Highers Client Terms

Key terms at a glance

This summary is part of the Terms. The full clauses below prevail if they differ.

• Fee: 17% of the first-year OTE of each candidate you hire after we introduce them.
• Introduction: Any way we make a candidate known to you, including profiles shown in the app.
• 12 months: The fee is due for a hire within 12 months of the introduction, by you or your group, in any role, even after a first no.
• Guarantee: Full refund if the hire leaves within 3 months of starting.
• Your part: Tell us within 10 business days when you hire someone we introduced, and keep profiles to yourself. If not, the fee is due and a 10% surcharge can apply.
• Liability: Ours is capped at the greater of the fees you paid in the last 12 months and EUR 10,000.
• Law and courts: those of the country of your registered office (for the United States, your state). See clause 16.

1. Who these Terms are for

1.1The platform and services are for businesses only. By ticking the box at sign-up you accept these Terms on behalf of the company you name (the Client, you) and confirm that you are authorised to bind it. Highers may ask for evidence of that authority and may refuse or close an account that is not opened for a business.

1.2You give us accurate company details at sign-up (legal name and country of registered office, and your company number and VAT number if you give them) and keep them up to date.

1.3If you have signed a separate written agreement with Highers, that agreement prevails over these Terms where they conflict.

2. Definitions

Candidate: a person Highers introduces to you.

Client Group: the Client and any company that controls it, is controlled by it, or is under common control with it.

Introduction: Highers making a Candidate's identity available to you by any means, including on the platform, in an AI-generated suggestion, example or shortlist showing the Candidate's name or profile link, or by email or message. Our platform records are evidence of the date and content of an Introduction; you may show they are wrong.

Hire: a member of the Client Group engaging a Candidate, whether as an employee, contractor, freelancer, consultant, intern, director or co-founder, full-time or part-time, permanent or fixed-term, directly or through a third party. The Hire happens when the Candidate accepts an offer, and the Start Date is the day they start.

OTE (on-target earnings): the Candidate's gross annual base salary plus the variable remuneration (commission, bonus) they would earn at 100% of target in their first 12 months, including any guaranteed payments. Sign-on bonuses, benefits in kind, pension contributions, expenses and equity are excluded. For part-time roles, the OTE for the agreed working time. For fixed-term roles shorter than 12 months, the OTE is annualised.

Business Day: a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in the Netherlands.

3. The service

3.1Highers finds, contacts and assesses candidates for the roles you describe, using its own team and AI tools, and introduces to you candidates who have told us they are interested in the role.

3.2You give us accurate information about each role: the job title and duties, location, working hours and whether it is permanent, the experience and qualifications required, the expected OTE range, the main benefits, the notice period, any known health and safety risks, and the intended start date. You tell us promptly of any change.

3.3We tell you without delay if, within 3 months of an Introduction, we learn information suggesting that a Candidate is unsuitable for the role.

3.4Hiring decisions are yours. You remain responsible for interviewing, checking references, right-to-work checks and employment contracts, and for complying with employment and anti-discrimination law.

3.5The platform is provided as is and may change. We may suspend it for maintenance or security reasons.

4. Fees

4.1For each Hire of a Candidate within 12 months after their Introduction, you pay Highers a fee of 17% of the Candidate's OTE (the Fee). This applies whatever the role, even if it differs from the one we introduced the Candidate for, and even if you or the Candidate initially declined. A Hire within this period is presumed to result from the Introduction unless you show otherwise.

4.2Where the Candidate is engaged as a contractor or freelancer, the Fee is 17% of the fees payable to them for the first 12 months of the engagement, calculated on the agreed rate and expected volume. Where the Hire carries no salary or fees (for example a co-founder paid in equity only, or an unpaid internship), the Fee is a flat EUR 3,000.

4.3Fees are exclusive of VAT, which is added where applicable (for business clients in another EU country, VAT is reverse-charged).

4.4We invoice the Fee when the Candidate accepts an offer. Invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date.

5. Telling us about a Hire

5.1You tell us within 10 Business Days after a Candidate accepts an offer, giving the role, the Start Date and the OTE, and, on request, a copy of the relevant part of the offer or contract. The same applies to an offer that is accepted and later withdrawn.

5.2If you do not give us the OTE in time, we invoice on the basis of the top of the OTE range you declared for the role or, if none, a reasonable market estimate for the role. As soon as you provide evidence of the actual OTE we correct the invoice and refund or credit any difference.

