The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it changes in all areas, with a major impact on the workplace. Working from home has quickly gone from being an unconventional option to a commonplace situation in office-based jobs. During the confinement, many workplaces remained closed and telecommuting had to be implemented literally overnight in thousands of companies.
Now, this situation has already become a trend and, according to the latest studies of 2021, at present, almost three million employees telework in Spain, representing 14.7% of the total number of employed. In fact, the incidence of teleworking in Spain rose from 5% to 34% during the hardest times of the restrictions.
Faced with this new reality, many doubts arise regarding telework and insurance: What happens if my professional equipment is stolen from my home? What if my computer is hacked while I am at home? In this article we talk about ways to cover part of the risks of telecommuting, including computer cybersecurity. These are the 3 main options provided by insurance companies that offer protection in remote work:
Adaptation of office insurance to teleworking
Some insurance companies have opted to adapt to the times and extend, at no additional cost, the coverage of their office, commercial and SME or industrial multi-risk insurance policies.
One of the companies that offers facilities for the new reality of working from home is Liberty Seguros. In fact, the European subsidiary of the U.S. insurer has become popular in the last year for being a pioneer in offering continuous teleworking to its own employees. Similar is the case of Zurich, which has also adapted its policies to the home office world, since, in the company itself, in September, 95% of its Spanish staff worked from home. One more example that teleworking has arrived, in many cases, to stay.
What risks of teleworking are covered?
For the same reason, insurance companies have begun to cover those cases that were once exceptions and that now form part of the daily life of thousands of companies. These are the most common risks that are beginning to be covered by some companies:
– Protection of computer equipment
You leave your laptop charging at night and, due to a power disturbance, it is completely damaged, leaving it unusable. This is one of the situations that can also occur at home and, for this reason, some insurance policies extend their compensation for damage in this type of incident to the employee’s home. That yes, it is important that the material is property of the company and that the teleworker is in his habitual domicile.
– Occupational accidents in homes
Another of the coverages are occupational accidents that occur at the homes of employees who are teleworking and who are insured.
– Theft and damage
Coverage for theft or damage to objects found in the teleworker’s office.
Would you like your office insurance to be extended to the home to be prepared for teleworking? PIB Group Iberia can help you:
2. Inclusion of professional property in the homeowner’s policy
Another possibility for safer teleworking is to have protection from your home insurance. Although it is not up to the worker, but to the company, to insure the equipment it supplies, there are tens of thousands of cases of freelancers and entrepreneurs who are now facing a new situation in which their home has become an office.
For these cases, some companies have found mixed solutions, such as Zurich, which offers a policy that insures both home and business with the same product. Another example is MAPFRE, which has added new coverages to its home insurance related to computer assistance in teleworking. It now makes available to its policyholders small reports in which it issues recommendations on how to improve the functioning of the connection. It also makes it possible to guarantee the security of information to prevent cyber theft.
Do you need a home insurance with a technological aspect adapted to the times? We work with more than twenty companies: we will find the insurance that best suits your situation.
3. Cyber risks insurance: Telework and computer security
Today, the vast majority of companies have a part – if not all – of their business digitized. That is why we never tire of repeating how important it is to have cybersecurity insurance for companies. Indeed, it is essential, even if it is not a large company with hundreds of employees: in fact, small and medium-sized companies are often more vulnerable to cyberattacks. This is borne out by the statistics: 7 out of 10 cyberattacks occur in SMEs, with losses averaging around 50,000 euros.
With the spread of telecommuting, access to data is no longer only possible in the office and with the company’s own equipment. Therefore, it is more necessary than ever to take security measures, since teleworking increases vulnerability to potential cyber attacks. As this news item from El Confidencial explains, in 2019 only approximately 10% of companies (mostly medium or large) had this type of insurance. However, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of contracts has increased by up to 30%.
Cyber insurance is a reinforcement of the company’s cybersecurity and has a dual function: to prevent and, in the event of a cyberattack, to respond and protect the insured.
If you want to learn more about this type of protection, we invite you to consult our cyber risk insurance service where, as a brokerage, we can offer you the best cybersecurity policies on the market.
