Recruitment or headhunting services agreement template

Recruitment Services Agreement

Parties: Recruiter · Client

1. Purpose

This agreement sets out the terms on which the Recruiter helps the Client find candidates for the roles described below. The Client alone decides whom to hire, and the Recruiter is not the candidate’s employer. Recruitment and placement services are regulated in many countries. The law of the country where the recruiting is done decides who may offer them, what may be charged and how candidates’ data is handled, and it applies and goes first.

2. Licence and status

(1) The Recruiter confirms that it holds every licence, registration or authorisation that the law requires for its recruitment services: [[Licence or registration number, or not required]]

(2) The Recruiter acts as an independent business. It is not the Client’s employee or agent and cannot bind the Client, make offers of employment for the Client or sign contracts with candidates on its behalf.

3. The search brief

(1) Roles to be filled: [[Role title, place of work, main duties, required skills and experience, pay range]]

(2) The Client gives the Recruiter accurate information about each role and the employer. The Client’s requirements, and the way the Recruiter selects candidates, must be lawful. Neither party selects, rejects or treats a candidate less favourably on a ground that the law protects against discrimination.

(3) The Client’s contact person for the search: [[Name and contact details]]

4. Search and shortlist

(1) The Recruiter searches for candidates, screens them against the brief and presents a shortlist of [[3]] candidates within [[4]] weeks after the Client has confirmed the brief.

(2) The Client gives feedback on each candidate within [[5]] working days and arranges interviews promptly.

(3) The Recruiter makes reasonable efforts but does not promise that it will find a suitable candidate or that a candidate will accept an offer.

5. Candidates and consent

(1) The Recruiter presents a candidate to the Client only with the candidate’s consent, and tells the candidate who the Client is and what the role involves.

(2) The Client uses a candidate’s information only to assess the candidate for the role, keeps it confidential and does not pass it to others without the candidate’s consent.

(3) The Recruiter does not charge candidates a fee for its services under this agreement.

6. Exclusivity

(1) For each role the Recruiter acts: [[on a non-exclusive basis / exclusively for 4 weeks from the date the Client confirms the brief]]

(2) During an exclusive period the Client does not use another recruiter for that role. The Client remains free to hire people it finds itself. It tells the Recruiter at the start about any candidate it is already in touch with, and those people are not treated as introduced by the Recruiter.

7. Placement and introduced candidates

(1) A placement happens when a candidate whom the Recruiter introduced to the Client [[accepts an offer from the Client or a company in its group / starts work for the Client or a company in its group]] within [[12]] months after the introduction, whether or not it is arranged through the Recruiter.

(2) The Client tells the Recruiter within [[5]] working days when it makes an offer to, or takes on, a candidate whom the Recruiter introduced, and does not use another route to avoid the fee.

(3) Nothing in this clause stops a candidate from taking a job with the Client or with anyone else.

8. Fees

(1) The Client pays the Recruiter the fee shown in the price schedule of this contract or, if there is none, [[Fee: a fixed amount, or a percentage of the candidate’s first-year pay, with currency]] for each placement. A retainer or engagement fee: [[none / the amount, when it is paid and whether it is credited against the placement fee]]

(2) The placement fee is due when [[the candidate accepts the offer / the candidate starts work]]. Pay on which a percentage fee is calculated: [[the agreed annual base pay / the agreed annual pay including bonus]]

(3) Expenses such as advertising and travel: [[none / those the Client approved in advance, against receipts]] Taxes on the fees are added as the law requires.

9. Guarantee and replacement

(1) If a candidate placed by the Recruiter leaves the Client or is dismissed within [[3]] months after starting, for a reason covered here, the Recruiter [[finds a replacement without a further fee / refunds part of the fee]]. Reasons covered: [[e.g. resignation or dismissal for performance, but not redundancy]] Refund, if any: [[none / the share of the fee refunded]]

(2) This applies only if the Client paid the fee on time and gave the Recruiter prompt notice and the information it reasonably needs. It does not apply if the end is due to a change the Client made to the role, to redundancy or to a reason that the law protects.

10. Offer, employment and checks

(1) The Client alone decides whom to hire. The Client makes the offer and the contract of employment or engagement directly with the candidate, and follows the employment law that applies, including on pay, notice and the candidate’s rights.

(2) The Recruiter checks candidates as follows: [[none beyond screening CVs and interviewing / the checks, such as references or qualifications]] Such checks are done only where the law allows and, where the law requires it, with the candidate’s consent. The Recruiter does not guarantee a candidate’s work or conduct.

(3) Checking the candidate’s right to work, and any other check that the law requires of an employer, is the Client’s responsibility.

11. Confidentiality and personal data

(1) Each party keeps the other’s confidential business information secret and uses it only for this agreement, except where the law requires or allows disclosure.

(2) Each party handles candidates’ personal data as the law requires and is responsible for its own processing. Each uses candidate data only for the search, keeps it only as long as needed and deletes it when it is no longer needed, unless the candidate agrees to its being kept.

12. Liability

(1) Each party is responsible for loss or damage it causes, within the limits the law sets. Limit of each party’s liability to the other, where the law allows a limit: [[Limit, e.g. the fees paid for the role, or none]]

(2) No limit applies to liability for intent, gross negligence, injury or death, or to anything else that the law does not allow to be limited.

13. Term and termination

(1) This agreement starts on the effective date and [[ends when the roles are filled / ends on the end date]].

(2) Either party may end the search by giving [[14]] days’ notice in writing or in electronic form, or at once for a serious breach that is not put right within a reasonable time.

(3) Fees already earned, and the fee for a placement of a candidate introduced before the end as set out in the clause on placement, remain due after the end.

14. Mandatory law

This agreement does not reduce any right that the law gives candidates or the parties. Where the law of the country where the recruiting is done regulates recruitment services, including licences, fees, what may be charged to candidates and the handling of candidates’ data, that law applies instead of anything in this agreement that conflicts with it. Where that law requires information to be given to candidates, or a particular form for this agreement, the parties see that it is given and met.

15. Changes and notices

This contract, including its price schedule, is the entire agreement on the search, apart from the rights the law gives. Changes are valid only if both parties agree to them in writing or in electronic form, where the law allows that form. Notices are given to the addresses stated for the parties, or to another address a party has notified.

16. Governing law and disputes

This agreement is governed by the law stated under Governing law. The parties will first try to settle any dispute in good faith. Otherwise the courts stated under Jurisdiction decide, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

Payment terms

The Recruiter invoices each fee when it falls due under this agreement, plus taxes as the law requires. The Client pays each invoice within [[14]] days of receiving it, by bank transfer to the account the Recruiter names.

Governing law

[[Country or state whose law applies]]

Jurisdiction

[[Courts that decide disputes, e.g. the courts of your city]]