Tips For Writing Reference Letters

At some time or another in your career, you may be asked to write a reference letter or letter of recommendation for a coworker or employee. Although you want to help this person, you may not have much experience with these letters and are not sure what to say. Heres 4 tips that can help you write a great letter of recommendation.

1. Before you recommend someone you need to know what you are recommending them for. Find out what they new position entails. What types of job duties are involved? What sort of characteristics are they looking for in a good employee? In your letter, describe certain instances where this employee or colleague really shined – such as staying late to complete a mission-critical project, working diligently to help a customer make a product decision, providing thorough technical support or service, and so on. These specific situations have more effect on the person doing the hiring than general run-of-the-mill phrases like “terrific manager”, “enthusiastic worker” and so on.

2. Use powerful statements that really show your depth of knowledge about the person. A description like “X is a keen observer who knows how to make customers act and is there with them every step of the way if they are hesitant or have questions” gives a true, in-depth knowledge of the person in a way that a casual letter may not.

3. Print your letter on company stationary and make some extras while you are at it. This way, he or she will have them for future applications. This could save them from keep coming back to you for more letters! If you know it, put the address of the company to whom the letter is being sent, as well as the name of the person in Human Resources who will be collecting and organizing these reference letters. A personalized greeting is far better than a general “To Whom It May Concern” salutation. For the other four copies, leave the address area blank so that the employee can use them for other job opportunities that arise.

4. If you really aren’t making any headway, you might ask the person requesting the letter to write down some things about themselves. In essence, they can write their own letter of recommendation! Then you can either edit it or simply sign it as is.

Keeping these tips in mind should help you quickly write a great letter of recommendation. This will help out your employee or coworker in many ways - they’ll know how much you value them and can help give them a confidence boost to boot. Helping other people like this can be rewarding and who knows, the day may came when they can pay you back!