make your free demotion letter

when you need to make a hard decision about an underperforming employee, you'll use a demotion letter. creating a demotion letter establishes an official record of your business decision and confirms the conditions that led to the employee's demotion. the demotion letter sample also explains the reason for the step back, such as performance, behavior or company restructuring. 
 
you hope you'll never have to make that difficult choice to demote an employee but it happens. a demotion letter is a formal letter from an employer notifying an employee of the decision to demote the employee's position within the company. the letter of demotion usually contains an effective date, the employee's new title and a revised salary, if applicable. a demotion letter officially informs the employee of the reason(s) behind the downgrade within the company. most demotions are in response to an employee's behavior or poor work performance. company restructuring is also a cause for demotion. as an employer (or supervisor) a demotion letter will serve as a record of the official action being taken. a copy will go into the employee's file and may be used to establish a pattern of behavior should the employee later be fired.