The coronavirus pandemic has brought changes across the board, 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 teleworking had to be implemented literally overnight in thousands of companies.
Now, this situation has become a trend and, according to the latest studies from 2021, almost three million employees are currently teleworking in Spain, representing 14.7 % of the total number of employed people. In fact, the incidence of telework in Spain increased from 5% to 34%. during the hardest times of restrictions.
This new reality raises many questions about telework and insurance: What happens if my professional equipment is stolen at home, or if I have an accident at work, or if my computer is hacked into while I am at home? In this article we discuss ways to cover some of the risks of teleworking, including cybersecurity. Here are the 3 main options offered by insurance companies offering protection for remote working:
1. 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 policies. office insurance, for businesses and SMEs or industrial multi-risk.
One of the companies offering facilities for the new reality of working from home is Liberty Seguros. In fact, the European subsidiary of the US insurance company has become popular in the last year as a pioneer in offering continuous teleworking. to its own employees. Similar is the case with Zurich, which has also adapted its policies to the world of home office, In September, 95 % of the company's Spanish workforce worked from home. This is yet another example that teleworking is, in many cases, here to stay.
What risks of telework are covered?
For this very reason, insurance companies have begun to cover those cases that used to be 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 overnight and, due to a power disturbance, it is completely damaged, rendering 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 worker's home. However, it is important that the equipment is the property of the company and that the teleworker is at home.
- Occupational accidents at home
Another cover is occupational accidents that occur in the homes of employees who are teleworking and who are insured.
- Theft and damage
Coverage of theft or damage to objects in the office of the person teleworking.
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 employer. household insurance. While 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 where their home has become an office.
For these cases, some companies have found mixed solutions, Zurich, for example, offers a policy that insures both home and business with the same product. Another example is MAPFRE, which has added new coverage for your 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. In addition, it guarantees 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-risk insurance: Telework and IT security
Today, the vast majority of companies have a part - if not all - of their business digitised. That is why we never tire of repeating how important cybersecurity insurance for companies is. Indeed, it is essential, even if you are not a large company with hundreds of employees: in fact, small and medium-sized companies are often more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This is borne out by the statistics: 7 out of 10 cyber attacks occur in SMEs, 50,000, with losses averaging around 50,000 euros.
With the spread of working from home, access to data is no longer always only possible in the office and with the company's own equipment. It is therefore more necessary than ever to be extremely secure, because teleworking increases vulnerability to potential cyber attacks. As this news from El Confidencial, In 2019, only about 10 % of companies (mostly medium or large) had such insurance in place. However, Since the outbreak of the pandemic, recruitment has increased by up to 30 %.
Cyber insurance is a reinforcement of the company's cyber security and has a dual function: to prevent and, should a cyber attack still occur, to respond and protect the insured.
If you would like to know more about this type of protection, we invite you to consult our service of cyber risk insurance where, as a brokerage, we can offer you the best cybersecurity policies on the market.
