Every office in the country needs to implement Health and Safety procedures, whether they are in banking or recruitment, IT or even charitable organisations.

Macmillan Cancer Relief is one such charity. For almost 100 years now they have organised events and fund raising activities to finance its research. This has contributed to huge advancements in screening, diagnosis and the treatment of cancer sufferers.

In the first year that the charity operated its information line, they helped over 11,000 people. By 2005, they were paying a total of 3,500 nurses, doctors, radiographers, dieticians and occupational therapist among others. All this with funding entirely from voluntary donations.

With their on-going fight against the disease that as many as one in three of us will be diagnosed with in our lifetime, they are very hot on the fact that office based staff still need to implement Health and Safety procedures. How do they find the time to arrange this when you think of that amount of staff and the sheer time stealing it would involve?

And is it fair that they should lose such a vast amount of man hours with Health and Safety seminars when their time is better spent in the fight against this terrible disease?

Macmillan has found, like many other office based companies, that this is not necessary. They have put into practice the new method of E Learning by encouraging all their employees to take part in the on line training programme.

E Learning is a method of teaching all types of industries about Health and Safety in the workplace. Wherever a VDU is operated there are other factors to take into consideration, such as monitor position as well as seating position. These are all factors that contribute towards ill health and stress within the working environment.

E Learning can teach recommended Health and Safety procedures to all users of this equipment without the need for costly seminars or lost work days. It is carried out in short bites of time, at a pace that suits the employer and employee. For the company to have proof that it has complied with current laws, a certificate is available at the end of the course.

This has to be a vital aid to business as well as charities. The banking industry is also very fond of this type of training. Finance is of huge importance to everyone and sensible use of time and money is essential.

Once risk assessment has been carried out and training put into practice, many work days are re-gained without employees having time off for problems like repetitive strain injury and stress - the biggest killer of all.

Any company interested in saving time and money on Health and Safety Training should consider the practicality of e-learning, how it fits in to the individual business and the impact of reducing workers sick time through stress and strain.