Why you should digitise your hiring and onboarding systems

In this blog

• 3 tips for writing a job offer letter and employee contract

• Must haves to include when writing your job offer letter and employee contract

• Tools you can use to automate your hiring and onboarding process

Interviewing candidates and looking through CV's is often the most enjoyable part of finding the right person to welcome onto your growing team. It's when you find that perfect candidate and need to take the next steps in the hiring process that things start to get tedious. The manual, paper-intensive, back and forth processes involved almost taint the joy that comes with finding new talent. As a manager, it can often be unnecessarily stressful ensuring your employees contract protects everyone's best interests.

However, digital solutions make this process more streamlined and stress free so that you can hire and onboard your new employee with ease. Docusign eSignature has a template function integrated with its technology which allows you to quickly and efficiently distribute job offer letters and employment contracts to your new hire. In this blog we will look at some of the best practices to use when drafting job offer letters and employment contracts. These guidelines are not intended to be legal advice; they're just to get you started.

3 top tips for writing a job offer letter or employee contract template

Contracts exist not only to clarify the exact terms of an agreement, but also to guide the resolution of a dispute if one party believes the agreement was not honored. With that, attention to detail is vital when drafting up these documents to ensure your contract or job offer letter is well defined and free from errors.

Tip #1: Be precise

When drawing up an agreement the most common mistake people make is leaving out important details and failing to be precise. Make sure the language and information you include in the agreement is definite and thorough. The terms and conditions of a contract should be crystal clear. You want to avoid the risk that the contract will have to be honored even if the work was not done satisfactorily. Of course, you can't include every minor detail but it should be clear that the work will be done for the company and who will assign the work.

Tip #2: Avoid confusion between a job offer letter and a contract

In the UK it is not a requirement for a job offer or the acceptance to be in writing, however it is recommended that employers give something in black and white. When you are issuing a written job offer it is important to ensure that there is a clear disparity between the job offer letter and the employment contract. If an employee argues that the job offer letter made promises that were not delivered on, the employer may be exposed to legal and financial risk if the job offer letter does not clearly specify that the document is not a contract.

Tip #3: Give yourself time to do it right

The time required to draft a job offer letter or employment contract is not insignificant. This process can take hours or even days. If not done prior to a verbal job offer, the drafting process risks being rushed and therefore risks being sloppy. Additionally, if it takes too long to draft, your intended new hire may lose interest or find work elsewhere while they're waiting for their official paperwork.

When you make sure to give yourself the time you will need, you will have a much better document.

The must-haves

Use these checklists to ensure your document is on the right track.

8 must-haves in a job offer letter

Job title

Commencement date of employment

State whether the position is full time or part time

State whether the job is permanent or temporary

Note the salary or wage being offered and the frequency of pay periods

State the length of the probationary period, if there is one

State the number of paid time off offered with the job

State any benefits that come with the job

4 must-haves for an employment contract

State the employment conditions

Clarify the employees' rights

Clarify the employees' responsibilities

State the duties the employee will be expected to perform

Tools you can use to automate your hiring and onboarding process

A Docusign template makes it easy to send your document for eSignature, automates the process of distributing final copies of the document and stores the document digitally with Docusign's full suite of digital and physical security. Docusign's eSignature features include Web Forms for streamlined data collection, flexible sending options, and enhanced signing experiences, all of which can significantly improve your hiring and onboarding process.

You can explore our templates and learn more with a Docusign free trial. For those looking to further streamline their contracting processes, Docusign Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) offers advanced tools for creating, collaborating on, and managing contracts in one central repository.