Offer letters are used to send an email to your candidates letting them know that they have been offered the position that they applied to.
Table of Contents
- Webinar on Creating Offer Letters
- Leading Up to Sending Offer Letter
- Creating Your Offer Letter
- After Sending The Offer Letter Email
- Approval Workflow Notes
Webinar on Creating Offer Letters
Check out our 9@9 webinar recording that goes over the process of creating an offer letter.
You can also view other 9@9 webinar recordings and sign up for future webinars here.
Leading Up to Sending Offer Letter
- While logged in to the Applicant Tracking System, click Jobs from the top menu.
- While viewing the table for your jobs, click the job title under the "Job Title" column.
- Change the stage for the candidate to the 'Offer' stage. This will allow the Offer Letter icon to appear under the 'Actions' column.
- Click the Manage Applicant Offer Letters icon.
- Click .
- The Offer Letter wizard will take you through the stages of creating an offer letter.
Creating Your Offer Letter
Email Information
Enter any of the appropriate information for the email:
- Email Template
- By default, no email template is selected, allowing users to create an email from scratch. Or, select a previously created email template. For more information about setting up email templates, please refer to the following dedicated article.
- To Field
- The recipient of the offer letter.
- CC and BCC Fields
- Secondary recipients of the offer letter. (Optional)
- From Field
- Automatically defaults to the email address of the user who is creating the offer letter. This can be changed by selecting a substitute email address from the drop-down menu.
- Attach File
- A limit of 5 attachments or 10MB allowed per email. (Optional)
- Subject
- Email subject line. Auto populated if an email template is selected.
- Email Body
- Text in email. Auto populated if an email template is selected. A long list of mail merge fields are available in the Mail Merge drop-down menu. Mail Merge fields will auto-populate using ATS data. If the information is not tied to data in the ATS, it will be completed on the "Additional Fields" step.
When finished, click .
Letter Information
Enter any of the appropriate information for the email:
- Offer Letter Template
- By default, no template is selected, allowing you to create an offer letter from scratch. Or, select a previously created offer letter template. For more information about setting up offer letter templates, please refer to the following dedicated article.
- Title
- Offer letter title. Displayed on the offer letter list page.
- Body
- Text of the offer letter. A long list of mail merge fields are available in the Mail Merge drop-down menu. Mail Merge fields will auto-populate using ATS data. If the information is not tied to data in the ATS, it will be completed on the "Additional Fields" step.
E-Signature Info
Two mail merge fields exist for e-signature: Type Signature and Digital Wet Signature. Mail merge field(s) must be added to take advantage of e-signature functionality on offer letters.
- Type Signature - Candidates will be required to type their name into a text box to e-sign the offer. This type of e-signature can be helpful if your offer letter requires candidates to initial places throughout the letter.
- Digital Wet Signature - Require candidates to use their mouse or finger to e-sign the offer.
When finished, click .
Additional Fields
If you have selected any mail merge fields on the previous pages that are not tied to data inside the ATS, you will be able to enter the necessary information on the "Additional Fields."
In our example above, we need to enter the onboarding location, onboarding manager, salary pay, pay by pay period, start date, and employment type for the mail merge fields to populate in the email/letter.
When finished, click .
If you did not add mail merge fields that require additional data to be entered, proceed to the next section.
Email Response
On this page, enter the email addresses of users who need to receive notifications of this candidate's offer letter activity.
By default, the email address of the user creating the offer letter will be entered. This email address can be removed, but at least one address is required.
Regardless of whether the candidate accepts or declines the offer, the users who are selected to receive notification of candidate activity will be notified accordingly.
When finished, click .
Approval Process
Select an offer letter approval process if your organization has created one. For more information about setting up offer letter approvals, you can refer to the following dedicated article.
If your organization does not use the offer letter approval process, proceed to the next section.
When finished, click .
Preview & Send
Preview the offer letter prior before it is sent to the recipient. The offer letter will display here in read-only format, meaning mail merge fields will be populated either with data from your ATS or data entered from the "Additional Fields" step. Any e-signature fields that were added will not be editable.
When finished, click .
Sending The Offer Letter Email
Offer Letter Approval Process
- If you have an Offer Letter Approval process, the approvers will receive an email like below:
- Clicking the Click here to review and submit your approval link will take the approver to the following page where the approver can approve or reject an offer letter and provide any comments. If the offer letter is approved, it will move to the next approver in line, if any. If there are no further approvers, the offer letter will be sent to the candidate and the offer letter status will automatically change from ‘Pending Approval’ to ‘Active’.
- If an offer letter approval email notification needs to be resent to an approver or if a backup approver needs to receive the notification, the offer letter creator or admin users can do so from the offer letter list page.
- If an offer letter is rescinded at any point during the approval process, an email will be sent to all approvers who previously approved the offer letter and/or approvers who have the offer letter in their queue to approve.
- If the offer letter is rejected at any point, the original Offer Letter creator will receive an email like below indicating that the offer letter was rejected and review the comments from the 'View Approval Process' from the Offer Letter list page. The offer letter can be copied from the Offer Letter list page to make any necessary adjustments and restart the offer letter approval process from the beginning.
Offer Letter Sent to Candidate
Offer Letter Email
After the offer letter is sent, candidates will receive an email notification as it was configured during the offer letter creation process.
Within the body of the email, a large blue "Launch Offer Letter" button will display. Clicking the "Launch Offer Letter" button will take the candidate to their offer letter page which is accessible for 14 days from the time the offer letter was sent. After 14 days, the page will expire and a new letter will need to be created.
Offer Letter
Accept and Decline buttons display at the bottom of every offer letter, as well as a text field for comments. If the candidate accepts the offer letter and e-signature field(s) exist in the letter, each e-signature field must be completed prior to submitting the response. If the candidate declines the offer, e-signature(s) are not required but comments must be entered prior to submitting the response.
Offer Letter Declined
If the offer letter has been declined by the candidate, the offer letter creator will receive an email letting them know. The offer letter creator can review the candidate's response with 'View Offer Response' on the Offer Letter list page. The offer letter creator can also copy the offer letter from the Offer Letter list page to perform any necessary updates and resend the offer letter.
Rescinding Offer Letter
An offer letter can be rescinded from the Offer Letter list page if necessary. When an offer letter has been rescinded, an email will be sent to the offer letter creator.
An email template can be selected when rescinding an offer. This allows the offer letter creator to send an explanation as to why an offer letter is withdrawn. For example, an email template could be created if a candidate fails to pass a background or drug screen and the offer is contingent on them passing.
If the offer letter has been rescinded, the option to copy the offer letter will be available from the Offer Letter list page to perform any necessary updates and resend the offer letter.
Reviewing Offer Letter Status
The status of your offer letter approval or offer letter can be reviewed from the Offer Letters List page.