The ultimate goal of an employee is to advance his or her career. Let’s be honest, who wants to get stuck in the same position with the same salary for the next five to ten years? Most of the time, professionals work toward a bigger salary, and one way to get that salary increase is through a promotion.
If you are in human resource or essentially tasked by management to create a promotion letter, here are some promotion recommendation letter examples in PDF format you will find very handy.
A standard promotion recommendation letter follows a formal business letter format. The essential components are there and there are only a few tweaks that need to be made, especially in the body of the letter. To help you understand better, here is the format of a standard promotion letter with the information on what content to incorporate in each section.
The heading is where the recommendation letter begins and it is where you basically address the recipient, and if you input the wrong information in your promotion recommendation letter, it creates the possibility that the concerned employee will no longer be promoted. The simple reason is that the letter’s recipient will not be too pleased if you misspell his name or you wrote down the wrong department where he is working in.
The heading only includes the date and the inside address. For the date, input the date where you will be submitting the letter. Just make sure the date is not too far off from the date where you will be submitting the letter (for example, if you make the letter on the 15th of July 2018 but you submit the letter on the 20th of August 2018 instead).
The inside address is just the recipient’s designation and address. Since the promotion letter is only addressed to an individual working within the company, you don’t have to list down the whole company address. Also list down after the recipient’s name additional post-graduate degrees or licenses in which the recipient has obtained (if he or she has any).
Here is an example of a promotion letter heading:
January 1, 2018
Ms. Blake Lively, CPA
Accounting and Payroll Manager
Green Lantern Technology Solutions, Inc.
The salutation is where you offer your greetings to the recipient. Since the promotion recommendation letter is a formal business document, the salutation should also be formal. Steer away with these salutations (greetings where you usually use with your friends): “Hey!” “What’s up?” “Brother!” “Hombre!” “Hey Bestie!” etc. Also, always use a colon ( : ) punctuation mark after the greeting.
You should use any of the following salutations listed below:
The body of a promotion recommendation letter contains the details of the concerned employee’s job promotion. The body of a promotion recommendation letter is similar to other business letters (or any other letter in fact) as it comprises the details on the purpose or reason why the letter is written.
For a job promotion recommendation letter, the body should not exceed three paragraphs and the entire letter including other sections of the letter should be no more than one page long. If there are other details that need to be discussed in the promotion letter, state in the letter that a meeting or discussion will be held instead on a specific date. Avoid making the letter into a business plan or a legal contract as the purpose of the letter is to only inform or “give a heads-up” to the letter’s recipient.
The body of a job promotion recommendation letter should include this information: full name of employee, his current designation and the position in which he will be promoted to, summary of the employee’s performance, and the names of the individuals or officers involved in the promotion.
Here is an example of a job promotion recommendation letter body:
I hope all is well with you, Mr. Johns. I am here to inform you that Mr. Eduardo Silva is up for a job promotion at the end of this month, June 2018. He is currently working as an Administrative Assistant for XYZ Corporation and he will be promoted to Administrative Manager with your approval and with the approval of the company’s managing director, Ms. Anna Reinhart.
Mr. Silva has been working with the XYZ Corporation for the past 12 months and has shown efficiency, diligence, and hard work ever since day one of working with the company. His monthly performance review is very impressive, averaging a 90% rating for the 12 months he has worked with XYZ Corp.
Mr. Silva is a valuable asset to the company, and I believe a promotion will be beneficial not only for Mr. Silva’s career but also for XYZ Corporation as the company will want to retain high-character and goal-driven employees. I have scheduled a meeting together with Ms. Reinhart on March 15, 2018, 2:00 PM at Function Room A to discuss Mr. Silva’s promotion. Please inform me if you would like to move the meeting on another date or time.
Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day!
You don’t end your letter with the last paragraph or last sentence of the body. To sign off the letter in a respectful and polite manner, incorporate a complimentary close or a complimentary closing. The complimentary close is basically the salutation at the end of the letter.
Some companies today are already omitting the complimentary close (as well as the signature line) in their business letters due to various reasons. But a complimentary close makes the letter more professional and makes sure the sender shows proper business etiquette to the recipient, even though it’s only a one-page letter.
Here are examples of complimentary closings you can utilize:
The signature line is found directly after the complimentary close and comprises the full name and signature of the sender. Never forget to incorporate the signature line as this section is as important and carries valuable weight as the other sections of the business letter. Unfortunately, there are occasions where the sender of the letter accidentally skips writing his name and affixing a signature.
Additional reminder: affix a hand-written signature instead of a digital signature.
The tips we listed below follow a strict business etiquette. We do not promote any kind of unethical methods so that you can easily advance your career at any time you desire. Hard work and persistence always pays off at the end, so don’t try to find illegal shortcuts. If you get caught, you don’t only lose your job but your source of income and respect from your peers and family as well.
This is probably the most basic (and most important) tip on how to get a promotion. Most of the time, your performance will determine if you advance in your career or gets stuck in the position you are working for the longest time. Companies usually require their employees to meet 100% of the required productivity performance before they even get considered for a promotion.
To be honest, it is very difficult for any employee to achieve the maximum monthly quota every month for succeeding months, but it is not required. All you have to do is be consistent and aim to achieve at least 75–80% of the required quota. If top management sees that you are performing your duties at a consistent rate, then you will be up for consideration in no time.
Just make sure that your work is consistent and avoid going for “lean months.” These are the months that you purposely decide to “take it easy” or “slack off.” Remember that management is always keeping a close tab on all employees by regularly conduct performance reviews.
Getting a promotion is not only based on performance. Tardiness and absences are two major factors that need to be considered as well. CEOs, managers, and other company officers are very reluctant in hiring qualified yet often-tardy and often-absent employees. The main reason is that a number of company decisions are made on the fly, and it needs the presence of most (if not all) individuals having a managerial or supervisory role. If a newly promoted employee is almost always never around when important decisions are made, then he or she is not fit to hold that position.
Management prefer employees who make suggestions for the improvement of the company, not just “yes men” or “yes women” who just follow orders without any hesitation. Although not all companies encourage employee-employer collaboration especially if policies and plans have already been set, they will still appreciate employees who are concerned not only with their own betterment, but with the long-term sustainability of the company.
Collaboration is not only for employees working for the same team or same department. Collaboration can also be between employees and management personnel. The more employees and managers are working together, the more they can easily reach company goals and targets.
We hope you found this article to be insightful as well as beneficial when you will be making your own job promotion recommendation letter. This kind of letter follows a similar format to other types of business letters, with the difference only being seen in the body of the letter.
As previously mentioned, a job promotion recommendation letter is short, concise, and should not exceed one page long. Also, professionalism should be highly observed and try to avoid writing statements that come off as desperate and pessimistic.
A job promotion article is never complete without a mention on promotion, so we included some tips on how to get that much needed promotion faster.
