A property review for a staffing firm has to answer two separate questions: What would it cost to repair or replace the firm’s property, and how long could damage to that property keep the business from running normally? Agents who arrange staffing firm insurance need both answers. The first sets property values, and the second drives business interruption planning. A firm can carry accurate values on every desk and laptop and still run short of cash during a long recovery.
What Property Should Agents Account For?
Start with an inventory of what the firm owns today rather than a carryover of last year’s figures. For a staffing firm, the list can include office furniture, workstations, laptops and tablets, servers and networking equipment, phones, printers, supplies, and the building itself if the firm owns it. Branch offices belong on the list, too, along with anything purchased since the values were last set.
Values fall out of date when operations change. Ask the client whether it has opened, moved, or closed a branch; bought equipment for a new service line or a growing internal team; or upgraded its technology since the last review. Then ask whether the current values reflect those changes. A firm that relocated its headquarters and refit the new space may be carrying contents values that describe the old office.
Property values feed the limits that cap the firm’s recovery after a physical loss such as fire, theft, or vandalism, subject to the policy’s terms. Fire alone produces a steady volume of commercial losses. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, U.S. nonresidential buildings experienced an estimated 110,000 fires in 2023, resulting in about $3.2 billion in losses.
How Long Could an Interruption Last?
Damage that closes an office also stalls the work that produces revenue: recruiting, onboarding, payroll processing, and client invoicing. Staffing adds a wrinkle. Workers already on assignment may keep reporting to client sites, so the firm may still need to run payroll and billing from somewhere while recruiting slows and new orders go unfilled.
The indemnity period frames how long the firm may need help. In plain terms, it’s the stretch after an insured event when the firm may be unable to operate fully and may need financial support to meet its ongoing expenses. Policy forms differ in what they call that period, when it starts and ends, and how it’s limited, so compare the wording against the recovery timeline the client describes.
Work through the timeline with the client:
- Disruption: How long might normal operations stop or slow, counting the time to secure temporary space, replace equipment, and restore systems and data?
- Continuing costs: Which expenses would keep running during the shutdown, such as rent, internal salaries, software subscriptions, and loan payments?
- Restart needs: What would the firm need to resume normal service, and what would those steps cost?
The answers point to different coverages. Property coverage addresses physical damage to the firm’s property. Business income coverage addresses lost income and continuing expenses during a covered interruption, and extra expense coverage pays additional costs above normal operating expenses that the firm incurs to keep operating while its property is repaired or replaced. Each one responds only to covered causes of loss and within its own terms and limits.
Assess Property and Recovery Needs Together
A single fire at a branch office produces two separate bills. Repairing or replacing desks, laptops, and servers draws on the property values. The income lost and the expenses incurred during the weeks when the office can’t operate normally depend on the recovery timeline. An agent can price the first from inventory, but the second requires a conversation with the client about how the business would continue to run.
Review both at the same meeting, especially when the client opens or relocates an office, acquires equipment, or revisits its numbers at renewal. Treating values and downtime as one discussion keeps staffing firm insurance tied to the way the firm operates today. The same approach carries across the rest of a firm’s property, inland marine, and business income risks.
Contact us today to review property values and interruption planning for your staffing insurance accounts.
About World Wide Specialty Programs
For the last 50 years, World Wide Specialty Programs has dedicated itself to providing the optimal products and solutions for the staffing industry. As the only insurance firm to be an ASA commercial liability partner, we are committed to that partnership and are committed to using our knowledge of the industry to provide staffing firms with the best possible coverage. For more information about Staffing Professional Liability Insurance or any other coverage we have available to protect your staffing business, give us a call at (877) 256-0468 to speak with one of our representatives.