Insurance and Telecommuting:

If you allow your employees to telecommute for your company, your employees made need to purchase additional insurance. In addition, if you provide your telecommuting employees with equipment, it is in your best interests to make sure that this equipment will be insured. If your current property and liability insurance insists that covered equipment must remain on your premises, you may need to purchase an additional policy to provide coverage for this equipment.

If you are opening your own home based business, there will be similar insurance requirements. In truth, it is almost impossible for a business to have too much insurance. While you may think that your current home insurance will cover your equipment, there may be large gaps in coverage, or the covered dollar amount may not be sufficient to replace your equipment should something happen.

Here are some important considerations for businesses with telecommuters, or home based businesses.

Worker's Compensation Insurance

Having a telecommuting employee can impact your worker's compensation insurance. Will your current plan provide coverage for employees that are working for you, out of their own home. In this instance, your employees may be considered as independent contractors, which would mean that they would no longer enjoy worker's compensation insurance.

While this may not be a large issue, if you require your employee's to travel, or work in the office part-time, this can create confusion for everyone involved. If you are not sure what type of coverage your current worker's compensation plan will provide your telecommuting employees, it is important to discuss this with your insurance representative. Don't wait for an incident to occur before finding out if your employee will be covered if they are injured on the job.

Property Insurance

Does your current property insurance plan stipulate that equipment must be on the premises for coverage? If this is the case, and you are supplying your employees with equipment, such as a computer, or other necessary equipment, you may need to purchase additional coverage. A laptop can cost more than $6000 and the majority of home insurance plans will only provide up to $2500 for a single incident of damage or theft. Before losing money on your equipment, make sure that it will be covered.

If you cannot provide coverage for your equipment, you may need to ask your telecommuting employees to provide their own equipment, such as a laptop or desktop computer. In this instance, it would be up to the employee to purchase additional coverage to ensure that the equipment could be replaced. If you are a home business owner, you would also need to take this step to protect your equipment.

As more people work from home, the necessity of making sure that you have enough insurance coverage is growing. Don't get caught in the cold without the coverage you need.

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