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How can you oversee your employees’ use of company e-mails without violating their privacy?

According to a recent nationwide survey, more than 40% of businesses monitor their workers’ e-mails. If you’re one of these companies, a disgruntled employee might well sue you for invasion of privacy (the number of privacy lawsuits has skyrocketed by 3,000% during the past decade).

The best way to protect yourself against this risk is to create a written policy warning employees that you might be monitoring their use of e-mail. Bear in mind that because your business owns the e-mail system – software, network access, and computers – you have the legal right to oversee workers for misusing it to violate company policy or break the law.

The first step in implementing this policy is to have all employees sign a disclaimer that acknowledges the company’s right to monitor their e-mail. You can do this when an employee is hired, at contract renewal, or at a company meeting – and don’t forget to circulate any updates to the policy throughout the company. Apply e-mail monitoring as uniformly as possible, because singling out an individual without a clear reason to do so could leave you vulnerable to a discrimination lawsuit. Finally, be sure to have your attorney review the policy.

A comprehensive e-mail policy can:

1. Provide an effective defense against invasion of privacy litigation
2. Educate your employees on the proper use of e-mail – which should go far to reduce potential problems from misusing the system

If you’d like to learn more about how to balance protecting the integrity of your company’s e-mail system with your employees’ right to privacy, please get in touch with us. As always, we’re here to help.

Peace of mind is never more important than it is when you’re responsible for the safety of other people. Carrying expensive cargo by truck can be tense, transporting priceless art or delivering luxury cars can be scary, but when your job is to ensure the well-being of your fellow human beings, it can be downright nerve wracking. It’s not just that you really need to be on your game when driving, feeding or providing care for your customers, it’s the fact that you need to keep on your toes for every single thing that might go wrong, whether it’s your fault or not, while these people are under your supervision.

Adult day care is one such field where you have to contend not only with the risks that come with the service you provide, but the risks relating to the people you are caring for. Adult day care insurance has to be able to protect you not just from issues relating to your service, but issues relating to poor health, old age and so on. Adults who need day care tend to be dealing with various issues relating to their mental and physical health, and you’re going to need to take that into account when settling on a liability insurance policy for your company.

One way to pay a little less on your adult day care professional liability insurance is to make sure that you have more than enough staff on hand to handle any emergency that may come up. Keeping registered nurses on the payroll, even if they cost a little more than hiring just anybody and giving them on-the-job training, will bring risk down, which means a lower cost to insure your day care company, and more importantly, it means happier, healthier customers.

Keeping your facilities up-to-date can have a tremendous impact, as well. By making sure you have handrails in the bathrooms, for instance, as well as medical equipment on hand, you’re creating a safer environment for the people in your care.

Insurance is about managing risk, but it’s also about managing headaches. Anything that you can do that brings you peace of mind, a sense of security in your day to day affairs, is something that is likely to bring your insurance costs down. The better you treat your customers, the more up-to-date your facilities, the better off you and your customers both will be.

If your business rents an office, store, warehouse, or other commercial premises, you’re responsible for any property you use or store there, as well any damage you cause to the rented property. Commercial Renters insurance (also known as Business or Commercial Property coverage) will repay you if your equipment or stock is stolen or damaged, or if you damage the premises inadvertently.

Some Commercial Renters policies also provide limited protection for possessions of your employees on premises. You might also want to buy additional coverage for flood damage, and/or glass windows and displays, as well as Business Interruption insurance (which will reimburse you if fire or theft keeps you from operating).

The premium depends on the risk factors facing your business. For example, the risk of fire depends upon how the premises you’re renting is constructed, whether it has a sprinkler system, and its distance from the nearest fire station. If you rent in a high-crime area or have particularly valuable or desirable inventory or equipment, you’ll pay a higher premium. You can reduce the premium by increasing your deductible and/or installing fire and theft alarms and other safety devices.

When insuring equipment and inventory, you can choose either replacement cost or present value coverage. Replacement cost, which is more expensive, will reimburse you for the full cost of buying new items. Present value reduces your reimbursement by calculating depreciation based on the age of the property.

If you run a home business from a rented dwelling, see if your Renters insurance covers property and liability for business activities. Although most policies don’t include this, you can obtain coverage through a policy rider.

To learn more, just give us a call at any time.

When we think of trucking, we think of people making long hauls across state lines, delivering trailers filled with various goods loaded onto big eighteen wheelers. In reality, a lot of the miles truckers put on the road are done locally, making deliveries across town or at least within the same county. We like to think of truckers making cross-country trips from coast to coast, taking in Southwestern sunsets and driving through the mountains of Colorado. But long-haul is only one part of the trucking game. A lot of people who carry cargo for a living are making 10-mile, 15-mile trips in vans and box trucks.

If this is your company, the question is: Do you need trucking cargo insurance?

The answer: Not really. You do need cargo van insurance and liability coverage, but you’re going to be looking at a very different policy than a company that deals in eighteen wheel delivery is going to sign.

A long-haul trucker is specifically looking at policies designed to cover long-haul truckers. They’re dealing in a greater volume of cargo and a lot more miles between between stops. These policies are just plain bigger overall. They cover a greater cost and a greater risk. This is not to say that local truck drivers don’t have their share of risks, you’re likely to get into your share of fender benders in the city, but it’s the highway that carries the greater risk of serious accidents taking place, and every mile multiplies that risk.

Making smaller deliveries, there’s usually no point in insuring $500 of fresh baked bread for a 10 mile trip from the bakery to the grocery store. If you’re delivering your own goods, more likely than not you’re going to be eating any costs involved in damaged cargo, or else your business policy is going to cover it.

If you’re delivering on behalf of others, liability insurance will cover you more often than not. If you’re not using your van to make unreasonable deliveries, if you’re not trying to carry thousands of dollars worth of electronics across three states, then there’s no reason not to expect your basic liability coverage to protect you.

Trucking cargo insurance frequently covers the specific load being hauled from point A to point B for the duration of that trip. If you don’t need an eighteen wheeler and you’re not crossing state lines, liability insurance should cover your smaller deliveries.