The Ultimate Offer Letter Template (An Employer Guide)

When it comes to onboarding talent, time is of the essence.

As a hiring manager, you know this better than anybody.

The stats speak for themselves.

According to a report from Career Builder, if a job seeker hasn’t heard back from you within two weeks, they’ll consider your ad to be a lost cause.

Competition is stiff. That’s why when you reach out to a candidate, you need to stand out.

A good place to start is your job offer letter.

In this guide, we’ll go over the elements that make up a compelling job offer as well as some offer letter templates that you can use to model your own invites.

Let’s get right into it.

Why are job offer letters so important?

Job offer letters are serious business.

They are the final interaction between you and a candidate before they decide to take you up on your offer or take their services elsewhere.

That, coupled with the psychological principle of the recency effect (the notion that when presented with a series of events, people recall the last ones better) imply that a job letter’s presentation can either have a positive or negative impact on the recipient.

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But that’s not all: they also speak volumes about the type of HR professional you are.

An offer that looks attractive, detailed, or well-thought-out sends a positive signal to the candidate that you view their partnership as significant.

What makes a job offer letter stand out?

The same goes for any offer letter.

There’s no reason why you should send out standard, unsurprising communications that every other recruiter hands out.

By making a few changes, you can create an exciting yet professional narrative that makes your prospective employees all the more interested in working with you.

These changes include:

Being clear about the job: There is no better place to be concise and clear about a job than in the offer letter. Take the opportunity to share information about the job that you may not have shared in your initial correspondence with them. This may range from clarifying job titles and descriptions to confirming responsibilities and compensation packages.
Tell them why you hired them: From the vantage point of a hiring manager, it’s only fair that you let the candidate know why you selected them. For example, if they were the most qualified candidate for the post, let them know. This doesn’t mean that you need to overdo it with compliments. In a short sentence or two, you can convey how they excelled in the onboarding process and consequently boost their confidence as a professional.
Be personable: The number one thing that sets you apart from others who onboard talent is personality. Inject some of it into your writing. Don’t be afraid to share your emotions with the candidate. If you’re excited to have them as part of your team, say so. Relating to a team member or coworker on a personal level makes for a world of difference within an organization.

What are the elements of a great offer letter template?

While there are factors you can use to differentiate your communications from those of your competitors, there is some generic information that needs to be featured.

Let’s take a closer look at them now:

Congratulations/Welcome: This is a sentence or two within the letter (usually the first paragraph) in which you congratulate the candidate on making it past the selection process.
Justification: As mentioned previously, it’s important to include something indicating why the candidate was ultimately chosen for the given role.
Job Details: This will encompass the title of the position as well as the role’s specific responsibilities. Even though this is something that you probably discussed during the interview phase, it’s good to document it. That way, both you and the candidate have a point of reference for their job and are clear on what is expected.
Compensation and Payment Details: Be sure to go through the compensation package that you are offering in exchange for your prospective employee’s services. This may take the form of the hourly salary rate (if applicable), possibilities of bonuses or rewards, and the inclusion of certain benefit plans. Also, be clear on the date on which your employee will receive their compensation.
Important Dates and Schedule: Within your letter, it’s important to clarify the work schedule that you expect the candidate to follow. This will include their start date as well as the number of hours weekly (if applicable) they are being paid to dedicate towards their responsibilities. The letter must also indicate a time period within which the employee will be contracted.
Hierarchy: Advise the tentative recruit on the structure within the team. In doing so, tell them whether they will be reporting directly to someone as well as the team members with whom they will be interfacing.
Privacy policies: If the candidate has to handle sensitive information, you need to inform them that they will be bound by a confidentiality agreement which prohibits them from sharing said information.

Here’s a sample of an offer letter that contains all the information needed to set up a good relationship with your future employee:

The Balance Careers

How to use an offer letter template

Once you’ve synthesized the elements mentioned above into an attractive offer letter, you’ve conquered half the battle.

Now, you need to communicate it to the candidate.

Most hiring managers may take this communication phase for granted. However, that is a grave mistake that may cost you the chance to hire talented staff.

We’ve already mentioned how competitive the talent search market is.

For that reason, the faster you release the offer letter to the employee, the more likely they will accept it.

However, before you send it, where possible, give the candidate a phone call informing him of your decision. In doing so, you come across as more sincere and human.

This is also a chance for you to extend your gratitude to the employee for applying.

You should also have a phone call with the employee after issuing the offer letter.

That way, you have a second opportunity to clarify any doubts before moving forward.

Having said that, for HR professionals, creating offer letter templates is a cumbersome task.

Not only that, it’s also time-consuming.

Taking into account the slew of other responsibilities that you have, it may be too much for you to personalize each offer letter template for a given candidate within an acceptable time frame.

In such circumstances, Jobheron can help you with that.

Using Jobheron for offer letter templates

Jobheron is a UK-based company that leverages software to simplify the recruitment process and increase the chances of you securing talented professionals for your organization.

Ben Durrant, CEO and founder, leads a team that posts your ads across all top job boards, sifts through the list of candidates and presents the relevant ones to you.

In addition to the services that Jobheron offers, HR managers can access information to help them with their HR management.

Apart from our blog, there are a host of additional useful resources. To learn how to structure your own job invite, check out our offer letter template.

Using it will speed up the process of onboarding so you can focus on other areas of HR management that require attention within your organization.