While I was researching my newsletter on dealing with employee theft I stumbled on a really nice webpage by the Hartford Insurance Company on insurance for cleaning businesses. They cover: Property, Liability, Worker's Compensation, and Commercial Auto. I'll talk briefly about each.

And, although I like their site, I've never bought insurance from Hartford and don't have any personal recommendations about them. But whether you buy anything or not this is a good site to look over for all the information they have on insurance for cleaning businesses.

 Property 

Here's their remarks on their property insurance. "The Hartford’s policy goes well beyond industry standards to provide comprehensive coverage for your property. And unlike many insurers, we don't require you to specify separate sublimits for your most important belongings, like your computer equipment and media, your valuable papers, and your telephone equipment."

They go into much more detail about what they cover with their Property policies but the two subsections that interested me the most are, Business Crime and Employee Theft and Dishonesty.

The difference is, Business Crime pays you if your employees steal from you. Employee Theft pays your customers if your employees steal from them.

They don't specifically say this on their page but your employees have to be convicted in a court of law before you or your customer's see a nickle from the insurance company.

Here's their Property Insurance page.

 Liability 

Liability insurance reimburses people for things that are your or your employees' fault. One of the options they have is for, Lost Key Coverage. Employees losing keys is a sad fact of life in the cleaning industry. And it can be surprisingly expensive. Let's say a key to a business with fifty employees and two locks for front and back doors goes missing. That means you have to pay for fifty or more new keys and two new locks professionally installed. This can quickly add up to a chunk of money.

They also cover, Burglary, robbery, theft or mysterious disappearance this is any loss a business sustained because your people lost a key, making it possible for someone to rob the place. Or in some other way failed to properly secure the building.

Here's their Liability Insurance page.

 Worker's Compensation 

I'm going to quote from their page:

Lost wages and medical care
Our policies cover a wide range of services related to workers’ compensation and employers’ liability claims, including compensation for lost wages and the cost of medical care and rehabilitation.

Legal defense costs
We’ll cover the costs of your legal defense and carefully manage the litigation process, even negotiating judgments if it’s in your best interest.

Here's their Workers Compensation page.

 Commercial Auto Coverage 

As far as I can tell their commercial auto coverage is generic with no modifications for janitorial businesses so I won't go over it.

Here's their Commercial Auto Coverage page.

 Risk Management 

Hartford very generously provides around 80 articles on risk management. They cover such topics as: Electrical Safety, Security, Hazardous Materials, and Personal Safety and Health. I haven't read all of them yet and some of them won't be applicable to your circumstances but many of them will.

I suggest you take a look, just one or two ideas from them could literally be a life saver for you, one or more of your employees, or even your whole business.

Warning:   These are PDF files. You need an Adobe Reader to view them. If you don't have one already you can click here to download a Reader.

Or, you can go to their site and download an Adobe Reader there while you browse and download their articles.

Here's their Risk Management Tips page.