Offer Letter with Severance Provision

When to use this template

Reach for a Offer Letter with Severance Provision when the message benefits from being preserved in writing rather than left to memory or a phone call. The structure below is designed for the typical case — read it through once, replace the bracketed fields with your own details, and trim anything that doesn't apply to your specific situation. For more on the conventions specific to offer letters — when a written record matters, what tone to strike, and what the recipient is reading for — see our Offer Letters writing guide. The plain-language conventions used throughout this letter follow the same writing principles many professional editorial style guides recommend: short sentences, concrete nouns, and a single clear request per paragraph.

The letter

Dear [Candidate's Name],

It is with great pleasure that I extend an offer of employment for the position of [Job Title] at [Company Name], reporting to [Manager Name]. We're excited about the prospect of you joining the team.

The key terms of your offer:
  • Start date: [Date]
  • Annual salary: [Amount], paid [bi-weekly / monthly]
  • Sign-on bonus / equity: [Amount and vesting]
  • Benefits: [Health, retirement, PTO summary]
  • Work location: [Remote / Hybrid / Office address]
  • Probationary period: [Length, if any]

This offer is contingent on [background check / reference check / I-9 verification / signed NDA]. Please review the attached [employee handbook / benefits guide / agreements] before signing.

We ask that you confirm your acceptance by signing and returning this letter no later than [Date]. If you have any questions, please contact [Name] at [Phone] or [Email].

Welcome aboard.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Company Name]

Download & format options

This template is delivered as plain editable text — copy it into your preferred document tool, or use the format-specific instructions below. Every download includes the same letter body and the field placeholders shown in brackets.

Read the writing guides →

What's specific about Offer Letter with Severance Provision

What makes this Offer Letter with Severance Provision different from the other offer letters in this category is the specific situation it was written for. The structure, tone, and pacing of the body all assume that situation — which is why the template will land more naturally if you keep the structure and only change the content inside the brackets. Resist the temptation to rearrange paragraphs; the order they appear in is the order most offer letters readers expect, and reordering them quietly costs the letter some of its credibility.

The most common mistake people make when sending a Offer Letter with Severance Provision is over-explaining. The recipient does not need the entire backstory; they need just enough context to act on the request, the notice, or the message. If you find your draft running long, look for paragraphs that exist only to justify the letter to yourself rather than to inform the reader, and cut them. A page is the natural ceiling for almost every offer letters, and most are stronger at half a page. Writers who want a deeper dive into the structural conventions can also consult the broader professional correspondence handbook we maintain for this category.

Finally, before you send, run through the small checklist that applies to every letter in this category: have you named the operative date, named the specific person or amount, set a clear next step, and signed with a real title? Those four items are what move a draft from a personal note into the kind of professional correspondence that gets taken seriously. The body below is already structured around them — just don't lose them in your edits.

About Offer Letters in general

An offer letter is the moment a relationship becomes contractual, and it should leave the recipient with no questions about what they are agreeing to. The strongest offer letters cover compensation, start date, role, reporting structure, contingencies, and the deadline for response — in plain English, on a single page. Vague offer letters create acrimony six months later when expectations diverge from what the recipient remembers. The templates in this section were drafted with HR and legal review in mind: they spell the essentials out clearly while leaving room for the negotiation that often follows. If you are sending an offer that includes equity, bonuses, or unusual benefits, get those clauses reviewed by counsel before the letter goes out — those are the terms that produce the most disputes downstream.

For broader writing principles that apply to any letter in this category, see our Offer Letters writing guide. You may also find our plain-language drafting reference useful when you want to tighten the prose further.

Fields you'll need

• Your Name
• Your Title
• Your Address
• Your Phone
• Your Email
• Date
• Recipient's Name
• Recipient's Title
• Recipient's Company
• Recipient's Address
• Position Title
• Effective Date
• Final Day of Work
• Department
• Manager Name
• Final Compensation

Tips for sending this letter

1. Confirm role, start date, and salary in the first paragraph.
2. List benefits, equity, and bonuses with exact amounts and vesting schedules.
3. Spell out contingencies (background check, references, work authorization).
4. Provide a clear acceptance deadline — usually one to two weeks.
5. Specify the reporting line and physical work location.
6. Reference any non-compete, NDA, or IP agreement as an attachment.
7. Sign with the title of the person authorized to make the offer binding.

Why it matters that this is in writing

Of all the channels available for this kind of message — phone call, text, instant message, casual email — a written letter remains the most enduring choice when the matter has weight. A printed or PDF letter signals that you took the time to compose your thoughts, structure them, and put them in front of the recipient in a form they can return to later. That signal alone often shifts the tone of the response in your favor, because the recipient understands they're being asked to engage seriously rather than offer a quick reply.

It also creates a record. Six months from now, if you need to reference this exchange, you'll have an exact copy of what you said and when you said it. That matters most in situations involving employment, money, housing, and any contract — the kinds of situations where memory alone is not enough. Even when the recipient is a friendly party, the discipline of writing a real letter forces you to think through your position more carefully than a quick message ever would. That extra thinking is the real value of using a template like this one as a starting point: it gives you the structure, so you can focus on the substance.