Experience letter format for Indian employers

What this letter is

An experience letter certifies the facts of a period of employment: the name, the designation, the dates, and usually a short description of the work. It says nothing about whether the person left on good terms and carries no opinion about their performance unless you choose to add one. That restraint is deliberate. A factual certificate is something you can issue to anyone who worked for you, including people you were glad to see leave, without endorsing them.

When to issue it

On the last working day, together with the relieving letter, or whenever a former employee asks for one. There is no good reason to delay it, and delaying it is one of the more common ways a routine exit turns into a labour department complaint.

Everything in square brackets is yours to replace. Read the section below on what this letter must contain before you send it, because the template is the easy half.

[COMPANY LETTERHEAD]

Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that [MR/MS] [EMPLOYEE FULL NAME] was employed with [COMPANY NAME] from [DD/MM/YYYY] to [DD/MM/YYYY].

At the time of leaving, [HE/SHE/THEY] held the designation of [DESIGNATION] in the [DEPARTMENT] department.

During this period [HIS/HER/THEIR] responsibilities included [BRIEF FACTUAL DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES, ONE OR TWO LINES].

We wish [HIM/HER/THEM] well in [HIS/HER/THEIR] future endeavours.

For [COMPANY NAME]

[SIGNATURE]
[NAME]
[DESIGNATION]
[COMPANY NAME]
[CONTACT DETAILS FOR VERIFICATION]

What it must contain

• Full name of the employee, exactly as it appears in your records and on their identity documents.
• Designation, and the last designation held if it changed.
• Date of joining and date of leaving, both exact.
• A short, factual description of the responsibilities held.
• Signature, name and designation of the person signing, on company letterhead.

The law behind it

India has no single statute governing employment letters. The obligations sit across state Shops and Establishments Acts, which differ from each other, and a handful of central acts that apply to some employers and not others. Each note below names its source and who it applies to.

• Several state Shops and Establishments Acts require an employer to issue a service certificate on the termination of employment, and the model standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 provide for a certificate of service for workmen covered by them. Where either applies, issuing the certificate is not a favour you may withhold.
• The duty to certify the facts is independent of any money dispute. Withholding an experience letter until a former employee returns a laptop, repays a loan or serves out a notice period is a common practice and a poor one: the recovery is a separate matter with its own remedies, and the withholding is what gets complained about.
• The letter certifies facts, so the facts must be right. A designation inflated as a parting kindness becomes a document the person may rely on for years, and one you may later be asked to confirm.

The mistakes that cost money

• Confusing it with a relieving letter. The experience letter certifies the period worked; the relieving letter confirms the person has been released and their dues settled. A new employer usually asks for both, and only one of them proves a clean exit.
• Adding a reason for leaving. It is not required, it converts a neutral certificate into a judgement, and if the reason is unflattering it is the line that will be argued about.
• Writing performance opinions into a certificate the employee will show to strangers for the next decade. If you want to praise someone, write a separate reference letter that you control the distribution of.
• Withholding it over an unrelated dispute. Recover the laptop, recover the loan, and issue the certificate.
• Getting the dates wrong. The dates on this letter are what a background check verifies, and a mismatch of even a month can cost the person an offer.

Questions people ask

The letters that go with this one

Or stop retyping it every time

Shiftelio generates experience letters as branded A4 PDFs with your letterhead, the employee details filled in from their record, and a repeating header and page count. The dates, designation and salary come out of the same place your payroll does, so the letter and the payslip cannot disagree.

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