Staffing agencies insurance checklist: what a staffing agency should carry

The staffing agency insurance checklist

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Staffing agencies usually carry workers' compensation, general liability and professional liability (e&o). Staffing agencies employ people who work at clients' sites, which makes workers' compensation the largest policy and the largest question, with employment and third-party crime claims close behind. The client's vendor desk and your landlord ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a staffing agency for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Banks, lenders & SBA loans	Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Crime declarations. Employee theft, forgery, funds-transfer fraud and social engineering each have their own limit; third-party coverage if you work in clients' premises.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Umbrella schedule of underlying insurance. Each primary policy listed with the limits the umbrella expects; a gap between the two is uninsured.
Bonds. The obligee (board, municipality or owner), the penal sum and the expiry date; a bond is renewed with the licence or the job, not with the policy year.

What usually goes wrong for staffing agencies

Temporary workers placed in jobs the workers' compensation policy was never rated for.
Client contracts shifting every injury and theft at their site to the agency.
A workers' compensation estimate set low in January and settled with a large audit bill in the spring.
A retroactive date that moved when you switched carriers, cutting off earlier work.
Contracts with indemnity clauses wider than the policy will support.
Damage to the exact thing you are working on is excluded on most general liability forms; installation floaters and care, custody and control endorsements fill that hole.

What underwriters will ask a staffing agency

Workers placed by job type and client, payroll, client contract terms, and screening practice
Payroll by class of work, headcount and turnover
Services, largest engagement size and the contracts you sign
Claims-made retroactive date and any prior claims or circumstances
Residential versus commercial split of the work
Whether any work is done above three stories or below grade

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Audits at year end compare payroll, receipts and subcontractor costs with the estimate, so keep the wallet's size figures and the subcontractor certificates current. Start comparing sixty days before expiration, and ask for the limits the next contract will need rather than the ones the last one did.

Questions people actually ask

Why is workers' compensation so hard for staffing agencies?

Because the agency's employees work in other people's hazards, and the class codes follow the client's work. Carriers want the client list, the job types and the safety practice; alternate-employer endorsements for clients are standard.

What do client contracts usually demand?

Workers' compensation with alternate-employer and waiver endorsements, general liability naming the client, third-party crime, professional liability and sometimes an umbrella. The contract checker in the wallet reads each one.

Can workers' compensation be billed from each payroll run?

Usually, yes. With carriers that offer pay-as-you-go, CoverMatch sets the billing to run through your payroll company, so premium follows actual payroll instead of an annual estimate and there is less to settle at audit. Ask for it on the quote request.

What is a retroactive date on an E&O policy?

The date before which no work is covered. On a claims-made policy you want it to stay at the day you first bought coverage, not reset at each renewal or carrier change. CoverMatch checks it on every quote comparison because it is the difference between covering ten years of work and one.

Does general liability cover damage to a customer's property while I work on it?

It covers damage to the rest of their property, not usually the part in your hands. Many forms exclude property in your care, custody or control, so a staffing agency that handles valuable items or systems needs an endorsement or an installation floater. The policy explainer in the wallet flags the exclusion when it reads your policy.