Sample Semi-Formal Employee Recognition Letters

Use These Sample Thank You Letters as Templates for Recognition

Working together, these employees are reading a recognition letter their boss sent them to recognize their contributions.
South_agency / Getty Images
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 02/04/21

These are sample thank you letters that an employer can write to an employee to recognize the employee's good work. These are semi-formal employee recognition letter samples. You can write a semi-formal employee recognition letter in just a few minutes using these sample letters as your template.

Keep in mind that an employee recognition letter is appropriate from coworkers, employees in different departments, managers, supervisors, and senior leaders, as well as from the employee's boss. Coworkers are more likely to use the semi-formal or the informal style of employee recognition letter while the employee's manager or your overall organization tends to use a more formal letter style.

Coworkers feel more positive about whipping off a quick note to praise a coworker's contributions or to just recognize their general positive presence in the workplace. Semi-formal or informal thank you letters also feel more appropriate to coworkers than a formal recognition letter that employees think the manager or employer should send.

As always with employee recognition and thank you notes, the goal is to encourage more employee recognition in the workplace to telegraph your appreciation. Letters also reinforce the behavior that you'd like to see all employees exhibit. Even in a note from a coworker, the employee receiving the note gets a good look at what coworkers appreciate when they work together.

Following are several sample semi-formal employee recognition letters. Feel free to use them as a template when you write your own recognition letters to employees.

Recognition Letter Sample From the Employee's Product Team Lead

Use this letter as a sample when you want to recognize a team member. Download the recognition letter template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

Screenshot of a sample semi-formal employee recognition letter
©TheBalance 2018

Recognition Letter Sample From the Employee's Product Team Lead (Text Version)

Amy Snow
123 Main Street
Anytown, CA 12345
555-555-5555
amy.snow@email.com

September 1, 2018

Barbara Lau
Acme Manufacturing
123 Business Rd.
Business City, NY 54321

Dear Barb,

Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciated your help with the product release. We would have missed our due date without everything you did to make the instructional language consistent in the manual, the brochure, and on the website.

Our customers will be thankful for the fact that the instructions are straightforward and easy to understand. Even the graphics add to the message and help with the clarity.

I know that you must have had to let your other work slide on our behalf so you must be feeling swamped right now. The team thanks you and, I'm sure technical support will thank you when they receive fewer calls about this release. Solid, comprehensive instructions add so much value to the product.

I can't stress enough that we couldn't have pulled this release off without all of your efforts to help.

Thanks so much again,

Amy

Product Team Leader

Recognition Letter Sample From the Employee's Manager

In this letter, the manager says thank you to Paul and also speaks about his career prospects. This is a solid approach to letting an employee know that he has career prospects in your organization. This is important information for most superior employees.

Mark Nyoto
123 Main Street
Anytown, CA 12345
555-555-5555
mark.nyoto@email.com

September 1, 2018

Paul Ortiz
Acme Corporation 
123 Business Rd.
Business City, NY 54321

Dear Paul,

I wanted to take a minute to let you know how much I value the contribution that you make in the business development department.

Not only does the outcome of your sales and sales calls always exceed my expectations but you add so much value to our department in other ways. I recognize that you are the go-to person when the other employees need training or a coworker has a question.

Not just departmental employees rely on you for advice and assistance but when other departments need answers, you are the first person they turn to as well. This says a lot about how your skills and contribution are viewed by your coworkers.

If you are interested, you will be a strong candidate when the next supervisory role opens up in the department. I'm hoping that the next promotion is on your radar, too.

Again, thank you for all you do in the department. You make a tremendous contribution.

Sincerely,

Mark Nyoto

Manager, Business Development

Recognition Letter Sample From the Employee's Coworker

Joyce Anderson
123 Main Street
Anytown, CA 12345
555-555-5555
joyce.anderson@email.com

September 1, 2018

Carol Jones
Acme Software
123 Business Rd.
Business City, NY 54321

Hey Carol,

Thank you for your extra help so that I could get the proposal to the client as requested on time. With such a short deadline, I would have been hard-pressed to both do the research and write the proposal. Your help with the research allowed me to focus on getting the proposal done.

I'll look for an opportunity to pay you back when you could use some help from me in the future. Always feel free to come to me if you are overloaded and need my help.

I feel great that you are my coworker and that I can depend on you. Please feel the same about me.

Thanks once again.

Yours truly,

Joyce

More Sample Employee Recognition Letters