Dear Nicky,
I recently filled a role with a candidate provided by a fellow NPA member – yay! It’s a 90-day guarantee and my partner understands that and said they will do their best to help fill the role in the case of a fall-off. The problem is my partner is saying that they will not pay me back the fee if we aren’t successful in finding a replacement. I’m hoping we don’t have a fall-off, but in case we do… aren’t they obligated to pay the fee back to me if we don’t find a replacement?
Fearful in Franklin
Dear Fearful,
It depends on what you put in the ‘Money Back’ field when you posted the job. This is a required field when posting the job, and you must choose Yes or No. Your trading partners look at this and you are expected to honor what you have promoted to the members of the network. If it says 90 days guarantee - NO money back, at 90 days your partner has no role to play in a refund if you choose to make one. The Board of Directors recently updated the Operations Manual to clarify the policy surrounding this issue:
Operations Manual, Section. Financial Obligations, Fee Schedule and Guarantee (Member Profile)
During the placement process, when difficulties arise after the candidate has commenced employment, a client may ask for an amendment or change in the guarantee (for example an extension of the guarantee period). The job-side member shall not obligate the candidate-side member to a change of guarantee without consent in writing. Should the job-side member’s agreement provide for replacing the employee instead of providing a refund, the job-side member must give the candidate-side member immediate opportunity to provide a replacement candidate. Failure to offer an opportunity to replace waives the requirement that the candidate-side member refund any part of the fee for the candidate fall off. Unless otherwise agreed to in the job-side member’s agreement with customer, the job-side member and candidate-side member will agree to an appropriate timeframe for the candidate-side member and the job-side member to work exclusively on the replacement. It is generally appropriate for the time to replace the candidate to be similar and consistent with the time to fill the role initially. If the candidate-side member is provided immediate opportunity to replace but is unsuccessful, the job-side member checked Money Back “YES” on the original posting and can document a refund to the client or compensation to a third-party candidate provider, the candidate-side member will provide a refund of their fee. Upon receipt of such documentation, the candidate-side member will refund up to the original split amount within 7 days. NPAworldwide will refund the brokerage originally paid if the resulting outcome is not a split. In no case will the amount refunded by NPAworldwide, or the candidate-side member be greater than that paid to them for the original placement. If no money is returned to the client or paid to a third-party candidate provider, there will be no refund of the candidate-side member’s fee.
All members are strongly encouraged to immediately review your jobs and ensure these fields are correct, and that your partners are aware of your actual terms. If your policy is for replacement or credit only, you may want to consider adding that to the Guarantee Terms field for additional clarity. For example, instead of 30, write 30 days replacement.
Nicky
send letters to: nanderson@npaworldwide.com