How to Write a Letter of Recommendation for an Employee?
What is an Employee Recommendation Letter?
A recommendation letter, which is also known as a reference letter, is a document about a person based on his assessment, for a future role. A recommendation letter can be of several types. It can be written for vouching for someone in education departments.
Although, a recommendation letter for an employee specifically covers the skills, achievements, and capabilities of your employee for future employment with other organizations. Recommendation letters that are related to job or employment can also be termed as a job reference or an employment reference. The sole purpose of writing them is to refer your employee for a better job position in a firm.
Employee Recommendation Letter Tips
Writing any other recommendation can be easy but when you are writing a recommendation letter for an employee, you have to take care of a few things.
1- Don’t Write It If You Don’t Feel Like it
A recommendation letter has to be always positive otherwise it is of no use for the person. Now, this could be really easy if you just want to be done with it, and being honest on it does not matter to you. On the other hand, if you want to write an honest recommendation letter, you must really know the person. If what you are going to write negates what actually a person is then you are recommending a wrong person to someone and that could create a bad reputation for you. If you know the person and you know you will not be able to generate a positive reference letter, just say no to him.
2- Collect and Assess All the Relevant Data
Even if you know your employee, you do not know him well enough when it comes to writing a recommendation letter for him. Do a background check. Talk to him about his work experiences. Given that he has already worked with you, you should be already familiar with his skills and shortcomings. Let him talk more about his abilities. Ask others about his performance and behavior with them. His behavior is not important to mention in the letter but it is important for you as it helps you to assess him better.
3- Connect the Dots
When you have grasped your knowledge about the experiences, behavior, skills, and abilities of your employee, it is time to connect them all and see how it can contribute towards his next job. Add those things that can go in his favor and neglect those that will not be proven good for him, only if it is not too much of a big deal.
4- Build a Character for Him
Whether you know it or not, when you write a recommendation letter for your employee, you are sort of building a character for him. So it is his life and work experiences through your perspective. This is why it is necessary for you to be careful because someone’s career depends on it.
5- Review
When you are done writing it, give it another look. You will be surprised to find what you have missed or added wrongly by reviewing it. Do not rush it just because it is not doing you any good. Your employee has expectations from you and he bets his career on it. Take your time and go through it again.
What to Include in the Employee Recommendation Letter?
Now that you know how to write a good recommendation letter, let us see into the formation and structure of it. Generally, a recommendation letter for an employee consists of three parts except for the greetings.
1- The Beginning
In the very first stage of the letter, you open with the purpose you are writing for i.e. recommendation. You introduce your employee and the position you are recommending him for at the receiver’s firm. This should be the only thing in your introduction as a crowded intro will come off as unprofessional.
2- The Middle
Then you move to the part where you describe your relationship with the recommended person as to how you know him and for how long. You mention the position at which the recommended person has been working for you. Mention the exact date since he started working for you. This again should not be prolonged with extra information, as you do not want your reader to be bored out of it in the middle. Keep this section brief as well.
3- The Ending
Your recommendation letter depends on this part. This is the portion where you try to convince the reader that the recommended person is suitable for the position. You do that by not forcing them to hire him but by mentioning his skills and abilities. Talk about his personality but be brief. The whole point of being brief is that you are a professional and you should come off as an ex-employer of the recommended person and not his parent. Mention his records and work experiences but do not over-praise them.
Sample Letter of Recommendation For an Employee
If you are still confused about it, here is a sample to guide you about how you should write it.
[Date: mm/dd/yy]
Dear Mr. abc
I am writing this letter to recommend Mr. xyz for the job opening that you have at your firm regarding research writing.
I have known Mr. xyz for quite a long time as my employee. He has been working with the company since July 11, 2010, until now as a content writer.
In the many years, Mr. xyz has worked with us, we have always found him dedicated to working. His writing skills have always pleased us. He is full of ideas and always comes up with new strategies for work and tries to implement them in the workplace as well. His competency for professional writing is remarkable. We have seen him grow with others so it is not wrong to say he is a good team player. He has been an asset to this company and shared his fair contribution to it.
Based on my long and pleasant experience with him, I can definitely recommend Mr. xyz for the position of ‘Research Writer’.
Sincerely,
Mr. ijk,
CEO at LMN.
This is a representation of a basic recommendation letter for an employee. Remember, you can make it as long as you want it but it is advisable to keep it short as the concerned reader does not take much time to evaluate it. If it helps, you can always add examples of how the recommended person dealt with a situation or solved a problem. Do not be carried away with it but do not leave out any important details about your employee. Let the reader know your employer was a valuable asset to you. We hope you got the picture!
