Staffing Insurance

Three Essential Client Relation Tips

Posted on by Melvin

Staffing agencies act as the hub for relations and business between multiple parties. You deal with your internal employees, external staff, clients and contractors. Juggling all of these people and fulfilling responsibilities to each of them can be difficult, but that’s the job a recruiter is tasked with. Of all of these, your clients are likely the primary source of income, and accordingly they may be your top priority. Here are a few tips for managing client relations and reducing liabilities through staffing agency insurance.

Maintain Clear Communication

The greatest impediment to good relationship with clients is poor communication. In order to prevent misunderstandings, and the liability that can result, work towards your interactions with clients This means seeking feedback on a regular basis and making discussions more frequent and in-depth.

Send Them Great Staff

Your relationship with clients relies on your ability to provide staff that meets their needs. Failure to do so compromises your relationship and could even open the door to liability. To keep your relationship with clients on track, send them staff that is adequately trained and ready to do a great job.

Insure Against Client Suits

Even when you follow these guidelines, you can be vulnerable to legal action. In order to truly protect your agency, a staffing agency insurance policy is your best bet.

A Good Policy Offers Both Protection and Savings

Posted on by Melvin

No matter what size they are or whether they are near or far, virtually every company that offers employment consultation services wants to keep a lid on expense creep. While you can’t control how many clients will knock on your door requesting fill-in personnel each month, things like reducing operating costs, improving efficiency and productivity, and trimming overhead costs are definitely tactics that can help fatten the bottom line that are within your control. Temporary staffing insurance can be another opportunity to achieve savings, especially when you work with an experienced, professional insurance agent who is knowledgeable about the many providers in the industry and can provide guidance about the firms that can offer you the kind of program components you need, as well as ensure you are not overpaying for the protection—and yet select coverage that is well rounded to offer protection from the risks that are most common in your line of work.

Protection for a range of exposures

The policy offers coverage for companies that perform direct hire and personnel consulting services, including human resources consulting; career counseling; resume writing, and more. It also covers professional liability for the company, in-house staff, independent contractors that work directly for the business, as well as interns and volunteers in the event they are sued for wrongful acts, errors and omissions by either the potential or hiring employer, and/or by the employee who might be or is made responsible for the performance of services on either a direct-hire or consultant basis.

Talk to a professional about controlling costs

Getting good-quality temporary staffing insurance at a competitive price is best accomplished with the assistance of a professional insurance agent. Your agent will have access to top-rated carriers and can obtain quotes from several to ensure you are not sacrificing quality for savings—because a policy that doesn’t offer the right protection can cost you in the long run. Talk to an agent today to learn more about how to get the greatest bang for your buck.

Liability, Employment Practices and Temporary Staffing Insurance

Posted on by Melvin

While most businesses need a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, those in the staffing industry need to examine this type of coverage for any possible exclusion, and this is especially true of temp agencies. In addition to CGL coverage, they will benefit from other policies that directly relate to contract work and temporary staff employees.

 

Temporary staffing liability concerns

 

A temporary staffing agency, or any business using the services of a temp staff agency, needs temporary staffing insurance that covers liability issues. This will provide coverage for claims arising from “wrongful acts” of a temp employee, or independent contractor, within the scope of the duties of their job. This is the policy that fills any potential gaps in a CGL policy.

 

For example, if a temp agency places a temp worker at a place of business and the temp ends up causing an injury to another employee or anyone else on the premises, the agency will be covered by their temporary staffing liability policy but would not likely be covered by a CGL policy.

 

Employment Practices is also a vital insurance policy to have

 

Another important coverage that all companies, including staffing agencies, should have is employment practices, which is needed when an employee claims they were unfairly treated, whether it is harassment, discrimination, unfair hiring practices, or any claims that should primarily be investigated by the human resources department.

 

Screening job candidates properly is an important step in reducing employment practices claims for anyone looking to hire a new addition for their company. It is indeed important to find the right fit, but this is a process that may take time and should be performed properly. Staffing agencies must work hard to find workers who are not only qualified for the position, but will successfully assimilate into their new place of employment, therefore asking the right questions in the initial interview process is a prominent key to success.

 

The point of the interview process is to maximize the quality of information obtained from a candidate, which also requires an intimate knowledge of what can and cannot legally be asked of the applicant. By asking the wrong questions, the interviewer can leave the agency open to temporary staffing insurance risks as well as a myriad of liability concerns.

 

photo credit: Alan Cleaver cc

Job Placement and Temporary Staffing Insurance

Posted on by Melvin

The percentage of the workforce in temporary employment is somewhere between two and four percent, and for those looking for work these are encouraging statistics. Temp staffing companies rely on skilled individuals that can fill the gaps for clients who are experiencing a work shortage due to illness, vacations, and other reasons as to why regular employees are not able to report to work.

Temporary staffing insurance is a valuable product that enables these businesses to protect themselves when there are issues with temp workers, whether it is accidents occurring on the job, clients complaining that temp workers are responsible for financial losses, or injuries that require medical attention.

 

Full-time work can be difficult for experienced workers to find

 

While the job market may be improving, it’s a good thing that these jobs are available, because, for a lot of people, it may be the only work currently available. Lay-offs are still happening in major industries. Microsoft recently cut nearly 18,000 jobs. It’s dynamic, because people are moving around, which is a healthy thing rather than a situation where the whole job scene is very stagnant, where there are only a few routes available to get permanent jobs. The temp market is, at times, comparably less shaky than the full-time job market.
Low-wage workers share many of the problems that temporary workers experience in general. A lot of temps have had permanent jobs that are no more permanent or secure. The work conditions aren’t always particularly better. Very often with permanent jobs, like most temporary jobs, health coverage isn’t always available. So, temp work can look even more appealing because it can be a chance to graduate to become a permanent worker where health benefits may also be offered.
Some agencies specifically advertise that they recruit for temp-to-permanent jobs, whereas the actual rates of turnover to permanent jobs can be quite low. But there is something real and useful about that market niche – many companies today prefer to hire temporary workers over hiring permanent workers, because the cost and the risks of hiring permanent workers are often too high. In any case, the most successful temp agencies carry temporary staffing insurance to avoid costly losses due to everything from professional liability issues to injuries to their employees.

photo credit: Royal Sapien cc