Should your janitorial company have insurance?  The short answer is yes.  Indeed, any company that contracts professional services should be insured, but this is especially true of janitorial companies.  In fact, reputable janitorial companies will often be covered by a few different types of insurance including auto insurance, liability insurance, and worker’s compensation insurance – and these are just the industry basics.

Before we discuss these types of insurance and why they are important, let’s discuss why it’s important for you, as a business owner, to conduct business only with a properly insured janitorial company.  Most importantly, remember that your professional cleaners will typically have unrestricted access to your business property even when you are not on site.

Often, when you hire a janitorial company for your cleaning services, this means you defer all responsibilities for cleaning staff to that company.  It can be difficult to ensure trustworthy staff if the janitorial company is not properly insured.  But, never mind the trustworthiness of the staff, you also must consider that cleaning services will be conducted in and around your business equipment which can be very expensive.  Cleaning desks means cleaning around expensive computers and printers, but also important documents and files.  Damage to these items can be very costly and as a business owner you don’t want to be responsible for your cleaner’s potential mistakes.

Even eliminating theft or property damage as potential risks, you should also consider liability for injury.  For example, cleaning floors often means the floors are wet and slippery and should a member of the public slip and fall, liability is a concern.  Likewise, cleaning can be a dangerous job and it’s not uncommon for cleaners to become injured in the course of their duties.  Once again, you do not want to be liable for personal injury either to your own clients, members of the public, or the cleaning staff.

So, as an industry standard, you should expect your janitorial company to carry auto insurance, liability insurance, and worker’s compensation insurance.  Automobile insurance may not be a make or break requirement from your perspective, but in the event that the janitorial company’s vehicles cause damage to your property auto insurance offers peace of mind.  General liability insurance covers you and your janitorial company against injury claims, negligence, and property damage.  So, whether your staff, your clients, or the cleaners become injured or there is damage to your property for any reason, you and your janitorial service provider will be covered.  Finally, worker’s compensation insurance is typically required for any company with hired staff to conduct business and it’s a no brainer.

Ultimately, reputable professional cleaning companies will always be adequately insured.  If you come across a company that cannot verify their insurance coverage, keep looking until you find a company that can.