As an HR employee, especially if you are part of the recruitment team, you’d need to write an appointment letter for an employee who has been hired by your company. It is an important document considering that it marks the beginning of the employment term with all the necessary terms and conditions included in that. Ensuring you have the right guidelines on how, what and when to write the appointment letter ensures you achieve this successfully.
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Appointment Letters
What is an appointment letter?
A letter of appointment is a legal document issued by an employer to communicate their decision of hiring an applicant for a job. This is after qualified applicants have sent their job application letters, gotten shortlisted, and received a job offer letter.
Some companies have their applicants go through two or more interviews while most of them often use the traditional one-time interviewing process. In the letter, employers state their expectations such as benefits, remunerations, working station, working time and reporting time and structure.
Letters Of Appointment
How do I write an appointment letter?
The presentation of your letter goes a long way into ensuring the document is considered binding between your company and a potential employee. Here are some tips on how to write an appointment letter format:
- Addressing the appointment letter
Begin by writing the date in which you are writing the letter for documentation purposes with the prospective employee on the first line. After four spaces, begin the second line where you mention the employee’s name and address. This is crucial for formality purposes and to ensure the letter meant for the specific person.
Ensure the lines have single spacing to make the letter more appealing to the reader. After the address, write the salutations after skipping two spaces. This sets the tone that your potential employee will interpret how you view them. Use the word Dear to address their name and then skip two spaces before writing the body. - The first paragraph of the appointment letter
This is a short paragraph made up of three sentences. The first one confirms the appointment to them. The second sentence congratulates them for getting the job. Finally, welcome them to your company in the third sentence. - Principal information of the letter
This is the second paragraph where you inform them of the job title, responsibilities, the commencing date, the working hours, and reporting structure. Then move to the third paragraph and state the salary plus the benefits discussed during the interviewing process. Four sentences are just enough for these two paragraphs and they should be brief. - Signing off and conclusion
Leave a space where you request the soon-to-be employee to sign and ensure to write the date under the signature. Finish up by letting them know that the company is looking forward to having them on their team.
End the letter by writing ‘Sincerely’ followed by the name of the employer after skipping two spaces. Include your signature after four spaces and skip a space for the employee’s signature.
What should I include in an appointment letter?
You get to relay information to the employee in sequence. Here are the contents are written in the letter:
- Welcoming the employee
This is the first impression the employee will get about the company so better make it good. It’s an important step in creating an effective onboarding and successful process. A simple welcoming statement makes them feel secure about the working environment and they develop a sense of belonging.
In the beginning, congratulate them on securing the job with the company then welcome them to the team. It’s an open way to show the company’s happiness in employing them and that they are looking forward to having them. - Terms, conditions and prospective
Explain to them what they’re supposed to do at work and state the stipulated working hours. After this, you are free to let them know of the terms and conditions related to their salaries, and compensations included in the letter. These rules and regulations ensure the maintenance of order at work. - Important information
Communication is key to ensuring efficiency and productivity at the workplace. Let them know about their job title, benefits plan, rate of pay and to whom they’ll be reporting to. Briefly state these as an overview concerning the discussed topics for a peaceful understanding between the employer and employee. - Employment at- will
The employer has the legal right to terminate the employee at-will. They aren’t mandated to provide an explanation as to why they did so. This should be clearly included in the letter to prevent future misunderstandings. - Conventions, customs and regulations
The letter of appointment should state any medical or physical tests that are taken at the workplace. This will only go ahead if the employee agrees to these offers by fully co-operating. Mentioning this at the letter to ensure it’s clear that the discussion was agreed upon is important.
Appointment Letter Format
How do I request an appointment letter?
You get to write this to clients explaining why you are requesting a meeting. Your appointment letter should be:
- Short and brief
It needs to be precise and short by the use of a few keywords that they can easily gauge. Scheduling the first meeting is quite hard, especially if you don’t know your client. In this case, write the first letter in a brief way and straight to the point by outlining your products. If they give a response, go ahead and write a second letter giving more information about the products. - Friendly but professional
Try to think of it as a conversation with the client and include questions to give it a lively touch. Don’t overdo it but stick to being professional while writing the letter. - An included contact information
Provide information on how you want them to get back to you. It can be through a telephone number or email address. It’ll look more professional when you include an email signature to your email, social media links and contact information. - Attached with essential documents
Always mention that you have attached a file or document with a statement like “Please look at the attached documents,”. You can send along with an attached email file with an email message to the recipient.
