We are in the process of revising our tuition reimbursement policy and our office of general counsel wants to know if there are templates/resources that outlines typical terms and conditions for the employee having to repay the organization if/when they leave before a defined period of time. Any help here?

We do not currently have a claw back standard in our tuition assistance program. We find that the program has improved retention of learners compared to non-learners. We also connect our tuition assistance graduates to our internal mobility strategy so engagement among learners is high. Because we don’t have a functional department dedicated to recouping funds, we find that the administrative effort to collect outweighs the benefits of the actual recovery. Lastly, some states have amended their statutes to limit the use of claw back against employees and consumers. 

We have differing policies in different divisions within the company.  Some have no repayment policies.  However, for the one I am aware that does, it works as noted below.

1. If the training is mandatory for the company to function there is no reimbursement required.
2. Otherwise, repayment timeframe is based on amount, see an example below .  Amounts and timeframes are for illustration only and not the actual amounts/timeframes.

2a. 1000, 100% repayment if the employee voluntarily leaves within 12 months
2c. > 3000, 100% repayment if the employee voluntarily leaves within 18 months
2d. > 5000, 100% repayment if the employee voluntarily leaves within 24 months

Note, there are individual, very infrequent, cases where this gets waived if Management deems the course critical to business.

Hope this helps.