Why did I curate these offer letter templates?

I’ve worked in a couple start-ups, and I’ve consulted for a handful more. On top of that, my husband is the CEO of a San Francisco Bay Area start-up. One thing I’ve learned quickly is that start-ups move quickly, and until the funding comes, start-ups are also frugal and on a shoe-string budget. If you’re not seeking funding, then watching the budget is even more essential. Working in start-ups, I’ve gone back to the drawing board on simple tasks so many times, and I’ve learned it’s a waste of time. Learn from my lesson and invest in small things that save you time.

Start-up founders will often build relationships with lawyers from the beginning, and we all know that it’s a lawyer’s job to prevent liability. The HR Representative is also there to do the same, but the legal side of the job is much leaner and focused mostly on employment law. If a founder asks “do I need you to draft me offer letters?” to their lawyer, the answer will always be yes, when in actuality, an HR representative with at least a handful of years of experience can handle this easily.

Unknowingly, my husband, a start-up founder and CEO, went right to his lawyer out of habit and spent hundreds of dollars on something his wife had sitting in her google drive.

Another thing to note, because we’re primarily at-will employment in the United States (meaning employment can terminate at any point by either party) offer letters are more of a gesture for clear communication than a legally binding contract. An example to showcase the limited legal weight of an offer letter in the United States would be how Facebook rescinded thousands of offers in May, 2022, even after people had resigned from their prior employers, and Facebook can’t really be held liable for this decision. Of course, in the United States, it’s the American way to be able to open suit if anyone feels there’s a legitimate reason, so businesses must always protect themselves anyway.

These offer letters cover what’s necessary in California and the United States, without all the extra fluff!

These Offer Letter templates are perfect for:

• Start-ups looking for offer letters to get them started with their first hires

• Company Founders, Leaders, and Executives that don’t know what should be included and omitted from an offer letter

• Employers that are in California - If you’re an employer in California, you’ll have a little more employment liability to be on top of, and these offer letters include those pieces.

• Employers in the rest of the US - Because these offer letters follow CA law, you’ll be covered for employment throughout the US

• Newly hired or founded HR teams or Recruitment teams looking to save time

• Those looking to plug and play a great and simple offer letter into their Applicant Tracking System or HRIS like Rippling, Greenhouse, Lever, JobVite, SmartRecruiters or a document signing platform like Docusign, or Honeybook

• Someone looking for an offer letter with signing bonus language with payback terms (example: employee must pay back the signing bonus if employment terminates)

• Offer letters templates are for start-ups and small businesses that are on a shoestring budget, pre-funding rounds, pre-HR teams, or those small businesses that are self-funding

• Hiring teams looking to appear highly polished and professional with a clean and simple design in their offer letter templates

• Those that want to add their logo and corporate branding colors to the offer letter templates

• People looking to save time to focus on other areas of the business!

• Those looking for a template curated by a trustworthy source, like a SPHR certified HR Leader: HRCI’s SPHR or Senior Professional in Human Resources certification can’t be taken until someone has at least 5-7 years experience in HR, and professionals don’t often pass the test until at least 10+ year’s of experience. Even then, less than half pass. You can trust that your offer letter templates have been curated by a pro in HR and recruitment!

Please Note:

You must have a google account to access these offer letter templates, even if you plan on converting them to Microsoft. Google accounts are free and take only a few minutes to create with little information collected. I've selected this method because google offers this software freely, and I support using the software to encourage this option to always be available to those that may not be able to afford tools like Microsoft Suite.

These offer letters DO NOT include NDA’s or Non-Competes, which generally don’t hold up in court in most states anyway, and are often separate documents when they are included with offer letters.

The Bossy Sauce, Master Your Craft, Your Best Masterclass, Kristen McDonald and all its affiliates are not held liable in any way for the use of these documents.