A placement guarantee is the promise that stands behind your fee: if the hire does not stick, the client is not left paying full price for nothing. This template gives you model language for the two standard guarantee styles — replacement and pro-rated refund — plus the exclusions that keep the promise from being abused.

Choosing the guarantee style

• Replacement guarantee — you redo the search once, free. It protects your cash (no money moves back) and keeps you in the relationship. This is the default for contingency work.
• Pro-rated refund — you return part of the fee on a sliding scale. Clients who were burned before often ask for it; it is cleaner when you do not want to run the search again.
• Hybrid — replacement first, refund only if you cannot deliver a replacement within a set window. Strongest client-facing option without giving up cash on day one.

Model clause: replacement guarantee

"If the placed candidate resigns or is dismissed for cause within {{Guarantee period}} of their start date, {{Recruiter name}} will conduct one replacement search for the same role at no additional fee. The replacement obligation is conditional on all invoices having been paid when due and on written notice of the departure within {{Notice window}} of the last day worked."

Model clause: pro-rated refund

"If the placed candidate departs as described above and the client requests a refund instead of a replacement, {{Recruiter name}} will refund the placement fee according to the following schedule, within {{Refund payment window}} of the request."

Standard exclusions

Every guarantee needs these carve-outs, or you end up insuring decisions you never made:

• The role materially changed after the hire — duties, location, compensation, or reporting line.
• The departure was part of a layoff, restructuring, or funding event rather than a performance or fit issue.
• The client failed to pay the placement fee when due, or breached its own obligations to the candidate.
• The candidate left because of documented workplace conduct issues on the client side.
• Notice of the departure arrived after the notice window closed.

Calibrating the numbers

• Guarantee periods usually track seniority: shorter for high-volume roles, longer for executive placements. Match the period to how long a genuine fit failure takes to surface — not to what sounds generous.
• Keep the notice window short. You need to hear about a departure while a replacement search can still help.
• For refunds, front-load your protection: the steepest refund tier should cover only the first weeks, where a mis-hire is most plausibly a screening miss.

How to attach these terms

• Reference the guarantee in the fee clause of your agreement, then attach this language as a named schedule so the numbers stay easy to adjust per deal.
• Fill every placeholder before sending — an unfilled guarantee period reads as no guarantee at all.
• When a client negotiates the guarantee up, trade it against something: fee percentage, exclusivity, or payment terms. A longer guarantee is a price concession and should be priced like one.