Streamline and Modernize Your Offer Letters with Workday® and Electronic Signatures

Managing your offer letters in Workday® does more than merely help you complete a transaction. It is a way to establish and monitor best practices, and, more important, to impress top talent. Smooth, professional communications and ease of use make it a fitting transition from today’s high-touch recruiting process.

An automated process in Workday® provides benefits that a paper-and-snail-mail process cannot match.

• If your prospect is considering another offer you have no time to lose, and today’s employees have come to expect electronic communications.
• Making your candidates print out offer letters, sign them, and send them by email scan or fax tells your candidates you are behind the times. We recommend you use the integration with DocuSign Workday® provides to allow your candidates to handle the transaction on-screen with electronic signatures. DocuSign will be available to Workday® customers early this year.
• Automation makes it easier for you to standardize your letters and view and report on the status at any time.
• You can configure your Workday® onboarding application to fire off an email to give the new employee access to onboarding the moment they accept the offer. Onboarding can integrate directly with recruiting, learning, and collaboration tools.

The purpose of an offer letter is to formalize the conditions of the offer and to protect you and your candidate from misperceptions that can lead to misunderstandings later. In today’s litigious society, seemingly insignificant details can carry a high price tag.

We recommend following the SHRM guidelines for offer letters and having your attorney review your offer letters and hiring process before you configure them in Workday®.

Always Make a Verbal Informal Offer

We recommend you make an informal offer by phone as soon as you have decided. Don’t let the candidate be surprised by an impersonal communication. The offer should come directly from the hiring manager, and should briefly state that you would like the candidate to join the team and what the salary will be.

Explain that a formal offer will be coming by email when. Tell the candidate you will be available for questions, and provide contact info for other resources.

Make the Conditional Formal Offer

• Include the necessary information, including job title, to whom the candidate will report, and the start date.
• Show the pay basis and overtime eligibility, and, if applicable, include state daily overtime requirements.
• Give job details, and explain that duties may change over time.
• Do not state the salary as an annual amount. It is best to state the hourly wage or amount per pay period to avoid the assumption of a one-year contract. You can, however, show how the pay rate calculates to an annual sum.
• You can include information about company-paid benefits, bonus programs, retirement plans, and PTO, but do not state specifics. Provide only a general description, and make it clear the details are for information only and subject to policy or plan changes.
• State the contingencies clearly, such as background check, drug test, licensing, non-compete agreement, or security clearance.
• Include information about I-9 and other statutory requirements.
• Clearly indicate the expiration date of the offer.
• Depending on your state, include a statement that the employment is at will.

Visit SHRM to see a sample of a conditional offer.

It is up to you whether you want to include your non-compete and confidentiality agreements, benefits information, and bonus plans with the offer letter. You can provide it in your onboarding application, which the prospective employee can access right away.

A Seamless Transition to Onboarding

Workday® onboarding can help you manage your offer process and impress your candidates with a smooth transition from Recruiting to Onboarding. We recommend you don’t delay implementing in your Workday® platform. It might require a little nudge during your change management program, but it will pay big dividends in the long run.

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