Once your team identifies the best candidate for a job and settles on the offer details internally, you likely will want to pull those offer details into a candidate-facing offer letter. Greenhouse Recruiting allows you to upload an offer letter template with placeholder tokens, populate the tokens using the candidate's personalized offer details, and email the offer letter to the candidate.
In this article, we will discuss how to:
- Create offer letter template
- Upload and test offer letter template
- Generate offer letter for candidate using template
- Send offer letter to candidate
Create offer letter template
Note: Only .docx files can be uploaded as offer letter templates.
Begin by creating an offer letter template in Microsoft Word. This is similar to preparing a mail merge, allowing you to use offer tokens from Greenhouse Recruiting to ensure each generated candidate offer letter is personalized.
To review which offer tokens are available for use in your offer template, in Greenhouse Recruiting navigate to the Configure icon 
> Offer Templates > All Available Tokens. If you find a particular token is not available, you can create additional custom tokens by following the steps here.
Note: Copying and pasting a custom token into a Word document can add invisible formatting to the document, which can cause the token to populate a blank space when you later generate an offer letter using the template. To prevent this from occurring, we recommend typing tokens (including the brackets) into your Word document manually, rather than copying and pasting from Greenhouse Recruiting.
The font used in the offer template uploaded to Greenhouse Recruiting can impact the overall formatting when the file is converted to a .pdf version. To avoid any potential conversion problems, we recommend your organization use one of the font types listed here in your offer letter template.
Here is an example of what a completed offer template with custom tokens might look like in Word:
Some more information on tokens
Tokens are a way to format and personalize your offer templates for repeated use. When you use a token (a piece of data enclosed in two brackets, like {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}} ) in your template, Greenhouse Recruiting recognizes the formatting and replaces the token with the correct piece of data when it is generating.
Your tokens are generated based on how they're formatted in the template, which means there's no automatic spelling or formatting checks when offer letters are generating. So, when you're creating your offer letter templates, write your tokens as if it's part of the sentence.
For example, if you add the following line to your template
We are excited to offer you the position of {{JOB_NAME}}.
when you generate the offer letter, it will automatically add the job name and look like the sentence below
We are excited to offer you the position of Senior Software Developer.
You can see a full list of available tokens on the Offer Templates page in the application. Some word processors place behind-the-scenes formatting into copied-and-pasted text, which can cause the tokens to not be recognized by Greenhouse Recruiting. When you're entering tokens in a template, make sure to type them out.
Your organization can also define custom tokens (specific pieces of data to be used in templates). See this article for more information on creating a custom token.
Upload and test offer letter template
Note: Job Admins require the additional user-specific permission Can manage offer templates to complete the steps outlined in this section.
Once your offer template is created in Word, the next step is to upload the template to Greenhouse Recruiting.
Navigate to the Configure icon and click Offer Templates in the left panel.
From the Offer Templates page, click Upload New.
In the subsequent dialog box, click Choose File to locate the saved offer template on your computer. Provide a name for the offer template. Click Save Template when finished.
Note: The options to show a given offer template for specific offices, departments, or employment types are available for organizations with an Advanced or Expert subscription. Organizations with a Basic subscription will see only the options to upload a template, provide a name, and save. Click here to learn more.
Once the offer template is uploaded, click Test inline with the name of the offer template.
Greenhouse Recruiting will review the offer template to ensure all tokens included are available in your organization's account. If you receive any errors, manually review the offer template for the following:
- Does every token include two open and two close brackets?
- Have you included any tokens that are not listed under the Available Tokens section on the Offer Templates page?
- Are all tokens spelled correctly?
If none of the above apply and you are receiving an error still, try the following:
- Locate the token flagged with an error in the Word document.
- Delete the entire token, including the spaces before and after the token.
- Manually type the spaces and tokens back into your Word document — do not copy/paste the token from the Offer Templates page in Greenhouse Recruiting.
- Save the .docx file in Word and re-upload to Greenhouse Recruiting. Try testing the template again.
Note: If your organization uses the DocuSign integration, the unique DocuSign tokens will verify only if the offer template is tested by a user with the DocuSign integration connected.
Generate offer letter for candidate using template
When you are ready to generate an offer letter, navigate to the candidate's profile and click Offer Details.
If Offer Details have not been entered yet, click Create Offer and enter the appropriate details. Request offer approval if applicable.
Once Offer Details are provided, navigate to the Offer Documents section and click Generate.
From the subsequent dialog box, click into the Select Templates field and choose the appropriate offer template. Click Generate.
The candidate's offer letter is generated, pulling in details from their profile, the job, the offer details, etc to fill in the tokens you included in the offer template. Greenhouse Recruiting will present a warning if the selected template includes tokens that were not populated on the candidate's profile, job, and so on. In the example below, the following issues occurred:
- No employment type was entered for the candidate, preventing the Employment Type offer section from generating
- The user generating the offer letter has not configured a signature under their Account Settings
If errors occur, be sure to update the appropriate fields to populate those tokens, or edit the offer letter before sending it to the candidate. To learn more about token errors in offer letters, please click here.
If the offer letter was generated successfully, you will see a .docx file and a .pdf file appear in the Offer Documentations section.
Using the example template from above, here is the generated offer letter:
Send offer letter to candidate
To send the generated offer letter to the candidate directly from Greenhouse Recruiting, click Send with Greenhouse.
Note: Alternatively, if your organization has enabled the DocuSign integration and you prefer to send through the integration, click Send with DocuSign.
The Send Offer Document dialog box opens with the .pdf version of the offer letter automatically configured as an attachment for the email message. In the Send Offer Document window, complete the following:
- Select an offer email template to populate the subject line and body of the email
- Add any team members who should be CCed on the email
- Upload any additional files to be included as attachments
Click Send Email when complete.
If the offer letter requires a signature or other action by the candidate, you can manually upload the completed offer letter later by returning to the candidate's profile > Offer Details and clicking Upload Signed Offer Document.
Be sure to mark the candidate's offer as either Hired or Candidate Declined once the candidate responds and all documents are completed.
