Imagine that you get hired as a secretary. The office environment is fun and relaxed, and all you have to do is answer the phones, greet guests and do minor organizing. However, you never get a formal written job offer.
Within a few months, you’re being asked to do all kinds of things, including negotiating with contractors, completing budget reports, managing technical programs and doing communications work.
Finally, you get a performance review. It goes extremely well – your bosses are happy with your performance. When you mention that most of your job is doing things that were never in your job description, they tell you that all of those things are now officially part of your job. If you decided to work for the company for a few more years, they would consider giving you a raise.
Now imagine that you’re the employer. You neglected to give this employee a written job offer because things were busy when they came on board. What if the employee feels they are being treated unfairly? What if they quit? Or even worse, if they get fired? If they’re angry or disgruntled, they can take you to court.
This entire situation could have been avoided if you had just taken five minutes to write the job offer.
Writing a formal job offer isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Find out how to create them here.