Recommendation Letter
11/21/2017
When an employee is leaving one organization to join another organization but because of her/his good rapport with the present employers asks for a Recommendation Letter from them. This letter should normally speak very well of the employee for whom it has been written. This letter ends up referring an individual to another organization. But all this is possible if the individual has very good relations with the present organization. In the absence of good relationships the present organization just gives a general letter to the individual.
A Recommendation Letter works as the “magic wand” for the individual who is getting it because it helps her/him get a place in the new organization. The language used in the letter should be simple yet convincing. The tone should sound positive and not authoritative. Appropriate adjectives should be used to ensure that the letter is speaking highly of the individual concerned. The Recommendation Letter should carry the employment details of the concerned employee along with her/his positive traits. It should sound as if the new organization is going to have an asset for itself and not that the previous organization is trying to get rid of a liability.
DO’S AND DON’T’S OF RECOMMENDATION LETTER
- A Recommendation Letter can make or break an individual’s career plans in the new organization so the language used should be very positive
- This letter should talk about the profile that the individual was handling in the previous organization as well as about her/his positive traits or qualities
- A Recommendation Letter should preferably be given if you know the person well enough to recommend her/him to another organization. Otherwise it tends to backfire.
- Careful use of adjectives should be done to ensure that only the qualities of the person are being talked about and there is nothing personal that is being covered in the letter
- Before handing over the letter to the individual make sure that there are no grammatical or punctuation errors
- The Recommendation Letter should be addressed to the organization that the individual has finally decided to join otherwise it may be misused for more than one organization
- If the recommended individual has helped bring about a tremendous improvement in the previous organization then that too should be mentioned in the letter
