Is It Fair to Delay Sharing Full Appointment Terms Until After Joining?

Hi Seniors, Greetings for the day! Is it the right practice to share only the offer letter with salary details and no other terms and conditions of the appointment, and then ask to sign the appointment letter without putting the date of signature until a month after the date of joining?

No, the offer letter should contain all the basic terms and conditions of employment. Similarly, asking employees to sign post-dated or undated offers without the date of joining is an unhealthy HR practice. Therefore, please do not join such companies.

Dear member,

What Mr. Madhu TK has written is a norm, but there are exceptions too. The exceptions depend on the seniority of the position, whether the candidate has come with a glowing reference, whether he/she has unique competencies, whether he/she is assertive or not, and so on. I know a case wherein a candidate had applied for the position of Finance Director. He demanded clarity on the terms and conditions of employment and ensured that he was given an appointment letter well before he joined.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Even when you hire freshers, we should not ask the candidates to sign without the date of joining mentioned in it. If you are asked to sign such a document, I would say that the company is not a good organization to work in. It is true that freshers, who do not have any previous knowledge about the system in a corporate setting, will accept the offer. Later, they will understand that some date later than the actual date of joining is put in the service records, PF, etc.

Again, employees who do not find other options may also join such companies. This will lead to a lot of disputes in the future. Why should we get into these when we have other opportunities?