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Recruitment industry insurance

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Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Recruitment industry insurance – why is it important?

In the recruitment industry you interact with people all the time, which comes with risks – protecting your business is an important consideration. Would you have the funds ready to cover a claim? Our policies start with public liability insurance for third party accidents and injuries – then you can build from there.

  • liability insurance for recruitment companies, including public and employee risks
  • compare cover from expert UK brands and protect your business
  • rated 4.7/5 based on 39K+ public liability customer reviews

Start your quote

What does Recruitment industry insurance cover?

The first cover to consider is usually public liability insurance, which covers you if a member of the public gets injured or loses out financially and blames your business. Then you can add other covers to a policy that protect against the different risks that recruitment companies face.

Public liability insurance

In case your business and products cause an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for recruitment companies?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, because of your business
  • injuries or illness caused by your business activities
  • an employee (if you have any) accidentally damages property or causes injury

For example:

  • a client is injured by a forklift operator while visiting your business, and makes a claim against you
  • a maintenance professional slips on your shop floor following a spillage, fracturing their knee
  • your employee uses a new product with a client, and they have an allergic reaction to it

**If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.**

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your recruitment company

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an injury to someone you employ, including contractors and temps, that happens as a result of working for you
  • a member of staff (including casual workers) falling ill due to your business

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • one of your employees falls down some stairs in your business premises, and makes a claim against you for chronic shoulder pain
  • a temporary employee traps their hand in a door at your premises, causing several fractures
  • a member of staff trips on a ledge on their way to a meeting, injuring their hip

Professional indemnity

In case a client loses money because of your advice, services or designs.

What’s typically covered by recruitment company professional indemnity insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • mistakes in the advice you give, which lead to a financial loss for your client
  • errors in your certification services that mean a client loses out financially
  • negligence in your advice or services that becomes costly for your client

For example:

  • your advice on improving a client’s business performance leads to a financial loss for them
  • you deliver the wrong certification and training that’s costly for your client to fix
  • you make a mistake in a client’s tax return that leads to an HMRC fine

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Contents insurance

In case something happens to your fixtures, fittings, or operational equipment.

What’s typically covered by business contents insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • accidental damage or destruction caused by flood, fire, theft, or vandalism
  • cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

For example:

  • your bespoke wooden display units and decorative items are damaged by flooding, and need restoring or replacing
  • a fire causes serious damage to your premises, and you need to replace all your office furniture
  • someone breaks into your business premises and steals the office printer

Read more about business contents insurance

Business legal insurance

In case you’re hit with legal expenses connected to your recruitment company

Claims against your business for:

  • VAT disputes
  • theft of your company’s identity illegally
  • compensation under data protection legislation

For example:

  • HMRC is investigating your VAT affairs, triggered by seemingly incorrect figures on your return
  • a fraudster steals your company’s bank details and buys goods to set up a new line of credit with banks or retailers
  • a client is claiming you didn’t process their data in accordance with GDPR, and is seeking compensation

Read more about business legal insurance

Excess insurance

In case you need to make a claim on your insurance policy.

What's typically covered by excess insurance?

Claims made by you for:

  • when you make a claim on a cover included in your recruitment company insurance policy, you won’t need to pay excess

For example :

  • strong winds cause severe damage to the roof of your property – you don’t have to pay the £250 excess thanks to your excess insurance
  • a guest accidentally breaks a television during their stay at your property and thanks to your excess insurance, you don’t need to pay excess on the claim
  • a guest’s child trips on a loose carpet and breaks their arm – they claim compensation and you don’t pay excess due to your excess insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does recruitment industry insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £3.19 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

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10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

No excess

£750

Employers' liability

No excess

No excess

Contents

£200

£4,000

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

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How do insurance claims work for recruitment companies?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims team any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of 5 back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their insurance.

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  • Rated 4.7/5

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Recruitment industry insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about insurance for off licences. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work.

    If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

  • Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

  • You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

    • one-off credit or debit card payment
    • BACS payment
    • Direct Debit

    If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly installments.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

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