A recruiter email signature has a job that a sales signature does not: it has to let a candidate check that you are real. Full name, role, company, a website the candidate can reach without your help, a company phone number and an email address on the company’s own domain do most of that. Links and banners do very little.
This page gives two recruiter email signature examples (an agency recruiter and an in-house one), six checks a careful candidate makes, and a table of links to keep or skip. For the reasoning we read the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) page Job Scams, dated March 2023, and for the settings we read Google’s Gmail signature page and Microsoft’s Outlook signature page, both in October 2026.
We found no official page that sets what a recruiter’s signature must contain. Recruitment agencies are regulated in some countries, so ask your regulator whether a licence or registration number belongs in your emails. We have not read any of them.
Recruiter email signature: what a candidate checks
- Full name and role, matching your professional profile.
- Company name and website, spelled as the company spells them.
- Email on the company domain, the same domain as the website line.
- A company phone number a candidate can call and ask for you.
- One link, such as the careers page, not a menu.
What the FTC advises candidates to do, and what it means for you
The FTC page says scammers advertise jobs in the same places honest employers do (online, on job sites and social media, in newspapers and sometimes on TV and radio) and that what they want is money and personal information. It says honest employers never ask you to pay to get a job, and that a check you are told to deposit and partly send on will bounce. It tells job seekers to search the name of the company or the person hiring, plus words like “scam”, “review” or “complaint”, and to talk to someone they trust.
None of that is about signatures. It does tell us what a careful candidate will type into a search box: your name and your company. That gives us a rule, which is ours and not the FTC’s: write a recruiter email signature so that the name and company in it are exactly what the candidate will search for, and so that the results agree with each other.
Six checks for a recruiter email signature
Run these on your recruiter email signature as if you were a stranger.
- Is the name complete? “Sam, Talent Team” cannot be searched. “Samira Hadid” can.
- Does the title say the work? “Senior Technical Recruiter” tells a candidate what you can place. See the job title guide for wording.
- Is the company name written as on its website? A shortened or trading name that differs from the site makes a search harder.
- Does the email domain match the website? A message from a free webmail address, under a company signature, is the first thing a cautious candidate notices.
- Is there a company number? A switchboard line lets a candidate ring and ask for you. A direct mobile is optional.
- Is there one link, and does it work? Open it on a phone, in a private window. If it needs a login, remove it.
Recruiter email signature examples
Example 1: an agency recruiter email signature
An agency recruiter writes to candidates on behalf of clients, so the candidate needs to know who the agency is and whom to ask for. The footer line below states that the agency does not charge candidates. Add that only if it is true for your firm and your country allows it. Any registration number your regulator asks for would go on the same line.
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Example 1: agency recruiter with a direct line, a switchboard, one website link and a no-fee line. The agency and person are made up.
What to copy: the switchboard beside the direct line, and the roles page as the one link. What to change: the footer line, which must be true for your own firm.
Example 2: an in-house recruiter email signature
An in-house recruiter writes as the employer, so the careers page on the employer’s own site is the natural link. No photo and no social icons are needed, since the employer’s name carries the weight.
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Example 2: in-house recruiter with the company switchboard and the careers page. The company and person are made up.
What to copy: the company phone instead of a mobile. What to change: the department, which only helps if the title alone is unclear.
Talent acquisition and HR email signature differences
A talent acquisition email signature is usually the in-house case above: the reader is a candidate, and the employer’s identity matters most. An HR email signature has a second reader, the employee. For internal mail you can drop the logo, the website and the careers link, and keep the name, title and a desk number. Use one design for both and a shorter version for internal mail and replies, as the settings section below describes.
If your HR team sends sensitive messages, keep the signature free of anything about the person it is written to. Notices about confidentiality are a separate decision for your legal or compliance lead.
Links to keep or skip in a recruiter email signature
A recruiter email signature should carry few links. These are our judgements, not rules from any source.
| Link | Keep? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Careers or roles page on the company domain | Keep | It lets a candidate check the role exists. |
| One professional profile | Optional | Candidates will look you up anyway, and a link saves them the step. |
| Individual job-board postings | Skip | They go stale the day the role closes. |
| “We’re hiring” or “Refer a friend” banner | Skip | It reads as a campaign and may be blocked as an image. |
| Instagram, X, Facebook | Skip | They add noise and do not help a candidate verify you. |
| Shortened or tracked links | Skip | A cautious candidate wants to see where a link goes. |
| Personal WhatsApp number | Skip unless asked | Move to it only when the candidate prefers it. |
| Calendar booking link | In the message | Put it in the body of a message to a specific candidate, not under every email. The sales email signature article has a test for that. |
A photo is optional. If you use one, use the same photo as on your professional profile. The email signature with photo article covers size and fallbacks.
Full on first contact, short on replies
A recruiter email signature does not need to repeat itself in a thread. Google’s page says you can choose a signature default for new emails and for emails you reply to. Microsoft’s page describes New messages and Replies/forwards dropdowns in classic Outlook, and checkboxes for new messages and replies/forwards in new Outlook and Outlook on the web. For a recruiter, set the full version for first contact, with the company number and one link. Set a shorter version, with name, title and company, for replies. The email signature on replies article has the settings for each app.
To add the signature in Gmail on a computer, open Settings, select See all settings, find Signature, add your text and select Save Changes. Google says a signature can hold up to 10,000 characters and that an image counts toward that limit.
One recruiter email signature design for the whole team
Recruitment teams copy each other’s signatures until three versions of the company name are in use. With emailfooter, the admin sets the layout, logo, company name, website and footer line once, and each recruiter edits their own name, title and phone. Everyone then installs the signature in their mail app by following the steps shown, since emailfooter does not push signatures into mailboxes. emailfooter does not verify an agency’s registration or check a no-fee claim, and it has no click analytics, so you cannot tell whether candidates use your careers link. The best practices article covers the wider rules.
Before you send the next outreach message, search your own name and company the way a candidate would. If the signature and the results agree, a recruiter email signature has done its job.
Frequently asked questions
What should a recruiter email signature include?
Full name, job title, company name, a company phone number, a website link and an email on the company domain. Add a registration number only if your regulator asks for one.
Should a recruiter put a personal mobile number in an email signature?
It is optional. A company switchboard lets a candidate check you exist, and you can share a mobile in the conversation once there is trust.
What is a good HR email signature for internal emails?
Name, title and a desk number or extension, with no logo or marketing links. Use a shorter version for replies.
Should a talent acquisition email signature have a photo?
It is optional. If you include one, use the same photo as your professional profile.
Should a recruiter email signature mention fees?
Only if the statement is true for your firm and local rules allow it. The FTC page says honest employers never ask a candidate to pay to get a job.
Keep reading
- Sales email signature: calls to action that do not feel spammy: A sales email signature with one low-key call to action: four examples, a five-question test for booking links, and what makes a signature feel spammy.
- Email signature best practices: 15 rules that hold up in every inbox: Email signature best practices as 15 numbered rules, each with a bad and a good example and the Gmail or Outlook limit behind it. Read in October 2026.
- Job title in email signature: how to write it clearly: How to write a job title in email signature blocks: eight bad titles fixed (long, inflated, abbreviated, two roles), plus rules for departments and pronouns.
- Email signature with photo or without: how to decide, role by role: Email signature with photo or without? A decision table by role, what a headshot costs, what the ICO says about employee consent, and size and crop rules.
Make every signature in your company match
emailfooter is a free WordPress plugin. You design the signature once, and each person adds their own details and installs it in their mail app. Prefer not to run a website? emailfooter Managed is the same software, hosted for you.