Vargas & Vargas Insurance

1133 Washington St
Dorchester, MA 02124

 Get Directions

Changing Your Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Virtual Work: How to Protect Your Business

When employees shift to working from a remote location, the scope of the normal rules become complicated and confusing. Several legal nuances arise when employees work remotely, especially regarding cybersecurity and injuries to both employees and clients. Despite the notable perks of allowing employees to work from home, there are potential liabilities to consider. That’s where modifying your business’s workers’ compensation coverage for virtual work may come in.

man videoconferencing with co-workers as he works from home

There are measures that you need to take to minimize the liabilities and to ensure that your business and employees working from home are protected. These include:

  • Ensuring the employees’ homes are safe for business
  • Designating a dedicated work area
  • Ensuring their homeowner policy is updated
  • Protecting their devices from intrusion
  • Creating a telecommuting policy and informing the employees that telecommuting is a privilege
  • Reviewing your insurance

Most business owners believe that the homeowner’s insurance policy covers them, but it is not always the case. Therefore, it is important to review your insurance policy as a way of protecting your business. 

How Extra Coverage Can Help Protect Your Business

Additional business insurance policies can also help in covering potential lawsuits, workplace injuries, and office assets.

You need to obtain the right home-based business liability coverage and extra protection besides your workers’ compensation coverage. Business liability insurance is meant to protect your remote employees. The right coverage for your remote employees is vital in mitigating your business risks.

Accidents occur during work, and they can easily occur in the home. Along with ensuring your workers’ compensation coverage for virtual work is up to par, you need to ensure your employee’s work environment is safe. Employees working from home have the same compensation benefits as those working from the office.

You might need extra coverage in your business’s insurance policy to protect its assets, such as laptops. This is because your existing insurance policy may not cover losses relating to damages at the employee’s home.

Also, it’s important to verify that your employees’ home insurance adequately covers your employees who are working from home. Therefore, you need to modify the employee’s insurance policies and the coverage policies of the business.

You may be held liable for injury to anyone other than the employee in the home office. In this regard, it is important to confirm with your insurance company whether your public liability insurance covers home offices.

How You Can Get Started

Vargas & Vargas Insurance is one of the premier local independent insurance agencies — we work for our clients and not the insurance company. We will customize your insurance coverage to your specific needs at the right price, and we are here to answer all of your insurance questions. Contact us today to get the right protection for you and your business.

Read More

Keep Your Homeowner Policy Safe

Dangers are abound in even the simplest of repair situations, so steer clear of the contractor’s work zone. 

When you hire the right contractor to do repairs or renovations or maintenance at your home, you want to maintain a respectful distance from their work area.

The contractor has been trained and, through long experience, knows how to maintain a safe work zone for themselves.  When you intrude across the boundaries of that zone, you introduce an unexpected variable in the contractors work process.

And that is when it can get messy. Be prudent when you’re hiring a contractor. How?

Request evidence of insurance. 

Speaking of safety and experience, don’t forget to collect the necessary certificates of insurance from your contractors. If anything happens on your property, you don’t want to give anyone any reason to abnegate responsibility to seek remedy for their injuries under YOUR homeowners insurance policy. 

Yes, you read that right.

If your state doesn’t require Workers Compensation coverage, the Homeowners policy could apply to cover lawsuits filed by an injured worker or to pay for medical expenses incurred if they don’t file a lawsuit. 

While the work area may appear to you to be perfectly safe, it is after all, your house and you know your house better than anyone, you still cannot anticipate hazards known all too well to the contractor through their possible training and experience. 

Respect the contractors’ work zone and, if you have a coffee or other tasty treats to share, let the contractor know where you’ve placed it easily accessible in your kitchen.  Then the contractor can enter the work zone and you can be comfortable the premises are safe.

Please schedule a call with us to discuss the very complicated process of your homeowners policy being exposed compared to the contractors’ workers compensation policy.

You want to ensure that your homeowners policy is updated and accurate to protect you in the event hired workers do not provide proof of insurance.

Read More

Servicing States

  • Massachusetts

Testimonials


More Testimonials

Partner Carriers

  • Arbella Insurance
  • Commerce
  • Mass Property
  • New London County Mutual
  • Norfolk and Dedham
  • Pilgrim
  • Plymouth Rock
  • Safety
  • Travelers
  • Vermont Mutual