HR letters and employment document templates, one per moment

One letter per moment in the employment cycle

Six of the eleven record something good and are mostly about figures and dates: a probation confirmed with the next review date, a probation extended with the reasons and the measures set out in a table, a promotion with the new title, pay and start date, a salary increase with the old and new rate, a bonus with the amount, the basis and the payment date, and a transfer with the new site, manager and terms. The other five belong to a process: an invitation to a disciplinary meeting, a show cause letter that sets out the allegations, a final written warning that lists the prior warnings, a redundancy letter with notice, pay and the consultation that came before it, and a return to work letter with a table of adjusted duties.

What a process letter must not say

The letters that belong to a process are careful about what they claim. The show cause letter and the meeting invitation both state that no finding has been made and that the employee may bring a support person. The final warning describes the process rather than promising an outcome anywhere else. The employment confirmation says it is not a guarantee of continued employment. The bonus letter says that being paid one quarter creates no right to a later payment. These are the sentences most often dropped when a letter is copied, and they are the ones that matter if the decision is reviewed.

Australian wording, and what to change

Five of the eleven are Australian and use the terms the Fair Work system uses: notice, redundancy pay, the National Employment Standards, a support person, and in one case a certificate of capacity and suitable duties. The other six avoid terms that belong to one jurisdiction. Whichever you start from, change the facts, then check three things against your own award, agreement or contract: the notice period, the consultation obligation before a redundancy, and how long a warning stays on file.

Every page in this collection

• Abandonment of employment letter with every contact attempt listed

  An abandonment of employment letter is the written step an employer takes when someone stops coming to work and cannot be reached. It has to record the absences and every attempt at contact, give a fair deadline, and say what may happen without deciding it yet, because an Australian employer that treats silence as a resignation can end up defending a dismissal.

• Acceptance of resignation letter with the last day and final pay

  An acceptance of resignation letter confirms the date employment ends and tells the departing employee exactly what they will be paid and what they need to hand back. Done well it settles every practical question in one page, so the last four weeks are about handover rather than queries to payroll.

• Apprenticeship agreement template with a training plan and wage progression

  An apprenticeship agreement template sets out the employment terms that sit alongside the government training contract: what the apprentice learns each year, what they are paid at each stage, who supervises them and how probation works. For an apprentice under 18 a parent signs too, so this one carries three signatures.

• Bonus letter template that shows how the amount was calculated

  A bonus letter that gives only a figure invites the one question it cannot answer, which is how that figure was reached. This one shows three components with their target, their actual and the dollars each produced, totals them to $4,250, names the pay date and says plainly that the bonus is discretionary.

• Delivery driver contractor agreement with per drop rates and a worked day

  A delivery driver contractor agreement sets out how a courier pays an owner driver who brings their own van, and what each side is responsible for. In Victoria it is also an owner driver contract under a specific Act, which decides the information the driver gets beforehand, how fast invoices are paid and how much notice ends the arrangement.

• Disciplinary meeting letter template giving purpose, place and a support person

  An invitation to a disciplinary meeting has to tell the employee enough to prepare and make clear that nothing has been decided. This one names two till variances with their dates and amounts, gives the date, time and room, attaches the four documents that will be discussed, and offers a support person in writing.

• Employee loan agreement template repaid by payroll deduction

  An employee loan agreement template records money an employer lends to a staff member and how it comes back. When repayment is by payroll deduction, Australian law requires the employee's written authority, and the agreement has to say what happens if they leave or withdraw that authority before the loan is repaid.

• Employee recognition letter that names one specific result

  An employee recognition letter works when it names exactly what the person did and what difference it made, so it can sit on their file as evidence rather than a pleasantry. This one thanks a dispatcher for keeping 148 deliveries moving through a six hour routing outage, and puts the result in three numbers.

• Employee transfer letter naming the new site, the manager and the start date

  Moving someone between sites is only a small change on paper and a large one in their week, so the letter has to answer both. This one names the new store, the new manager and the team size, fixes the first day, funds the extra 14 kilometres for twelve weeks, and lists what carries across untouched.

