You filled the role. The CV was fiction.
Cover for recruitment agencies and HR consultancies: the candidates you place, the data you hold on thousands of them, and the advice you give employers.
Recruitment and HR insurance
Usually includes
Professional indemnity
Cyber & data
Temporary worker liability
Public liability
Employers’ liability
Office & contents
One
conversation.
You explain the business once, and we take it from there.
Bespoke service
for your business
No two businesses are the same, so we start with yours rather than with a template.
Everything
quoted together.
Your advice, the data you hold and the office behind it, priced in one go rather than piece by piece.
Know your cover
What is recruitment insurance?
Recruitment carries two exposures most offices do not. The first is temporary workers, where who employs the person on site decides who answers for an injury or a mistake. The second is data: an agency holds identity documents, right-to-work evidence and career histories for far more people than it will ever place. Cover is built around professional indemnity and cyber, with the temporary worker position settled before anything else.
It covers the advice
Professional indemnity responds to a claim about a placement, a vetting failure or HR advice you gave.
It covers the data
Identity documents and personal histories for every candidate on the database, placed or not.
It covers the workers
Temporary and contract staff, where liability depends on the terms you supply them under.
Who it’s for
Whatever you place.
✓
Permanent recruitment agencies
Placement fees, vetting and the guarantee periods in your terms.
✓
Temporary and contract staffing
Workers on your payroll or your books, working under somebody else’s supervision.
✓
Executive search
Senior appointments where a placement going wrong is expensive for the client.
✓
Specialist and technical staffing
Placements into regulated, clinical or safety-critical roles.
✓
HR consultancies
Advice on process, discipline and dismissal that an employer then acts on.
✓
Umbrella and payroll intermediaries
Payment and employment arrangements sitting between worker and end client.
What we cover
Cover built around your placements.
We ask what you place, on what basis and for which sectors before we approach anyone. Then show you what’s available, and you decide what fits.
Professional indemnity
The claim that a placement, a vetting failure or your HR advice caused a client a loss.
Cyber & data
Identity documents and candidate histories, which is a large volume of personal data in one place.
Temporary worker liability
Injury or damage involving a worker you supplied, where the terms decide who answers.
Public liability
Injury or damage caused by your own staff, at your office or on a client’s premises.
Employers’ liability
Required by law for your own staff, and often for the temporary workers on your payroll too.
Office & contents
The office, the fit-out and the equipment your consultants work from.
Business interruption
The fees lost when your database, your systems or your office stop working.
Management liability
Claims against you or a fellow director personally, including from a candidate or a client.
Legal expenses
Recovering unpaid placement fees, employment matters, and defending a client dispute.
Who this cover tends to suit.
This cover is generally bought by recruitment agencies and HR consultancies, from a specialist desk to an agency running temporary workers across several sectors. Not every part will apply to every business, so tell us how you’re set up and we’ll show you what’s relevant.
Worth knowing
Check the details before you choose.
Who employs the temp decides the claim
Whether a worker is your employee, the client’s, or neither changes who answers for an injury or a mistake. It is the first thing to establish and the most frequently misunderstood.
Your terms of business are part of the cover
Guarantee periods, refund clauses and liability caps in your terms all shape what a claim looks like. Send us the terms you issue.
The database is bigger than the placements
You hold personal data on everyone who ever applied, not just those you placed. That is the volume a breach is measured against.
Vetting is where the allegations start
Right-to-work checks, qualifications and references. A placement that goes wrong is usually alleged to be a vetting failure.
Every desk is different.
A permanent executive search and a temporary industrial desk don’t carry the same risk, so we ask different questions for each.
Permanent recruitment
Temporary staffing
Contract staffing
Executive search
Industrial recruitment
Office and commercial
Technical and engineering
Clinical and care staffing
Education supply
Driving and logistics
HR consultancy
Employment advice
Umbrella payroll
Right to work checks
Vetting and screening
Candidate database
Permanent recruitment
Temporary staffing
Contract staffing
Executive search
Industrial recruitment
Office and commercial
Technical and engineering
Clinical and care staffing
Education supply
Driving and logistics
HR consultancy
Employment advice
Umbrella payroll
Right to work checks
Vetting and screening
Candidate database
Why Vara
Bespoke service for you & your business,
without the big-firm minimum.
01
The temporary worker question first
Who employs the person on site changes everything about the claim. We settle it before we present the risk.
02
Your terms shape the exposure
Guarantees, refunds and liability caps in your terms of business are part of the risk. We read them.
03
Data volume is the cyber risk
An agency holds identity documents for far more people than it places. We size that properly.
04
We present the risk right
Placement mix, sectors, worker numbers and claims history. How it’s framed changes what you pay.
You talk to a person. The machines do the typing.
Free review of your recruitment and HR cover and costs.
On a policy that ignores who employs the temp? Leave your details and we’ll call you straight back. One conversation covers the lot.
What the review covers
We go through the policy you have now, so you can see what it does and doesn’t cover against who answers for an injury or a mistake when a temporary worker is on a client’s site.
We point out the terms that catch agencies out most often, how the size of your candidate database, not just your placements, is declared among them, so you can check yours.
We approach insurers on our panel who write recruitment and HR consultancy risks, and come back with what they’ll offer.
We explain each option in plain English, including what it doesn’t cover.
If it’s not a risk we can place, we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you waiting.
No obligation to switch. You decide what fits.
Rather not wait? Call us on 0333 091 3663
Good to know
Recruitment insurance questions, answered straight.
What insurance does a recruitment agency need?
Who is liable if a temporary worker is injured on a client's site?
Am I liable if a placement fails?
Does right-to-work checking affect my cover?
How much personal data do I hold?
Is HR consultancy advice covered by the same policy?
Do my terms of business matter to insurers?
What about umbrella or payroll intermediary work?
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.