Receiving an offer letter from an employer or recruiter is an exciting time. It means your skills and experience are valuable and the company wants to hire you. In this article, we'll go over what is a job offer letter, along with typically what's included in it.
What is an offer letter?
An offer letter is a written document that offers a candidate a particular job position for which he/she was interviewed and got selected. It is created to intimate the candidate about his/her employment. It contains the Job title, joining date, finalized package or salary, Reporting manager’s details, role and responsibilities, and other benefits he/she is eligible for.
Once the offer letter is handed over to the candidate, he/she needs to accept to proceed with the hiring process further. The offer letter acceptance can be done verbally or in writing. Basically, It is a documented formality to offer a job and accept the same.
What's Included in a Job Offer Letter
An offer letter confirms employment details such as:
- Job description: A description of what your overall goals are along with your day-to-day tasks
- Job title: What your title will be when working at this company
- Reporting structure: Another item discussed during the interview process, the reporting structure is often included in job offer letters. The reporting structure will detail who you report to, along with who will be reporting to you.
- Work schedule: The hours you are expected to work each week. The job offer letter should also include your expected start date, which was likely discussed during the hiring process.
- Salary: The amount you can expect to make on a yearly basis. Also included should be any bonuses or commissions that go along with the job.
- Benefits information and eligibility: Most full-time jobs come with a benefits package. Your letter will likely include information about this package, including healthcare and retirement benefits.
- Termination conditions: The job offer letter may detail the conditions that would lead to your termination. This is another important thing to have in writing in case there is a dispute somewhere in the future.
- Finally, Acknowledgment of offer and confirmation of acceptance
Is a letter of offer a binding contract?
Whether or not a job offer is a binding contract depends on a few things. Technically, they’re all binding contracts, but it’s the terms of the contract that dictate just how binding it is. Most job offer letters will include a formal start date but say nothing about the term of employment (aka the end of it). Instead, there is often a clause describing the employment as an “at-will” contract, which means that either party can terminate it as long as the terms of termination are met (this is where the amount of time necessary for giving notice and the like are taken care of).
Therefore, the job offer letter is important because it relays vital information in writing. If there are any discrepancies after you've begun working, you'll want to have a written record of what you were expecting.
Wealth Cafe Learnings
A job offer letter allows to itemize the facts about the offer, outline the job’s responsibilities and highlight relevant details about the company. If you accept the offer, the letter serves to promote communication and to help orient you to the business environment before they actually start their first day of work.