Careers Succeeding at Work Sample Employee Thank You Letters From the Supervisor Print Michael Zwahlen / EyeEm / Getty Images Succeeding at Work Human Resources Employee Management Job Search Resources Hiring Best Practices Glossary Employment Law Employee Motivation Management Careers Management & Leadership Employee Benefits By Susan M. Heathfield Susan M. Heathfield Susan Heathfield is an HR and management consultant with an MS degree. She has decades of experience writing about human resources. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 07/18/19 A thank you letter from an employee's supervisor is a treasured form of positive recognition. After all, who knows better than the supervisor about the employee's job performance? So, no one is in a better position to write a thank you letter than the supervisor or manager who knows the employee's performance the best. The reality, unfortunately, is that employee recognition is often irregularly offered in workplaces. This is in part because supervisors question why a thank you letter is necessary. After all, in the majority of instances, the employee is just doing a good job at their job. Why do you need to thank an employee for doing their job? This attitude belies the fact that employees can perform on many different levels of effectiveness while just doing their job. The supervisor has a terrific opportunity to recognize the employees who are performing at a higher level. This differentiation among employees is significant if the manager wants to have a rationale for providing pay raises to one employee over another. The same reasons can apply to the bonuses employees receive. An epically significant differentiation comes during the consideration of employee promotions. Since an employee thank you or recognition letter is such a powerful tool, it also serves the supervisor as a method for communicating the actions that the supervisor wants to reinforce. In this way, the employee learns what the supervisor wants from him. Here are two samples of thank you letters that a supervisor might write to praise an employee. Use these sample thank you letters as templates or guides for your own supervisory thank you letters. Remember that the key to effective employee recognition and thank you letters from supervisors, beyond your fundamental thankfulness, is to reinforce behavior that you'd like to see the employee continue. You can handwrite this thank you letter on a notecard and a formal address is unnecessary. Employee Thank You Letter Samples This is the first example of an employee thank you letter. Download the thank you letter template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples. ©TheBalance 2018 Download the Word Template Employee Thank You Letter Samples (Text Version George Sampson123 Main StreetAnytown, CA 12345555-555-5555george.sampson@email.comSeptember 1, 2018Tom LeeShift LeadJones Corporation123 Business Rd.Business City, NY 54321Dear Tom,I can't thank you enough for your willingness to take on the extra overtime hours this month. July is such a heavy time for vacations that staffing the line is difficult in a good year.The only way we made it through July this year, with several people sick, and all of the scheduled vacations, was because of you. So, once again, I am grateful and appreciate your willingness to go the extra mile.I can't do a lot for you, but as a token of our gratitude for your voluntary overtime work, enclosed is a $50.00 gift certificate to the grocery store at which you've mentioned shopping in the past. I wish that I could do more to thank you.I want you to know that we really appreciate your efforts on our behalf.Sincerely,George SampsonThis is the second example thank you letter from the supervisor.DateHi Toni,This note is to thank you for doing an outstanding job in collecting the data the department needed to determine the features our customers most wanted in the new product release. Yes, I know your job is data collection and analysis, but you really stepped up on this project.The new process you used to collect the customer feedback gives me confidence that we've done the best job possible to identify the right features. The product team has also expressed their satisfaction with your new collection method.I've never seen them so interested in implementing features recommended by marketing. This is a big plus for our whole department. So, thanks once again. I really appreciate your top-notch efforts on behalf of our department.Sincerely,Mary Swanson Summary Hopefully, you will use the recommendations in this article and the two samples of thank you letters as guides when you write your own thank you letters. Never forget how important they are in employee recognition and in reinforcing the actions you'd most like to see from the employees who report to you. Why not give it a chance?