What Should We Put in an Employment Offer Letter?
From time to time, clients ask me to review their employment offer letters. Here is a summary of what I believe every offer letter should convey to the prospective employee from the business and legal perspectives.
From the business perspective, the letter should lay out the most important characteristics of the position being offered:
- Position title
- A description of the position’s responsibilities
- Work location
- The title of the manager to whom the position reports
- Salary and, as applicable, other compensation, such as commissions or stock options / restricted stock (including a reference to any applicable governing documents)
- A brief summary of benefits, noting that they are described in detail in the Employee Handbook
- How the prospective employee should reply to accept or reject the offer
- The date on which the offer expires
From the legal perspective, the following are critical:
- A statement that employment is “at will“, i.e., that either party may terminate the relationship at any time for any reason or for no reason
- An obligation to sign and return the enclosed Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement (or whatever title the company uses for such an agreement)
- A notice that employment will be subject to the company’s Employee Handbook as it may be changed from time to time (perhaps with a copy of the Handbook enclosed, if it is not too long)
- Legal boilerplate about dispute resolution (see Arbitrating Employment Disputes: Pro and Con), amending the offer letter, and the like
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Dana H. Shultz, Attorney at Law +1 510 547-0545 dana [at] danashultz [dot] com
This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact a lawyer directly.
Categories: Contracts, Employment
Dana Shultz is a business-savvy lawyer located in Northern California's San Francisco Bay Area (in the East Bay, near Oakland) who has in-depth knowledge of law, business, technology, and the needs of startup and early-stage companies.