiring, on changes in their duties, and on the introduction of new work equipment or a new technology - in each case before the work begins. For a system, these are four events that can be detected from existing data. There is also a sentence that is often overlooked: the briefing has to be adapted to changes in the hazards and repeated regularly where necessary. Under Section 12 (2), in the case of temporary agency work the obligation lies with the hirer, that is the company where the person actually works.

Fixed repetitions are only prescribed by the more specific regulations. The German Hazardous Substances Ordinance (GefStoffV) requires in Section 14 (2) that the briefing is given before employment starts and at least annually thereafter, related to the specific workplace; content and date have to be recorded in writing and confirmed by the persons briefed with their signature. The Industrial Safety Regulation (BetrSichV) sets the same rhythm for the use of work equipment in Section 12 (1): a briefing before first use, then at least once a year, with the date and the names of those briefed recorded in writing. The accident prevention regulation DGUV Regulation 1 likewise requires in Section 4 (1) a repetition at least once a year and documentation.

It gets tighter for young workers. Under Section 29 (2) of the German Young Persons Protection of Employment Act (JArbSchG), briefings have to be repeated at appropriate intervals, but at least every six months. Under Section 2 (2), a young person within the meaning of that act is anyone who is 15 but not yet 18 years old. For the matrix this means that the interval depends not only on the topic but also on the person, and it changes on a key date that follows from the date of birth. An apprentice who comes of age in spring moves into the rhythm of the other regulations from that day on - provided the system knows her date of birth and calculates with it, instead of someone having to remember it in spring.

The table is not a legal commentary but a working basis. It records which rule applies to which topic, and it separates two things that tend to blur in spreadsheets: the trigger that causes a first briefing and the interval that determines the repetition. Which further topics a company tracks, and at what interval, follows from the risk assessment and from the accident prevention regulations of the responsible statutory accident insurer. These values belong in the rule as parameters, not in a cell as a comment. Where more than one rule applies to a person, the matrix as a rule follows the shortest interval: a young worker handling hazardous substances is then briefed every six months, not annually.

Every trigger in Section 12 ArbSchG has a data source. Hiring appears in the HR master data as soon as the contract is entered, often some time before the first working day. A change in duties appears there as a transfer, a new cost centre or a new job title. New work equipment appears in the asset register or in maintenance as soon as it is inventoried, and new hazardous substances appear in the substance register before they arrive in the warehouse. These entries exist in almost every company. They are simply not passed on to the briefing list, because there is no connection between the systems.

The connection is technically unspectacular. A synchronisation at fixed intervals or a notification on change is enough to turn an event in the source system into an open entry in the matrix. We describe the same pattern for access and permissions in account access when staff join and leave: an HR event triggers a sequence of tasks instead of someone working through a checklist. How such data paths between HR, asset and planning systems are built is described under data integration. It is important that the matrix only reads: it takes over hire date, activity and date of birth, and it writes nothing back to the HR master data.

On the asset side it is worth looking at the relationship with inspection deadlines. A new machine gets its inspection dates in the asset register; via its location and the assigned activities, the same machine triggers the briefing of the people who are to operate it. How inspection deadlines for work equipment and installations are tracked digitally is described in tracking inspection deadlines without paper. The difference is the perspective: there it is about the device and its condition, here about the people who work with it and what they know.

The same workflow applies to agency workers, with a different source. They are often not in the company's own HR master data but in a list kept by purchasing or dispatch. Because the obligation to brief lies with the hirer, they also belong in the matrix - with start of assignment, activity and end of assignment. The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly requires the qualification and experience of the workers provided to be taken into account. With short assignments in particular, the briefing before the first working day easily slips into the first quiet week, and during peak season that week never comes.

A matrix that only displays information is a better archive. It becomes effective through notifications in the right place at the right time. The first goes to the line manager in advance: which briefings in their area will fall due in the coming weeks? The second goes to the occupational safety specialist: which are overdue, and in which areas do they accumulate? The third is the most important and hopefully the rarest. It appears where someone is scheduled for an activity for which a briefing is missing.

This third notification belongs in shift planning. When scheduling, the roster asks whether the qualification is valid on the day of the shift, and the matrix supplies the answer. Whether a missing briefing blocks or warns is a company decision taken in advance: triggers for which the law requires the briefing before the work begins argue for a block. A routine repetition due in a few days argues rather for a notice. We build the invitations, reminders and notifications themselves as an automation on top of the existing landscape, described under process automation.

Three indicators are enough for evaluation at the start: the share of overdue briefings per area, the number of assignments where a briefing was missing before the work began, and the time between hire and first briefing. The first shows the status, the second the risk, the third whether the triggers fire in time. All three come from the matrix itself, without additional data entry. Anyone who looks at them monthly will quickly see whether an area is structurally lagging behind or whether a single appointment was missed.

One point belongs on the agenda early: a matrix that records briefings per person and reports gaps touches on questions of co-determination, both in occupational safety and in the question of which evaluations of employees are possible. How such involvement works in practice is described in involving the works council in IT projects. Experience shows that agreement is easier if it is laid down in writing from the start that the matrix keeps evidence and reports due dates but does not assess performance.

The path from spreadsheet to matrix can be taken in stages, and the first stage does not change anything in the workflow yet. It only shows how big the gap is. To do this, the existing lists, spreadsheets and binders are transferred once into the structure of person, activity, topic and date. This step alone shows which evidence is missing, which dates are overdue and which people do not appear on any list. That overview makes it obvious which trigger should be connected first - in many companies it is hiring, because that is where the briefing before the work begins most easily slips through.

To put the effort in context: a process analysis starts at 1,900 EUR net, delivery per automation or interface at 4,900 EUR net, ongoing support at 190 EUR net per month. Prices as of September 2026. The ongoing services can be cancelled monthly; there is no minimum term. The overview is available under pricing, and a first conversation can be arranged via contact. From the same week: unused leave at year end: the employer's notice before it lapses for another duty that needs evidence per person, and verification of payee in supplier payment runs for checked workflows in accounting.