You’ve proven your chops as a great executioner. Coworkers admire you, and you’ve already played the role of trainer, mentor, and informal leader. Now, it’s time to make things formal — advance to a supervisor position.
That may seem like a big deal, but it is definitely something you can accomplish. What you need is a refreshed copy of your resume and a cover letter to best present yourself to potential employers. Even if you are gearing up for an internal position.
To help with that, we have several sample cover letters for a supervisor position and extra helpful writing tips!
Supervisor Cover Letter Sample (Word version)
Cover Letter Example For a Supervisor Position (text version)
Dear Ellen James,
My name is Nicole Hartmann and I am writing to express my sincere interest in pursuing your open position for 2nd Shift Production Supervisor. I have more than three years of experience working in automotive manufacturing, have successfully taken on many leadership roles, and am confident I am an ideal candidate for this position.
At present, I am employed at Automag Industries as a second shift line leader. My job involves supervising the other workers on my line, providing them with training and guidance, and ensuring that production quotas are met. I’m also responsible for recording breaks and lunches, training new employees, and conducting quality checks. Additionally, I have my own production responsibilities as well. I’m proud to say that my line meets or exceeds quotas 100% of the time. We’ve also been accident and injury-free for more than one year.
The employees on my line have ranked my performance as superb or excellent in their annual assessments. I have a low turnover rate and am very proud that many of the workers who began under me have also become line leaders.
In addition to working in the manufacturing industry, I am also a student at the University of Washington. I’m pursuing my BS in Manufacturing Management. Because of this, I am particularly excited about the opportunity to take the next step into a supervisory position.
If you have time next week, I’d like to meet for an interview. I plan to reach out again via email to see if we can set something up. I look forward to learning more about your company, and how I might be of service.
Sincerely,
Nicole Hartmann
Cover Letter for Supervisor Position in the Same Company
Many people apply for their first supervisor position at their current place of employment. If you are pursuing an internal position, there are some extra steps you should take. First, get clearance from your current department head before you apply. That’s a matter of professionalism.
Next, when you write your cover letter, add a quick note that you have the approval to pursue the position. By doing this, you ensure that there are no conflicts or unpleasant surprises.
Good day Mindy,
I would like to submit my candidacy for the Customer Care Supervisor role, recently opened in the internal hiring portal.
As you know, I have been with Acme Inc. for four years, joining as a support agent training and advancing to a Customer Success manager in October 2022. In my current position, I have maintained a CSAT score of 97% on ten enterprise accounts within my care, as well as secured a 25% increase in subscription renewals in 2023 through strategic client relationship management and upselling.
In my current role, I have been also asked to participate in new agent interviews, candidate scoring, and training. Last year, I helped hire five new agents to the team — all working with the company with exceptional KPIs — and trained them on our policies, sensitive client information handling, and issue resolution strategies. I have also created five new training manuals, now used by all agents, and advocated for introducing Clickup and Power Platform to automate some of the repetitive workflows — a proposal that was successfully accepted by the Head of Customer, John Marlows, and is currently being implemented.
The job description says that you’re looking for a candidate with a proactive attitude, good leadership skills, and a digital-first attitude. I believe that I meet all of these criteria and my manager encouraged me to apply. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting this week (see my availability) to further discuss the possibility of me transitioning to this role?
Regards,
Syrus Pints
Letter of Intent for a Supervisor Position
A letter of intent, also known as a letter of interest, slightly differs from a standard letter. It’s not written in response to an open vacancy, but rather as a formal query to a recruiter or a company leader about the possibilities of employment.
Hi Base Warehouse Team,
Your career website mentions that you’re open to spontaneous applications and I was wondering if you’re looking for extra help with warehousing operations for the 2024 holiday season.
I’m Danny Pen, currently employed by Anda Warehouse as an operations supervisor on a temporary contract, until December 2024. Hence, I’m looking for a new position early on. My core experience lies with:
- Shift planning and task management for a team of 15 warehouse associates
- New employee onboarding and training in operating lifting equipment
- Oversight of extinguisher service operations, ensuring compliance
Since I started the role in June 2021, I have managed to increase the average speed of incoming shipment handling by 20% by introducing a better sequence for goods receiving, sorting, storing, and distribution. I have also advocated for introducing RFID tags for all shipments and trained the team on using scanners and properly logging data to ensure higher accuracy in processing and avoiding lost inventory.
You can learn more about my skills and work experience from an attached resume, and I’d be happy to provide a recommendation from my current manager, Jim Sanders, Head of Warehousing at Anda.
Even if you’re not looking to hire at present, I’d love to keep in touch.
Best,
Danny Pen
How to Write a Cover Letter For A Supervisor Position
Whether you’re writing a cover letter for an internal transfer or a new position or looking to switch to a new employer, you must follow the basics of good cover letter formatting:
- Use a three-section format: introduction, body, closing paragraph.
- Aim for 3-4 paragraphs in total to fit into one page
- Use a professional cover letter font and keep letter spacing of 1-1.15
- Use ‘align center’ to make your letter look neat
- Leave a double space after each paragraph
If you want to avoid all of these styling goofs, try our free cover letter generator that auto-applies all the formatting best practices to your text. Speaking of which, here’s how to create a compelling narrative in a supervisor cover letter.
Contextualize Your Skills
What if you are applying for your first position as a supervisor? Remember that even if you haven’t held the job title, there are skills you have, and experience you have gained, that will likely help you succeed as a supervisor.
You likely have some good organizational skills under your belt and handled a range of administrative duties. Likewise, you may have been involved in training new hires or informally leading on some team projects. Showcase that in your cover letter with quick examples.
In the sample above, the applicant mentioned how they’ve helped with interviewing new people, developing new standard operating procedures, and introducing tech innovations. Come up with several personal examples of when you went above and beyond your current duties to demonstrate a fit.
PRO TIP:
Regardless of the type of supervisor position you are applying for, the position will require you to ensure instructions are followed and tasks are completed. You will want to cover specifics in your cover letter about your ability to inspire others while communicating with a variety of people.
Debi Douma-Herren
HR Consultant & Career Strategist
LinkedIn
Focus On Results
The key to proving your capabilities as a supervisor is to show that you can get results. Focus on details such as quotas, productivity metrics, team attendance rates, low turnover, accuracy, and quality. If possible, quantify your achievements. Limit mentions of administrative tasks to those that indicate you have mastered the required skills.
For example, you can write something like:
As a senior warehouse associate, I was responsible for ensuring high order fulfillment accuracy rates. I’ve helped some of the junior staff to better understand the labeling process and subsequently, order fulfillment accuracy rates increased by 15% within a month.
Prove You Can Lead
Supervisors must command respect, motivate people under them to be productive, and provide mentoring to help their team members pursue their own career goals. In other words: they must demonstrate a range of leadership skills.
These include a strong sense of empathy, great communication skills, and the ability to provide coaching. Include examples of how you’ve been applying these soft skills at the workplace.
For example, you can state that:
Developed a strong rapport with my colleagues and fostered cross-department collaboration with facility operators to ensure faster fulfillment of spare part requests by the Facilities team.
Edit The Letter Carefully
Supervisors must pay attention to detail, and produce results that are free from error. The first place to show that you are capable of these things is in your cover letter. Double-check your writing, and fix any errors you find. Then, have a friend read to verify that you are communicating your thoughts clearly and accurately.
Final Tip: Make Your Attractive and Professional
Your entire application package should be attractive, easy to read, and attention-getting. This will help to make your application memorable and show that you are very serious about pursuing the position of supervisor. You can accomplish this by using a professional cover letter template to ensure that your formatting and layout are attractive and exude professionalism.
