When defining co-employment, we must consider a few things: the relationship between two or more employers and the legal rights with respect to them. In most employer/employee relationships, there are certain responsibilities that include paying wages, taxes, providing workers’ compensation, etc. As co-employment situations involve shared responsibilities, ensure you are protected with an Employment Practices Liability policy.
According to an article in Aquent, there are certain risks that come with co-employment and ways to manage those risks for hiring agencies. Here are a few solutions for co-employment risks.
- Cover your legal bases. Take the time to review with experts agreements for your staffing agency and independent contractors alike. This will not only establish the boundaries of the relationship but describe the responsibilities and liabilities.
- As a staffing company, control certain tasks and maintain employer status. Make sure to handle assign and reassign, set pay rates and benefits, provide general training, evaluate performance and provide counseling.
- Provide on-site supervision when hiring large numbers of contractors for a long period of time. To minimize risk, provide a project manager or supervisor to oversee contract workers. The reason that this reduces co-employment risk is because it shows that you, the staffing firm, are the primary employer.
- Be a reputable staffing firm. Make sure that your firm plays an active role in maintaining primary employer status. Continue to be financially sound, up to date with worker’s compensation and unemployment coverage and well-informed on the ropes of the business.
At World Wide Speciality Programs, we want to provide you with comprehensive coverage that protects your business from corporate security. We understand that the cyber world includes exposures to data breaches, identity fraud, and extortion threats and we want to keep your company safe from that. Our protection provides Cyber Liability to keep network security attacks at bay. For more information, call us today at 877.256.0468.