The Art of Writing Employment Letters

There are several reasons why one may be requested to write employment letters for your employees. Sometimes, the request may come from your employees, while at other times, a third party who wants to verify the employment details of your employee may request for it.

In this blog, you will find information about why employees request employment letters, what they should include in the letter and employment letter examples to help you create your employment verification letter. Let us, therefore, take a look at what employment letters are.

What is an employment letter?

An employment letter (or, employment verification letter) is a formal letter that validates the employment details and the work history of the employee.

The request for an employment letter could come in from an employee or a third party.

Difference between employment letter and reference/background check

A reference check verifies every detail about the background of the employee, like previous address, employment history and criminal records. It is a broad concept and mainly includes the details about an individual’s (former employee’s) personality, work ethic and professional performance.

The employment letter, in contrast, only includes factual information about the employment of the employee, like employment date, job title with description and total term. The purpose of this letter is to only confirm the employment of the employee.

Writing employment letters

Your human resource department may need to occasionally write employment letters on behalf of the company for employees who want to provide a third party with proof of employment. These third parties could be banks, financial institutions or the new employer. One of the best ways to address this request is to create an employment letter sample, which can be customised and used as per the situation.

This document would confirm the employment status of the employee, their employment dates, annual salary and other additional details based on why they require the employment letter for a third party and the information that the organization allows to share.

Why do employees require an employment letter?

In general, An employee would request you for an employment letter for any of these reasons:

• They have applied for an automobile or home loan and the financial intuition wants the employment letter to confirm/verify the individual’s employment details. They also want to know whether the job is a permanent one and provides stability and whether the employee earns adequate income to pay the monthly instalments before they approve the loan.
• The employee wants to rent out a house and the estate management firm has asked the employee to furnish the employment letter to confirm the employment details and to provide proof that they are able to afford the rental payment and other costs of the property.
• They have requested a deferral or reduction in the loan payment and the financial institutions want the employment letter as proof of employment and their present income to determine whether to accept the request or not.
• The employee wishes to pursue employment opportunities with a different company, and the new employer has asked for the employment letter to verify the details provided by the employee as well as to conduct background checks.

While the employees do not require to disclose the reason for requiring the employment letter, the employee needs to explain what kind of information they want to reflect in the employment letter and the contact information.

What should you include in employment letters?

The info that needs to be covered in the employment letter depends on the type of details requested by the third party and those which the employer is allowed/wants to disclose. Employers must ask the employee to sign the release form before allowing them to share the information with the third party.

Employment letters must be printed on the official letterhead of the company or another official document, which contains the company address and logo. An ideal employee verification letter should comprise the following details:

• Name of the employer
• Address of the employer
• Name and details of the firm requesting the letter
• Employee name
• Date of employment
• Job title of the employee
• Employee JD
• Current salary of the employee
• Reason for resignation/termination (if required/applicable)

You should confirm with the requesting firm whether they require a physical letter or an email will do. A typical employment letter should be simple, to the point and brief. It should only include the information requested by the third party. An ideal letter should not be more than 100 words.

Samples of employment letter

Here are the examples of employment letters that you can use as references while creating one for your employees.

Note: If the name of the third party requesting the letter is mentioned, then include the name in the greeting. Or else, use the universal salutation, “To whomsoever it may concern”.

1. Employment letter sample for a current employee

Employer name
Employer address
City and Pincode

Date

Third-party name
Address
City and Pincode

To Whomsoever It May Concern,

Kindly accept this document as proof of employment of (employee name) with (company name). Mentioned below are the details as requested.

Employee name: (full name)
Employment dates: (employment start date)
Job description: (job title and description)
Current salary: (salary details)

For any further questions or if you need additional information, get in touch with us at (contact details).

Sincerely,
(Manager details)
(Company name)

2. Employment letter sample for a former employee

Previous employer name
Address
City and Pincode
Date

New employer name
Address
City and Pincode

Sub: Employment verification letter

Dear (recipient’s name),

This letter confirms that (employee name) was employed with (previous company name) as a/an (job title) from (start date) to (end date).

If you want more information or have any queries, please contact us on (contact details).

Sincerely,
(HR manager details)
(Company name)

3. Employment letter sample

Date
Recipient’s name
Job title
Recipient’s company name
Address

Sub: employment letter for (employee name)

To whomsoever it may concern

My name is (full name) and I am an/the HR manager of (company name). I write this letter to state/confirm that (employee name) is working as a full-time employee of the company since (joining date) as a/an (job title of the employee). His/Her responsibilities involve (job description; example: driving sales at supermarkets as well as other retailers and other brand promotional activities). Mr/Ms (employee last name) also manages the team when required.

For additional information or other queries, feel free to contact us on (contact details and email address).

Yours sincerely,
(Signature)
(Name)
(Job title)

These are some of the best employment letter samples, which you can use to compose your version of the employment verification letters for your employees. Make sure you only add information that is necessary and relevant to the request. Do not add any kind of sensitive or personal employee information as it would be considered highly inappropriate and there is a risk of the data getting misused by external media. Therefore, write a direct and precise employment letter only.