6. Refund guarantee

6.1If a Candidate's employment or engagement ends for any reason within 3 months after the Start Date, we refund the Fee in full, provided that you paid the Fee on time, you tell us in writing within 14 days after the end of the employment or engagement, and the Hire was notified to us under clause 5.

6.2No refund is due if the Candidate is engaged again by the Client Group within 12 months after leaving.

7. Candidates you already know; Hires you do not tell us about

7.1Candidates you already know. No Fee is due if you show that, in the 6 months before the Introduction, the Candidate applied to, or was in documented contact with, the Client Group about a role. Please send us the evidence within 10 Business Days after the Introduction so that we stop working on that Candidate for you.

7.2Hires you do not tell us about. If a Hire is not notified to us under clause 5, the Fee is due 14 days after the Start Date, statutory interest and recovery costs run from that date (clause 12), and the refund guarantee does not apply. Where the failure to notify is your fault, you also pay a flat surcharge of 10% of the Fee. The surcharge is credited against any damages we claim for the same failure, and it is reduced or waived if you show that we suffered a lower loss or none.

7.3Passing a profile to someone else. If you disclose a Candidate's details to a third party outside the Client Group and that third party hires the Candidate within 12 months after the Introduction, you pay us an amount equal to the Fee as compensation, unless you show that the hire did not result from your disclosure.

8. Candidate information

8.1Candidate information is shared with you only for hiring for the Client Group. You must not copy it into another database, sell it, pass it to third parties or use it for any other purpose.

8.2Each party is an independent controller of the candidate personal data it holds and complies with data protection law. The Data Sharing Annex below applies and forms part of these Terms.

9. AI

9.1Highers uses AI to find, assess and contact candidates. AI outputs, including summaries, scores and suggestions, can be incomplete or wrong. They support your judgement and do not replace it.

9.2You do not make a hiring decision about a Candidate based solely on an AI output, you have a person review each decision, and you do not use the platform to assess candidates on any characteristic protected by anti-discrimination law.

10. Your account

10.1Keep your login to yourself and the people in your company who need it. You are responsible for what is done from your account.

10.2We may suspend or close an account that is misused, used in breach of these Terms or for which invoices are more than 30 days overdue, after notice where reasonable.

11. Liability

11.1Nothing in these Terms limits liability for intent, gross negligence, fraud, death or personal injury, or any other liability that cannot be limited by law.

11.2Otherwise, for ordinary negligence, Highers is liable only for breach of an essential obligation (one whose performance makes the contract possible and on which you may normally rely), and only for damage typical and foreseeable when the contract was made. Highers is not liable for loss of profit, revenue or business, or for indirect loss.

11.3Highers' total liability under these Terms is limited to the greater of the fees you paid to Highers in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim and EUR 10,000.

11.4You compensate Highers for claims by third parties, including Candidates, arising from your breach of these Terms or of the law.

12. Late payment

If an amount is paid late, you owe, without notice, interest at the statutory rate for late payment in commercial transactions under the governing law (for UK clients, statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998), the fixed compensation for recovery costs under that law, and any further reasonable recovery costs to the extent that law allows.

13. Term and termination

13.1These Terms apply from your acceptance until your account is closed. Either party may close the account at any time by notice.

13.2Closing the account does not affect Fees for Candidates introduced before it closed: clauses 4 to 8, 11, 12 and 16 continue to apply to them.

14. Changes to these Terms

14.1We may change these Terms for a valid reason, such as a change in the law or in our services. We give you at least 30 days' notice by email and in the platform.

14.2Changes to the Fee, how it is calculated, the 12-month period, liability, or the governing law and courts apply to you only once you accept them by ticking a box in the platform. For other changes, if you do not agree you may close your account before they take effect, at no cost.

14.3Changes never apply to Candidates introduced before they take effect.

15. Confidentiality

Each party keeps the other's non-public business information confidential and uses it only for these Terms, during the Terms and for 2 years after.

16. Governing law and courts

16.1These Terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of the Client Country, and the competent courts at the Client's registered office in the Client Country have exclusive jurisdiction.

16.2Client Country means the country of the Client's registered office as declared at sign-up and shown in the acceptance record, determined when the Client first accepts these Terms. A later change of registered office does not change it.

