20 Mar Employers’ Liability Insurance

Employers’ Liability Insurance

Technological advances inevitably affect the insurance market, both in the kinds of products and services that insurers themselves are able to offer and also in the kinds of policies that are needed by employers, from employers’ liability insurance to car insurance to product liability cover.

As such, it is essential that all businesses stay abreast of changes in both their own needs and those contained within the insurance market’s offering. Failure to do this can result in businesses falling behind the competition, which, when margins are tight, can even have the potential to derail a business’s profitability and efficiency. Like all other areas of business, it is the ability to successfully adapt to changing conditions that is likely to be the greatest indicator of success.

Insurance risk and commercial law firm BLM recently collaborated with the Institute of Directors to produce a research paper which analysed the technology risks affecting a range of insurance claims, including employers’ liability insurance claims, product liability claims, commercial vehicle insurance claims and more. It found that all these had recently been and continue to be impacted by evolutions in technology.

The paper was exhaustive and examined a range of factors, including how macroeconomic conditions influence the insurance market, particularly in London. Despite the wide-ranging nature of the paper, its findings were unambivalent: technology is disrupting insurance markets and only those parties that are quickest to react can feel confident of robustly weathering and adapting to change.

“From our work across the London Market with insurers, brokers, and managing general agents, we know the importance of understanding how emerging risks will impact the volume and nature of claims,” commented paper co-leader and BLM partner Jim Sherwood. “We hope this paper will provide the market with a better understanding of what’s on the horizon and how technology will continue to affect all aspects of insurance.”

Employers’ liability insurance is one area that the market itself will quickly need to address. This has already been seen with the growth of the gig economy and the sometimes uncertain status of “self-employed” workers. It is also evident in the increasing reliance of automated technologies and how these affect the rights of existing workers.