Staffing Agency Insurance

Coverage for temporary, direct-hire, PEO, EOR, and specialty staffing firms

Staffing agencies carry a risk profile unlike almost any other business. You are the legal employer of people who work every day on someone else's premises, under someone else's supervision, doing work that ranges from clerical to heavy industrial. That dual-employment structure — you hold the payroll, the workers' compensation, and the hiring liability while your client controls the worksite — sits at the center of every staffing exposure, and standard business policies are not built for it.

Getting a staffing program right means insuring the placement, not just the office: matching coverage to the occupations you place, the contracts you sign, and the states you operate in.

The Coverages That Define a Staffing Program

A staffing insurance program is a coordinated stack, not a single policy:

Workers' Compensation — the largest single cost and the defining exposure. Premium is driven by the class codes of the workers you place, not your office staff, so accurate classification and a well-managed experience modifier are everything. Firms placing workers in North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, or Wyoming also need employer's-liability "stop-gap" coverage, because those monopolistic states do not include it.

Professional Liability (E&O) — responds to claims of negligent placement: failing to screen a worker, misrepresenting a candidate's qualifications, or placing someone unqualified for the role, where the client suffers a financial loss as a result.

Employment Practices Liability (EPLI) — wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims brought by your own internal and placed employees. Third-party EPLI extends it to claims by your client's staff. It is a leading loss driver in staffing, and where biometric time-clocks are used, watch for the BIPA/biometric exclusion many EPLI forms carry.

General Liability — third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations and, critically, from the acts of the workers you place.

Crime & Third-Party Fidelity — placed workers routinely gain access to a client's cash, banking systems, wire transfers, and sensitive data. Third-party crime coverage protects the client — and your relationship with them — when a placed employee steals.

Cyber Liability — you hold PII on every worker (Social Security numbers, bank details) and often handle client data and PHI, making a breach both likely and expensive.

Abuse & Molestation — essential when you place staff in daycare centers, schools, or facilities caring for the elderly or infirm.

Hired & Non-Owned / Commercial Auto — for placed drivers and any use of vehicles on assignment, backed by disciplined motor-vehicle-record checks.

Employee Benefits Liability and Umbrella / Excess Liability — round out the program for benefits-administration errors and severe, high-limit claims.

Staffing Models We Place

Cory Washington & Co. places the full spectrum of workforce models:

Temporary and temp-to-hire staffing — light industrial, clerical, seasonal, and project-based placements.

Direct hire and permanent placement — recruiting and search, where E&O for the quality of the placement matters most.

Payrolling and Employer of Record (EOR) — where you become the W-2 employer of workers sourced elsewhere.

PEO and employee leasing — co-employment arrangements that share HR, benefits, and workers' comp responsibility with the client, and are underwritten very differently from traditional staffing.

Administrative Services Organization (ASO) and VMS / MSP programs — for firms managing payroll administration or a vendor pool for larger clients.

Specialty and Higher-Hazard Placements We Handle

Difficult and previously-declined staffing risks are core to our work. We place programs for firms that specialize in:

Healthcare and medical staffing — travel nurses, allied-health and rehabilitation therapists, and facility placements (physicians and dentists are excluded in most markets).

Driver and transportation staffing — including CDL and long-haul placements, where motor-vehicle-record discipline and the client's auto arrangements decide insurability.

Security staffing — unarmed guard placements (armed guard classes are handled through specialty markets).

Construction and skilled-labor staffing — trades placed on active jobsites, where the client's supervision and jobsite-safety controls are central to underwriting.

Light and heavy industrial, warehouse, and manufacturing staffing — the highest-frequency workers' comp classes, where class-code accuracy protects you at audit.

IT, clerical and administrative, hospitality, and finance and accounting placements — lower-hazard classes that still carry professional, EPLI, and crime exposure.

Some placements — oil and gas, cannabis, maritime and shipyard work, and clinical-trial recruiting among them — need dedicated specialty markets. We know which carriers write them and how to present the account.

What Underwriters Actually Evaluate

Because a standard policy does not automatically treat placed workers as insureds, underwriters lean heavily on your controls and your contracts:

Client contracts — a hold-harmless agreement running in your favor, primary-and-non-contributory and additional-insured requirements, and waivers of subrogation all shift risk between you and the client, and the policy has to match what you have signed.

Screening and HR discipline — employment applications, documented handbooks with at-will language, written harassment and discrimination policies, and criminal-background and prior-employment checks.

Workers' comp fundamentals — accurate class codes for every placement, a current experience modifier, and clean, currently-valued loss runs.

The special-employer / general-employer split — who directs the work, who supervises the jobsite, and who trains workers on equipment such as forklifts, cranes, and scaffolding.

What's Commonly Overlooked

Staffing programs most often fail at these points:

Workers' comp coded to the office rather than the actual placement, producing painful audit assessments.

No third-party coverage under EPLI or Crime, leaving claims brought by the client's own people uninsured.

Contracts that promise "primary and non-contributory" coverage the policy does not actually grant.

Certificates and additional-insured status that don't match what the client's contract requires.

Biometric (BIPA) exposure from time-clock technology, quietly excluded on many forms.

Placed drivers with no hired-and-non-owned auto coverage behind them.

These gaps usually surface only at a claim, a contract dispute, or a premium audit.

Our Approach

At Cory Washington & Co., we treat staffing as the specialty class it is. We map your placement mix by occupation, read your client contracts for the risk they actually transfer, and pressure-test your workers' comp classifications before we market the account — then place general liability, professional liability, EPLI, workers' comp, crime, cyber, and auto with carriers that genuinely understand co-employment. Licensed in all 50 states, we build one coordinated program so your protection follows your people onto every worksite, and we explain the trade-offs in plain English.

Related coverage: Workers' Compensation · Employment Practices Liability · Professional Liability · Crime · Cyber · Hired & Non-Owned Auto.

All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

Available in all 50 states. See how requirements differ in California, Texas, Florida, New York, or choose your state.