An employment letter is a short document with legal weight. Confusing the offer, the contract and the confirmation letter is the most common and most expensive mistake.
An employment letter is one of those documents everybody has seen and few have written carefully. The phrase covers at least four different documents with different purposes and different consequences, and the trouble starts when one is used where another was needed — an offer that reads as a contract, or a confirmation letter that accidentally promises a bonus.
This is not legal advice, and employment law is local. But knowing which letter you are writing prevents most of the damage.
The offer letter is where most avoidable disputes begin. If it lists benefits, bonuses or review dates in loose language, those words can be read as promises later. State what is fixed, mark what is discretionary, and say plainly that the contract governs.
In Ettex, the letter templates live in PDF — offer letter among the ready contract templates — and Ettex Sign handles execution: signature, date and text fields placed on the document, sequential signing, per-signer messages, automatic reminders, expiry dates, and an audit trail logging every view and signature with time and identity. The completed letter downloads as a sealed PDF with a completion certificate, which is exactly what you want on file years later when someone asks what was agreed.
A verification letter should be short, factual and released only with the employee's consent — role, employment dates, and salary only if the employee has agreed to it being disclosed. Do not add opinion, do not speculate about future employment, and keep a copy of what was sent and to whom.
The same restraint applies to references in the other direction. Say what you can support with records, keep it consistent between candidates, and route requests through one person rather than letting each manager improvise.
Once accepted it generally creates obligations, though it is usually not the full contract. How binding it is depends on the wording and the jurisdiction — which is why it should state that the contract governs.
The offer invites acceptance and summarises key terms; the contract sets out all terms and is the document that governs the relationship.
Job title, employment dates, and salary only with the employee's consent. Keep it factual and avoid opinion.
For most commercial and employment purposes yes, across the EU, UK and US. A few jurisdictions impose formalities on specific documents, so check locally.
With the rest of the employment record, for the retention period your jurisdiction sets — usually years after employment ends, because disputes and verification requests outlive the job.
Write the employment letter you actually mean: an offer that invites, a contract that governs, a verification that states facts. Send it for signature, store the sealed copy, and diary the dates it creates.
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