Over the years, experts have highlighted numerous benefits of working from home from improved work/life balance, reducing traffic congestion, and even helping reduce the cost of office rent (bit.ly/37cVZRF). The social-distancing measures and restrictions imposed as part of the COVID-19 pandemic meant some psychologists started providing their services remotely, including via telehealth. If this is the case, there are a few boxes you’ll need to tick to ensure you have the best experience, and your business is prepared for the additional complexities remote working can bring.
1. You still need to be mindful of your health and safety
If you have employees, even if they’re not in your office physically, as long as they’re on your payroll, receiving a pay cheque from you and have been asked to work from home you have a duty of care ‘as reasonably practicable’ to ensure their health and safety while working from home, the same as you would be if they were working in your office (bit.ly/396Nz0G). It is the employer’s duty-of-care to ensure the environment for employees is safe, set-up ergonomically and does not pose a risk to their health and safety. We also suggest focusing on your mental health. To support members to look after their mental health, the APS has developed an online training module that is complimentary for members (bit.ly/3lZAl9G).
2. Public liability is still a risk
When the words ‘public liability’ are mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind for many is tripping or falling, which might not sound relevant to you if you don’t have an office where you host clients. However, some psychologists may still be performing services in person, and even conducting home visits and this carries liability risks. For this reason, public liability should continue to be a key part of your coverage to help cover any potential exorbitant out-of-pocket costs you could incur from a small oversight. While your home and/or contents insurance may also include a level of public liability cover if you have a home office, incidents which occur as part of your work or business may be excluded under personal insurance policies.
3. You may be susceptible to online risks
Cyber risks apply to any business that uses the internet to perform any part of its work or stores any data – regardless of where you work. For example, if you work from home and have younger children (or even teens), all it would take is one of them accessing your laptop and unintentionally downloading malware to send your entire IT system into meltdown. Even if you don’t have children, you’re not immune to these threats as cyber criminals have become so sophisticated, phishing emails are nearly impossible to distinguish from genuine communications. Cyber insurance has been designed to help protect your business against financial losses arising from cyber-attacks and crime, and in our opinion, should be seriously considered when deciding which insurances to choose.
4. Your business equipment might need to be insured separately
Working from home usually involves a laptop, and while the cost of a single laptop might not seem like a lot to you, if you run a practice where you have multiple staff working from home, and an event leads to them being damaged or lost, the cost to replace multiple laptops would be a big bill too. When insuring your portable electronic devices and other equipment, it’s important to clarify with your broker whether they’re covered for loss of damage while they’re outside your office or at an employee’s home – if this isn’t standard coverage under your policy, then you may be able to select it as an optional extra. Even if you have them listed under your home contents insurance, personal insurance products often exclude damage which occurs to products while in use for business purposes.
5. You will still need to have a business interruption plan
Remote working is often a contingency plan when an event leads to a business’s premises being inaccessible or locked down. However, it’s also a good idea to have a back-up plan if for some reason your remote work plans fail. For example, if your own home or your employees’ home is damaged due to a weather event, or you have a crucial meeting which needs to be held in person, you might want to have a back-up plan, or a teleconferencing system to ensure you can keep your business running smoothly.
This information is intended to provide general insurance related information only. It is not intended to be comprehensive, nor does it, or should it (under any circumstances) be construed as constituting legal advice. You should seek independent legal or other professional advice before acting or relying on any of the content of this information. Before deciding whether a particular product is right for you, please consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (if applicable) and full policy terms and conditions available from Aon on request or contact us to speak to an adviser. Aon will not be responsible for any loss, damage, cost or expense you or anyone else incurs in reliance on or use of any information contained in this article.