• Final written warning template that lists every warning already given

  A final warning is only final if the record shows what came before it, and most fail because the earlier steps were verbal and undated. This one lists three prior warnings with dates and who gave them, four dated late starts since the last one, the response given at the meeting, and the consequence in a single sentence.

• Fixed term employment contract template with the end date and its reason

  A fixed term employment contract template sets a real end date and the reason the job ends then, so both sides know the employment stops without a dismissal. Since December 2023 an Australian contract also has to stay inside the Fair Work Act limits on length and renewal, and the employee must be given the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement.

• Flexible working request response letter approving compressed hours

  A flexible working request response letter is the written answer an Australian employer must give within 21 days of a request under the Fair Work Act. When the answer is yes, the letter still has to set out exactly what was approved, from when, and when it will be looked at again, so the arrangement can be relied on by both sides.

• Parental leave confirmation letter with the dates and pay split

  A parental leave confirmation letter tells an employee exactly when their leave starts and ends, which weeks are paid and how, and what happens on their return. Under the National Employment Standards it is also the employer's record that the notice was received and the dates were confirmed in time.

• Part time employment contract template with set hours and pro rata leave

  A part time employment contract template has to do something a full time contract does not: fix the regular days and hours in writing, because Australian awards require it for part time staff, and show how every leave entitlement is scaled to those hours. This one does both for a bookseller working 24 hours over three days.

• Probation confirmation letter with the confirmed terms in a table

  Probation usually ends in silence, which leaves the employee guessing and the employer with no record that the period closed. This letter fixes the end date, restates five terms that now stand unchanged, names one thing the employee did well and sets the next review, all on one page.

• Probation extension letter with the measures that decide the outcome

  Extending probation is only fair if the employee is told why, what has to be true by the new date, and how it will be measured. This letter gives two reasons, three measures with a target and a check for each, the support that makes them reachable, and the date the decision is made.

• Promotion letter template with the new title, pay and start date in one table

  A promotion letter has to be warm enough to read like good news and precise enough to work as a variation to the contract. This one names the new title and who reports in, puts $78,000 next to the old $66,300, fixes the start date, and lists the duties that move with the job.

• Redundancy letter template with the pay calculated line by line

  A redundancy letter has to prove three things at once: that the job has gone, that the employee was consulted before the decision, and that the money is right. This one names the volume fall, dates the consultation, sets four weeks notice, and shows the $24,168.75 worked out line by line.

• Retirement congratulations letter to a groundskeeper after 22 years

  A retirement congratulations letter from an employer has two jobs: to thank someone specifically for what they did, and to confirm the practical arrangements for their last weeks. This one names a groundskeeper's three biggest contributions in numbers, then sets out his final day, final pay and farewell in a short table and a callout.

• Return to work letter template with adjusted duties set out week by week

  A return after a workplace injury goes wrong when the plan lives in someone's head and the worker finds out the limits by hitting them. This letter puts six weeks of graded hours, duties and lifting limits in one table, lists the certified restrictions, fixes four review dates and names the person to call when a task hurts.

• Salary increase letter template with old and new rate side by side

  A pay rise letter is checked against a payslip a fortnight later, so the figures in it have to be the ones payroll will produce. This one gives the annual, fortnightly and hourly rate before and after a 4 per cent rise, names the pay period it starts in, and says which pay it first appears on.

• Secondment agreement template for a council engineer and a host utility

  A secondment agreement template sets out how an employee works for another organisation for a fixed period while staying employed by their own. It needs three signatures because three parties carry obligations: the home employer keeps paying, the host directs the work and pays it back, and the secondee keeps their job to return to.

• Show cause letter template with three dated allegations and a deadline

  A show cause letter asks someone to answer before anything is decided, so it has to state what is alleged precisely enough to answer and say clearly that no finding has been made. This one numbers three allegations with their dates, lists the four documents relied on, and gives five business days to respond.

• Work experience agreement template for a Year 10 student placement

  A work experience agreement template sets out when and where a school student will be, who is responsible for them, what they may and may not do, and who covers them if they are hurt. In Victoria it sits alongside the Department of Education arrangement form, and for a student under 18 a parent signs as well.