MightyRecruiterAn interview reminder letter is not only a critical tool that hiring leaders can use to make sure interviewees turn up for a scheduled interview, it’s also an opportunity to reintroduce your company and to continue the process of courting strong candidates.
Every HR letter serves a unique purpose, and your job confirmation letter of employment is no exception: it’s your chance to extend an offer in a formal fashion and document the terms. After all, even if you’ve verbally made an agreement, it’s not a done deal just yet; the candidate needs to know exactly what they’re signing up for – and this is your opportunity to lay out this information.
For instance, you’ll want to spell out the nature of the employment relationship (which is usually at-will), the salary, whether there are any conditions to employment (perhaps a drug test is necessary, for example), the start date, any benefits, etc.
Once they read your message, they should have all the information they need to either pursue some sort of negotiation or finalize the deal, at which point you can anticipate their arrival on the start date and officially turn away your second- and third-place contenders.
As you write a job confirmation letter of employment, make sure you gain buy-in and approval from your legal team. You want to avoid any misstatements or omissions that might lead to problems down the road.
Use the guidelines below to write a job confirmation letter of employment that’s complete, clear, and written in an appropriate tone.
How to Write a Job Confirmation Letter of Employment
1. Clarify the nature of the agreement. Make sure your employee understands that this is an “at-will” relationship in which either party can walk away at any time, for any reason, with or without notice. Of course if the relationship will take another form, specify that form and the terms.
2. Organize your information. Collect all the details you’ll need to communicate before you sit down to write, including:
• job Title
• reporting structure
• salary
• start date
• how and how often the employee will be paid
• terms of the agreement (at-will or otherwise)
• employee’s exempt/non-exempt status
• benefits that accompany the role
• external resource that lists company policies, like an employee handbook
• contingencies to your offer, like background checks or medical reviews
• info regarding next steps
• contact information or a resource the employee can access to obtain any additional information
3. Eliminate the frills. Later in the process, after your employee formally accepts your offer and makes a commitment to the company, you’ll send out a welcome letter, and your welcome letter will be warm and friendly. By comparison, when you write a job confirmation letter of employment, stay straightforward and concise. Keep your message professional; don’t worry about treating your new employee like your new best friend. At the point, they need facts. Provide those facts so they can sit down with their loved ones and make an important life decision.
4. Include documents and links as necessary. If you’re like most companies, you’ll be sending your letter by hard copy and also via email. Since the employee will need to review and sign your offer and potentially some other documents, like a non-disclosure agreement, in order to accept, make sure those documents are included in your letter or made available through functional links in your email. Don’t leave anything out.
5. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What would you need to know and what details would matter most to you under these circumstances? As a current employee for this company, there are probably some things you take for granted, but your reader doesn’t yet know these things, and these factors may play a role in their decision to accept the offer. For example, does your company operate from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM? Or do you keep the lights on and employees within reach 24 hours a day? Do you have a connectivity policy? Do you enforce a standard business casual dress code?
6. Include deadlines with your instructions. Of course you’ll need to explain what your reader will need to do next in order to secure the position and accept the offer. Namely, they’ll need to sign and return the actual offer letter and any other contingent documents. Make sure your letter clearly explains which forms to fill out, where to sign them, where to send them, and by what date they need to be returned. Your reader will need to know exactly how much time they have to think the offer over and respond.
Your reader may need more information or details that haven’t been addressed in your letter. No matter how carefully you research and write a job confirmation letter of employment, you may not cover every necessary point, and your reader will need to know where to turn with questions. Make yourself available or provide the names, addresses, and phone numbers of those who can serve as resources.