Recruitment and selection · office at home · candidate files
Liability insurance for a recruiter
A recruiter rarely causes physical damage. The claims are about the candidate who turned out not to be what he seemed and about data that got out, and neither of those is an AVB loss.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een recruiter.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
The physical risk in recruitment and selection is small but real. You visit clients for intake meetings and presentations, you accompany candidates to an assessment on site and you stand at job fairs with a stand that could fall on someone. If you damage equipment there or someone is injured, that is the classic situation the AVB exists for, with Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code as the basis.
The centre of gravity, however, lies with allegations that have nothing to do with injury or broken property: a candidate who turned out to have invented his qualifications, a non-compete clause that was missed, a reference check that was never carried out, a placement that collapses after two months. The client then loses money: that is pure financial loss and for that the professional indemnity insurance for self-employed professionals intended. A dispute about the fee where a candidate had already applied on his own is also contractual and not insurable on the AVB.
Three exclusions come up again and again in this profession. Private losses do not fall under a business policy, and business losses do not fall under personal liability insurance. If you work from home and receive candidates there, that distinction is not theoretical. Fines, including those from the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority), are covered nowhere. And a client's equipment that you use temporarily falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. The general explanation is on the hub page on the AVB.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four subjects that lead to a rejected claim for a self-employed recruiter.
Office at home
If you receive candidates at home, two policies run into each other. A personal liability insurance excludes damage connected with a profession or business, while the AVB does nothing with private situations. If a candidate trips on your own stairs during an interview, you want the business policy to know the address. State the work address expressly, therefore.
Exhibition stands and assessments on location
At a job fair or an assessment centre you put something up in a room full of people. A banner falling over, a loose cable or a damaged floor are the realistic losses in this profession. If you work in hired rooms, check whether the tenant's liability section is included, because damage to the premises hired falls under that separately.
The wrong candidate is not property damage
The most common complaint against a recruiter is about selection and information, not about anything physical. That means the AVB does not come into play, however large the claim. Set out in your terms what you do and do not verify, and preferably limit your liability to a replacement search rather than a sum of money.
Candidate data and complaints about equal treatment
You handle CVs, identity documents and sometimes interview notes. In a breach, the administrative fine and the penalty payment are excluded; remediation and notification costs can only be placed on a cyber insurance. A complaint about unequal treatment in recruitment rarely leads to property damage, but it does lead to defence costs; check whether your policy provides for that.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for self-employed people
- Type of assignments: executive search and volume recruitment differ in their claims profile
- Work address: office at home or your own business premises
- Attendance at fairs and events: setting up among the public increases the risk
- Area of cover: recruiting across the border calls for a wider territory
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| During an intake meeting you knock a monitor off your client's desk | Yes | No |
| You fail to check a reference and the candidate placed turns out to have been dismissed earlier for fraud | No | Yes |
| You send a candidate profile by mistake to a direct competitor of your client | No | Provided that |
| A rejected candidate claims compensation for age discrimination | No | Provided that |
| Your candidate database leaks and the people concerned claim compensation for the data breach | No | No |
| A candidate you placed damages a machine at the client in his first week | No | No |
The AVB covers what you damage physically, the BAV what your judgement costs the client. A data breach calls for a third policy.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I work from home. Is my personal liability insurance (AVP) enough?
No. A personal policy excludes damage connected with a profession or business, and that is precisely your situation. If you receive candidates at home or visit clients, you need business liability insurance with the correct work address. Also state that you work from home. That is a circumstance the insurer wants to know about.
A client says the candidate placed lied about his qualifications.
The loss consists of induction costs, salary and a failed placement, and is therefore purely financial. The AVB does not cover that, because it exists for injury and damaged property. Professional indemnity insurance does, including defence costs. Record which checks you carry out, because the argument about whether you acted carefully ultimately turns on that.
A file of CVs leaked. What does the AVB cover?
Nothing. A data breach produces no injury or property damage, and a fine from the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens is a sanction and therefore excluded. The costs of investigation, notification and remediation, and the liability towards the people concerned, can be placed on cyber insurance. Report a breach within the statutory period and document what you did.
I damaged equipment at a client during a presentation.
Property damage at a client is covered in principle, provided you are liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. Do watch the care, custody and control exclusion: if the device had been handed to you for use or safekeeping, cover may fall away. Report the damage as soon as you know of it, as Article 7:941 DCC requires, even if the client has not yet claimed anything.
Read more
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