Your people get hurt somewhere you do not control.

Workers compensation

Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.

Without it — This is most of the premium and nearly all of the volatility, and the injuries happen under a client's supervision rather than yours.

Employment practices liability

Wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment claims brought by your own employees. General liability specifically excludes these.

Without it — Co-employment means a discrimination, harassment or wrongful termination claim arising at the client names you alongside them.

General liability

Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.

Without it — Your placed worker damages the client's property or injures a third party while working there.

Professional liability

Covers the advice, the drawing, the diagnosis. The work itself, rather than someone getting hurt on your premises.

Without it — Placing an unqualified or unvetted worker into a role that required screening is a service failure rather than an accident.

Crime & employee dishonesty

Theft by your own staff, funds transfer fraud, and the dishonesty bond a home care contract will ask you for by name.

Without it — Temporary staff are placed inside client premises with access to cash, stock and systems, and clients expect you to stand behind that.

Commercial auto

Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.

Without it — Where placed workers drive, whose policy responds is decided by contract long before it is decided by an adjuster.

Hired & non-owned auto

Covers vehicles the business does not own but its people drive on the job: rentals, and employees running errands in their own cars. Their personal auto policy will not cover a business trip, and the claim lands on the business. Pricing depends entirely on HOW it is bought: as an endorsement on a general liability policy we write, HNOA often costs a few hundred dollars; as a stand-alone (monoline) policy it runs $2,500 to $5,000, and association practitioner programs (CPH, CM&F and similar) generally cannot take the endorsement, so "add HNOA to my existing policy for $300-$800" is usually not a real option. A package carrying GL, professional liability and HNOA together is typically cheaper than the monoline.

Without it — Staff using their own vehicles between assignments create an exposure no fleet policy lists.

Cyber & tech E&O

Breach response, ransomware and the notification costs that follow. Technology errors and omissions sits on the same policy and covers the software or service itself failing a client, which is the half most tech companies find out about too late.

Without it — You hold identity documents, right-to-work evidence and payroll data for a workforce far larger than your own staff.

Umbrella & excess liability

Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.

Without it — A serious injury to a placed worker, or caused by one, moves past a primary limit.

Directors & officers

Protects the personal assets of the people running the company when they are sued over a management decision. It applies to private companies and nonprofit boards, not just public ones, which is a common and expensive misunderstanding.

Without it — Fast-growing agencies take on investors, lenders and regulatory scrutiny that reach the people running them personally.

Why is my workers compensation so expensive when I have no worksite?

Because the rate follows the work, not the office. Your payroll is classified by what the placed employee actually does, so an agency supplying warehouse and light industrial labor is rated as warehouse and light industrial. The uncomfortable part is that the injuries happen under a client's supervision, on their equipment, following their practices, and land on your experience modification. Which clients you accept is therefore an underwriting decision as much as a sales one.

What is co-employment and why does it matter to insurance?

It is the doctrine that a temporary worker can have two employers at once: you, who pay them, and the client, who directs them. It matters because it decides who gets sued. Employment claims arising at a client site routinely name the agency as well, which is why employment practices liability is not optional in this class, and why the indemnity wording in your client contracts deserves a proper read rather than a signature.

When a placed worker is hurt and the client is sued

The client contract says I indemnify them for everything. Is that normal?

It is common and it is frequently broader than your insurance. A blanket indemnity covering the client's own negligence is not something a standard policy backs, so signing it creates an obligation you cannot fund. This is worth negotiating rather than accepting. Mutual indemnity, or indemnity limited to your negligence, is a reasonable position and one most clients will accept if asked before the contract is signed rather than after a claim.

Does the type of labor I place change how placeable I am?

More than anything else. Clerical and professional placement is a broad, competitive market. Light industrial narrows it. Construction, roofing, heights, and anything involving heavy machinery narrows it sharply and prices accordingly, because the injury severity follows the work. Agencies drifting from one into the next without telling their broker is the most common way this class ends up with the wrong policy at the wrong price.

We place IT contractors and a client wants $10M of cyber from us. We have no servers. Why, and where do we get it?

Because your agreement makes you responsible for what your placed engineer does inside the client’s systems, and the client sizes the limit to their exposure rather than yours. A staffing firm with no environment of its own is underwritten on that agreement language and on the records it holds, not on servers it does not have. The limit is built as a primary policy plus an excess layer with an underwriter who reads the submission, and the marketplaces that declined you were never going to get there.

How $10M cyber and $5M tech E&O get placed

What does a staffing insurance application ask for?

The applications for staffing businesses ask about 4 things above all: what is your legal business name and any other names you've operated under; how much of your work is commercial, residential, industrial, municipal, or government; do you have a formal safety and training program; have you ever had a claim or loss under an errors and omissions or liability policy. Have your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs and a sample customer contract showing what you agree to do and what the customer agrees to ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.