A placement guarantee is a commitment from a recruitment firm that if a placed candidate leaves — or is let go — within a set period, the firm will find a replacement, offer a fee credit, or provide a refund. The 90-day window is the most common standard in specialist and executive recruitment.

Why guarantees exist

No search process is perfect. Even with rigorous assessment, a small proportion of placements do not work out — through changing business circumstances, misalignment that only becomes visible after the start date, or factors neither party anticipated. A guarantee is the recruiter's way of standing behind their work when that happens.

What a 90-day guarantee typically covers

  • The candidate resigns voluntarily within the first 90 days of employment
  • The candidate is let go by the client within 90 days due to poor fit or performance
  • In either case, the recruitment firm runs a replacement search at no additional cost

What guarantees typically do not cover

Most guarantees contain exclusions. These usually include redundancy due to business restructuring, significant changes to the role after the hire starts, or departures caused by circumstances the recruiter could not have assessed. Read the terms carefully before you rely on the guarantee.

What makes a guarantee worth having

  • It should be a replacement — not just a fee credit or partial refund. A fee credit without a new search does not solve your hiring problem.
  • The replacement search should be at no additional cost, not discounted. A meaningful guarantee absorbs the full cost of the error.
  • The guarantee period should start from the hire's first day, not from the date of offer or contract signing.
  • The firm should not require unreasonable conditions to activate the guarantee.
WatersEdge invoices only when your hire starts. If they leave or are let go within 90 days for any fit-related reason, we run the search again and place a successor — at no further cost to you.

Why the guarantee matters less than the process

A strong guarantee is valuable, but the best outcome is never needing to use it. The firms that offer the strongest guarantees are also the ones with the most rigorous assessment processes — because they know their guarantee is only as good as their ability to avoid invoking it. When choosing a recruitment partner, look for both: strong process and a guarantee that actually means something.