Ganesh HS ·
A company I looked at produced three appointment letters issued in the same quarter. One set probation at three months, one at six, and one did not mention probation at all. All three had been typed by the same person, from whichever earlier letter happened to be open.
Nobody had decided to change anything. That is what makes letter drift dangerous — it is not a decision, so nobody reviews it, and it only becomes visible when two employees compare their terms or when one letter has to be produced to settle an argument.
Most businesses need these and very little else. Each one settles something specific, and the test of a good format is whether it settles it without the issuer having to think.
Issued before joining, and the first thing the candidate shows at home. It must state the role, the reporting line, the location, the start date, the salary structure rather than only a gross figure, and what the offer is conditional on. Most joining-day surprises trace back to an offer letter that stated a number and nothing else.
The one that actually governs the employment. Role, terms, probation, notice, place of work, and what the employee is agreeing to. This is the document produced in a dispute, which is why it is the one most worth having reviewed properly.
Issued when probation is completed. Short, but not optional — a confirmation that happened in a review meeting and never became a letter is a confirmation nobody can evidence two years later.
The one companies skip, which is why probation quietly lapses. It must state why, what has to change, and the new date. An extension without a stated reason is an extension the employee cannot act on.
Effective date, old structure, new structure, and whether arrears apply. Verbal increments that never reached payroll are among the most common trust failures in a small business, and this letter is what prevents them.
New role, new reporting line, new location, effective date, and what has not changed. Two people moved to the same branch on different terms, because each move was settled on a call, is a situation only a standard format prevents.
What happened, what standard it fell short of, what is expected now, and by when. A warning letter that only expresses displeasure is not usable later; one that states the standard and the expectation is.
Issued at exit, usually needed immediately by the next employer. Keep them as two clean formats and issue both at settlement rather than holding either back.
A format is not a template with blanks for name and date. It is a document where every decision has already been made, so the person issuing it has nothing to invent.
LETTER OWNER VERSION APPROVED LAST REVIEW
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Offer HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Appointment HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Confirmation HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Probation extension HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Salary revision HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Transfer / role change HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Warning HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Relieving + experience HR v__ __/__/____ __/__/____
Rule: letters are issued from the master only. Nobody types
a letter from a copy of somebody else's.That last line is the entire discipline. Every drift I have seen started with somebody opening the last letter they issued because it was nearest.
Businesses doing this discover they have several years of inconsistent letters already out. The instinct is to reissue. Resist it — reissuing an appointment letter to an existing employee reopens terms that were settled, and does so for every employee at once.
The new masters apply to letters issued from a stated date. Say so internally.
Not every variation matters. What matters is where someone has materially different terms — notice period, probation, a promise — and nobody knew.
Whatever was agreed stands unless you change it by agreement. What you need is a list of who differs and how, so the business is not surprised by its own past.
New joiners, revisions and transfers use the masters. Within a couple of years the inconsistency ages out without a single uncomfortable conversation.
Two places, and they are different. The masters live wherever your approved policy documents live, with a version and an owner. The issued letters live against the individual employee, retrievable in minutes.
That second requirement is the one most businesses fail. A company that cannot produce an employee's letters quickly cannot answer a dispute, a verification request or a due diligence question, and the reason is almost always that issued letters were filed by whoever issued them rather than against the person. Putting both in order is what HR documentation work does first, because nearly every other documentation problem is downstream of it.
If you already hold employee records in a system, the issued letters belong there rather than in a folder — which is what a policy and document centre is for: one current version of each master, and every issued letter sitting against the employee it was issued to.
Eight formats is an afternoon of decisions and a legal review. What it buys is that every letter the business issues from now on says what the business intends, and that two employees comparing their letters find a difference only where somebody deliberately made one.
It also removes a quiet load from whoever issues them. Most people typing an appointment letter from an old copy know they are guessing, and would much rather not be. Getting the masters written is part of the same HR documentation discipline that produces the policy manual and the SOPs — and it is usually the part that pays back fastest.
One last connection worth making. The letters and the policy manual are the same problem at two scales: one approved version, one owner, one place people look. A business that has fixed its letters and left three versions of the leave policy on a shared drive has fixed half of it, which is why HR documentation work treats them together. And where a letter has to reflect a decision — a confirmation, a transfer, a revision — the letter is only as reliable as the employee movement process that produced the decision behind it.
Offer, appointment and relieving are needed from the first hire and first exit. Confirmation, extension, revision, transfer and warning can follow, though each tends to be needed urgently the first time the situation arises, which is the worst moment to draft one.
As a starting point for structure, but not as issued documents. Downloaded templates commonly carry terms written for another jurisdiction or another kind of business, and the commitments in them are real once issued.
A named role, issuing from the master only, with exceptions approved by a stated person. The drift problem is entirely a problem of letters being typed by whoever is handy from whatever copy is nearest.
Annually as a habit, and immediately whenever a situation arises the format did not anticipate. The second matters more — each unanticipated case is a gap in the format, and fixing it while fresh is what stops the next person improvising.
Draft it properly rather than adapting the nearest one, and then add it to the register as a ninth format if it is likely to recur. Address proofs, bank letters and visa letters commonly become the ninth.
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