When you build a workforce in your business, your employees will be your biggest assets. However, they are also your biggest liabilities, in many ways. That’s particularly true when employees become problems for the business’s reputation. Employee misconduct or dishonesty is something that might happen, as much as you try to avoid it. However, to protect yourself from the ramifications of such actions, you might need employee dishonesty insurance. Here’s how it works within your greater insurance portfolio. 
There’s a lot of ways that your employee dishonesty insurance can help you. However, you want to avoid these occurrences at all costs. Therefore, make sure you take proper safety steps whenever you plan to add employee to your company roster.
The Effects of Employee Dishonesty
As a business owner, you want your employees to represent the best of the company. However, it doesn’t matter how many rules you have in place, anyone who sets out to cause a problem for the business can do so.
Though you trust your employees, the fact is they might commit criminal acts for their own reasons. They might steal money or other products from the business. Or, they might attempt to defraud the company, commit forgery or similar actions or steal private computer data. What’s worse, the losses might not only impact the business, but also customers.
As a result, you might find yourself facing a considerable financial loss, not to mention a public relations disaster. Even if you catch the perpetrator, there is no guarantee that you will be able to undo all the damage and recover the money lost. However, insurance might be able to help.
How Your Insurance Can Help You
There is a particular type of business insurance, called employee dishonesty coverage, that can help you out when the worst occurs.
In many cases, this coverage can come as part of your business owners policy, or BOP. It’s often the most-efficient way for a small business owner to get this coverage. However, if the BOP does not automatically include coverage for employee dishonesty, then you might be able to add it into the policy through a particular endorsement.
Policies will vary in what acts of employee dishonesty they will cover, and at what limits.
- In many cases, the coverage can extend to almost all full-time, part-time and seasonal employees, in addition to independent contractors, volunteers and company principals.
- Some of the acts the coverage might insure include fraud, monetary theft, robbery and burglary of money or property, and data theft (stealing private computer information).
- Policies might also cover employee acts that affect customers. So, if a jewelry store employee steals a customer’s necklace instead of cleaning it, then coverage can help compensate that person for their losses.
- All policies will agree to pay a maximum amount for losses. They might also include deductibles that the insured will have to pay.
Speak to your insurance agent about the best way to adapt your standard employee dishonesty coverage in the most-effective way to do so.
Preventing Employee Dishonesty
It is essential that you have as much employee dishonesty insurance as is appropriate for your business. However, what you don’t want to do is use it as a solution for all your problems. You should strive also to prevent dishonest employee actions wherever possible.
First, you should always have a strong code of conduct in place, and further establish rules on how to investigate and address allegations of misconduct by your workers. Additionally, scrutiny should be one of your primary objectives, and you should exhaustively vet potential hires before bringing them into the business.
Should you have any hint that dishonesty is an ongoing event, take appropriate steps to get the situation under control. Then, contact your business insurance provider to learn more about how your policy can help you.