E-signature for recruiters: terms, offers and contracts

Recruitment runs on documents that other people sign. The client signs terms, the candidate signs a registration, the employer and candidate sign the offer, and a contractor signs a pack and then a timesheet every week. A recruiter is usually the one sending, often the one chasing, and only sometimes a party. That makes the signing setup, who is on the request and in what order, the part worth getting right. This is general information, not legal or employment advice.

Terms of business

Terms of business set the commercial relationship with a client employer: the placement fee, when it is payable, any replacement guarantee, and what happens if the client hires a candidate introduced by the agency without paying. They are a contract between the agency and the client, so both sign, and the agency usually countersigns after the client.

Clauses about introduced candidates and poaching deserve careful drafting, since that is where disputes come from; the non solicitation clause page explains how such clauses are commonly framed. Put initials beside the fee schedule rather than on every page, so the client’s acknowledgement sits on the clause that is actually argued about.

Candidate registrations and privacy

A candidate registration collects personal information, and privacy law shapes what the agency tells the candidate and how it handles their details. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner describes the 13 Australian Privacy Principles as governing standards, rights and obligations around the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, an organisation’s governance and accountability, the integrity and correction of that information, and people’s rights to access it. It notes that a breach of a principle can lead to regulatory action and penalties, so check with an adviser what your registration wording needs to say.

A signed registration gives a clear record that the candidate saw that notice. One signer, email link, and a required acknowledgement field beside the consent wording are usually enough. Keep sensitive details out of the request title, because the title and covering message are visible before any identity check.

Offers and employment contracts

Offers and contracts are between the employer and the candidate, and the recruiter may prepare and send them without signing. The sender of a request does not have to be a recipient, and the sender still receives the completion email with the certified PDF.

The Fair Work Ombudsman says an employment contract can be in writing or verbal, and that it cannot remove or provide for less than an employee’s minimum entitlements under the National Employment Standards, an applicable award or an enterprise agreement. It also says employees on a new fixed term contract must be given the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement. A written, signed contract does not replace any of that; it records what was agreed above it.

Order matters. The embedded offer letter signing example shows the right sequence for a Data Analyst offer: the candidate, Elliot Nakamura, signs first after entering a six digit emailed code, and the head of the team is invited only once his acceptance lands. He chose to type his signature, which is rendered in a script typeface and saved as an image exactly like a drawn one, and the date beside it stamped itself from the moment he submitted. With order on, a countersignature cannot sit on an unaccepted offer.

For casual roles, the casual employment agreement signing example puts the employee’s initials at the foot of pages 1 to 4, where the casual loading and rate table sit, and an emergency contact field and signature on page 5, with the store manager countersigning second.

Contractors and timesheets

On hire contractors add two documents: an onboarding pack and a regular timesheet.

The contractor onboarding pack signing example binds a services summary, a confidentiality undertaking, site rules and a bank details page into one six page PDF. The contractor signs two pages, initials two, and types the ABN, account name and BSB into fields on the last page, behind an emailed code because the pack collects bank details. One drawing fills all four marks, and the whole pack produces one certificate instead of four.

Timesheets reverse the usual order of authority: the contractor declares first and the supervisor approves second. The timesheet approval signing example has the supervisor type the approved hours into a required field, so the approval is her own number rather than a tick against the contractor’s. It also shows a wrong sheet declined with a reason and replaced by a corrected one. The Fair Work Ombudsman says employers must keep time and wages records for seven years, legible, in English and readily accessible to an inspector.

Placements change mid assignment: a rate rises, an end date moves, a contractor converts to a permanent role. Treat each change as a new document rather than an edit, because a sent request cannot be changed and that is a feature when money is involved. A variation to a contractor’s rate usually needs the client to agree the new charge rate, the agency to confirm it, and the contractor to accept the new pay rate if it affects them, in that order. Put the effective date in the document itself, since the stamped signature dates record when each person signed, not when the new rate starts. Number variations in the request title, so the history of a long placement reads in sequence on the request list and can be found by searching the title.

Order, roles and what the setup cannot do

Every signer on a request is a signer. There is no approver role and no copy only recipient, so a recruiter who wants a record without signing should be the sender rather than a recipient. How that differs from tools with more roles is explained in signer versus recipient.

Use Sign in order whenever one signature depends on another: acceptance before countersignature, declaration before approval. Turn it off when both parties sign independently. One caution: on a new request the stored setting and what the screen first shows can disagree until you touch the switch, so set it deliberately every time. The table below sets out the common documents with signers, order and identity check.

Common mistakes

Employer countersigning before the candidate accepts. Turn signing order on, candidate first.

Adding the recruiter as a signer to get a copy. The sender already receives the completed file.

Bank details behind an email link alone. Use an emailed code.

A contract that undercuts the award. A signature does not make it valid.

Offers left to expire. Every request expires 30 days after creation; follow up before then. The employer side of these documents is covered in e-signature for HR documents.

Build it

The signing order page explains the Sign in order switch: with it on, only the lowest outstanding position is invited and nobody can sign out of turn; with it off, everyone is invited at once. Order is set by numbers on the recipient cards, and the switch applies to the whole request. Each signer can use an email link, an access code or an emailed one time code, with five failed attempts locking them out for fifteen minutes. A request cannot be edited once sent, and on completion the certified PDF is emailed to every signer and to the sender. The tutorial on sending a PDF for e-signature covers each step.