What Is a Letter of Employment Offer?

What Is a Letter of Employment Offer?

Dr. Linda Hancock

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Hancock has written a regular weekly column entitled “All Psyched Up” for newspapers in two Canadian provinces for more than a dozen years. Over the years, her readers and clients have said that they have benefited from her common-sense solutions, wisdom, and sense of humour. Dr. Linda Hancock, the author of “Life is An Adventure…every step of the way” and “Open for Business Success” is a Registered Psychologist who has a private practice in Medicine Hat. She can be reached at 403-529-6877 or through email office@drlindahancock.com

Published

January 13 2011

Recently I have had so many clients who state that they have been disappointed when they started a new job and then found out afterwards that the deal they thought they were getting had been changed. Sometimes this had to do with the wages that were promised, hours of work or the benefits that they might be getting.

Whether you are hiring staff or accepting a new position for yourself, it is vital that you have a written offer that will outline all of the things that you can expect as part of your employment.

A Letter of Offer should include the following:

1. Full name of the employee

2. Complete address and telephone number of the employee

3. Employee number

4. Social Insurance Number

5. Employment start date

6. Hours of work (start and end times or number of hours within a certain period of time)

7, Wage per hour, week, month or year

8. Outline of employee benefits such as vacation, sick leave, health/dental. (Appropriate insurance forms should be attached for the employee to complete)

9. Probationary Period end date

10. Start date

11. Work title

12. Job Description

There should also be a line in the letter that states "signature constitutes agreement with the terms outlined" as well as blank lines for the employee and the employer to sign and date the document.

The original of the signed letter is put in a confidential personnel file to be kept by the employer and a copy of this is given to the employee.

Every time there is any change to the terms of employment, a new letter should be prepared and signed by both the employer and the employee..

Besides the letter of offer, the employer will need to provide the employee with appropriate paperwork to complete which will fulfill government remittance requirements (such as Employment Insurance benefits, Canada Pension Plan and Income Tax). If automatic deposit into a bank account for payroll is used, the employee will also need to provide a cheque from their account which is marked VOID. This will allow the employer to gather banking information that is necessary for electronic processing.

If the employee is to be handling cash, they might need to provide the employer with a Criminal Record check. Finally, a letter which introduces the employee to the employer's financial institution will need to be written which outlines the boundaries that the employee and bank will need to follow regarding business accounts such as whether the employee will be allowed to access information, make deposits, sign cheques or withdraw money.