16.3Where the Client Country is the United Kingdom, the law of England and Wales applies and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

16.4Where the Client Country is not the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States, Dutch law applies and the competent court in Amsterdam has exclusive jurisdiction. For the United States, see the United States Annex.

16.5Either party may seek urgent interim relief in any competent court.

17. General

17.1These Terms, their annexes and the acceptance record are the entire agreement on their subject, subject to clause 1.3. Your own purchasing or business terms do not apply.

17.2These Terms are in English. Notices are given by email: to Highers at thomas@highers.co, to you at the address of the account administrator.

17.3You may not transfer these Terms without our consent. We may transfer them to a company in our group.

17.4If a clause is invalid, the rest stays in force, and the invalid clause is replaced by a valid one as close as possible to its purpose.

17.5We keep a record of each acceptance (who accepted, for which company, when, from which IP address and which version) and an archive of past versions of these Terms.

Data Sharing Annex

A.1Roles. Highers and the Client are each an independent controller of the candidate personal data they hold. Neither processes data on the other's behalf.

A.2What is shared. Professional profile information (name, job titles, employers, career history, location, professional profile links, contact details where the Candidate agreed) and Highers' notes on the Candidate's interest in the role. Highers never shares national identity numbers, passport numbers, social security numbers or special categories of personal data.

A.3Purpose. The Client uses candidate data only to assess and hire for the Client Group, and not for marketing, profiling unrelated to the role, or resale.

A.4Retention. If no Hire follows, the Client deletes the candidate data it received from Highers within 6 months after the Introduction, unless the Candidate has agreed otherwise directly with the Client.

A.5Security. Each party protects the data with appropriate technical and organisational measures, and tells the other without undue delay, and in any case within 72 hours, of a personal data breach affecting data received from the other.

A.6Candidates' rights. Each party answers requests addressed to it and helps the other answer requests about shared data within a reasonable time.

A.7Transfers. If the Client is outside the European Economic Area, in a country without an adequacy decision, the EU standard contractual clauses (controller to controller, module 1) apply between the parties and are incorporated by reference, with the Client as data importer.

A.8Information to candidates. Highers informs Candidates that their profile is shared with prospective employers. The Client gives Candidates any further information it must give as a controller.

United States Annex

This annex applies if the Client's principal place of business is in the United States. It prevails over the rest of the Terms where they conflict.

US.1Authority. By ticking the box you represent that you are an employee or officer of the Client with authority to bind it. If you lack that authority, you are personally bound by these Terms. The Client's interviewing or hiring of any Candidate ratifies these Terms.

US.2Location. The Client tells us, for each role, the state where the employing entity is located and where the role is based.

US.3Hires not notified. Clause 7.2 applies without the 10% surcharge. Unpaid amounts bear interest at 1% per month, or the maximum lawful rate if lower, from the date they were due. The Client reimburses Highers' reasonable collection costs.

US.4Governing law and courts. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State in which the Client has its principal place of business, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the Client submits to the state and federal courts located in that State. Highers may also bring claims for unpaid Fees in any other court of competent jurisdiction. The prevailing party in any action to enforce these Terms is entitled to its reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EACH PARTY WAIVES TRIAL BY JURY.

US.5No candidate fees. Highers charges no fee of any kind to candidates.

US.6Not a consumer reporting agency. Highers is not a consumer reporting agency and its materials are not consumer reports. The Client will not use Highers materials as a consumer report or as a basis for adverse action, and will obtain any background check from a provider that complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

US.7Hiring decisions and equal opportunity. The Client makes all hiring decisions. The Client warrants that its job requirements are job-related and lawful and will not instruct Highers to select or exclude candidates on any characteristic protected by law; Highers will refuse any such instruction. The Client gives candidates any notices required in its jurisdiction, including about the use of automated tools, and cooperates with Highers on audits and notices that the law requires.

US.8Taxes, currency, sanctions. Fees exclude all taxes, which the Client pays. Fees are invoiced and payable in US dollars, without set-off, with the Client bearing its bank charges. Highers provides a Form W-8BEN-E on request. Each party represents that it is not a sanctioned person under US, EU or UN sanctions, and the Client will not use the services for roles in sanctioned countries.

US.9Limits. THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS". CLAUSE 11 (LIABILITY) APPLIES IN FULL TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE GOVERNING LAW.