Email Guidelines

The proliferation of email as a s tandard mode of bus ines s communication neces s itates
an introduction of the medium and guidelines for all s taff on how to us e this
communication channel.

The following guidelines are s ugges ted as is s ues of good practice to be cons idered by
an organis ation when making us e of email s ys tems . They are applicable for both
creators and recipients of email.

Email etiquette
Never s end libellous , defamatory, potentially haras s ing, pornographic, or abus ive
mes s ages or images .
Always cons ider the commercial, political or s taff s ens itivity and confidentiality of
any mes s ages and attachments . Additional or alternative s ecurity proces s es
mus t be us ed where confidentiality is a bus ines s concern.

Email restrictions
The increas ing number of emails being s ent and s ize of attachments may impair
the performance of an organis ation’s s ys tem. If this is the cas e then it is worth
making it clear to us ers the maximum s ize of any email.
Receiving mes s ages in the written word does not allow for feedback loops ,
tonality or body language to provide context. Thus there is little control over how
mes s ages are interpreted.
If a mes s age is s ent by email, it is often as s umed that it has been received,
read and acted upon. [1]
Surveys have s hown that more than 65% of all email mes s ages fail to leave
receivers with s ufficient information to enable action bas ed on that email. [2]

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Legal and security

Legal and regulatory controls apply equally to email as to other information proces s es .
In s ome cas es , s uch as for the protection of pers onal data, thes e controls can be very
s trict. Remember the following:

Standard email is not a s ecure way of doing bus ines s ; jus t as with faxes , the
technology makes it very eas y to s end it to an unintended recipient, with
potentially s evere cons equences , particularly if it is copied outs ide the
organis ation.
Current s ys tems allow emails to be changed or edited if they are forwarded
within or to another organis ation. If there is any doubt as to original content of a
mes s age or attachment, do check with the original author before acting on the
information.

Global emails
A global email facility addres s es an email to every member of that organis ation with an
email addres s . It is a great way to receive multiple replies , but can als o lead to
unwanted res pons es .

The us e of global emails s hould be tightly controlled to avoid inappropriate us e,

becaus e this addres s will potentially s end an email to thous ands of email us ers
within the organis ation.
The inappropriate us e of global emails will have a mas s ive impact on the mail
network infras tructure, res ulting in a s ignificant reduction in the performance of
the overall mail s ys tems .

To minimis e this impact, global email mes s ages s hould follow the points noted below.

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 Global email mes s ages s hould only be us ed for bus ines s purpos es . Make s ure
the dis tribution lis t is the right one and delete any unique lis ts made if they are
no longer needed.
Mes s age s enders s hould be s ure that everyone wants or needs to read this
mes s age.
Never attach files (documents ) to global emails . It is better to place a copy of the
file onto the intranet or a s hared area of your s erver, and s end a mes s age to all
us ers detailing its location.

Chain emails
Staff s hould be advis ed that ‘chain’ email or s imilar mes s ages received
internally or from the internet, which are not related to their work, and/or an
organis ation’s approved dis tributed information, s hould never be forwarded.
Thes e emails take up valuable people and s ys tem res ources .
Don’t reply to general information or s ubs cribe to ‘news ’ s ervices .

Viruses
The details of virus -checking s ys tems and guidelines for us e of thes e s hould be
provided to us ers by the organis ation.

Reading and receiving email

Some s ugges ted guidelines for us ers :

Do not neces s arily ans wer your email when you firs t arrive at the office. Ins tead,
scan it for anything that mus t be handled immediately – check for mes s ages
that appear to have an important s ubject, are flagged for action or are marked
as important.
Set as ide specific times in the day to look at your emails or us e the odd few
minutes that you may have during the day. You can change your email s ettings to
allow you to s et the frequency the email application checks for new mail.
Lengthening the time will allow les s frequent interruptions .
If you receive a large number of emails , read the headings firs t. If your s enders
us e good ‘s ubject titles ’, you will probably have a good idea of what the contents
are! You can even s et your inbox to dis play the firs t part of each mes s age s o you
can prioritis e eas ily.
Set up folders for your emails and file them according to their s ubject in relation
to jobs that you are currently working on. As with paper, as k firs t: ‘Do I need to
keep this document?’ If you do, file it in the appropriate folder after it has been
dealt with. If the ans wer is no, delete it!
Reduce the prominence of email interruptions by disabling sound alerts and
the alert dialogue box.
As k to be removed from mailing lis ts if you receive unneces s ary mail.
Make it a regular small task to go through all the old emails you have s tored
and delete thos e that are now extraneous .

Writing emails
Make s ure email is the appropriate medium for your mes s age. If it is
contentious , ambiguous , s ubtle, complex, debateable or needs clarification, do
not us e email.

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 Put subject headers on all emails , to make it immediately clear what the email
is about.
Copy colleagues in on emails to cus tomers or other key s takeholders if they
need to be kept informed.
Avoid the us e of slang, sarcasm or humour in profes s ional emails , to prevent
mis unders tandings .
Keep emails s hort, concise and to-the-point. If s ending a lot of information,
break up the email into s eparate, eas y to read paragraphs .
Put your name, job title and contact details at the bottom of all emails (us e a
standard signature).
Check spelling, grammar and punctuation before pres s ing 's end'.

[1] Tony Dunk ‘Email: are trainers a caus e or effect?’ Training Journal (January 2004), pp
38-41.

[2] Thomas Jacks on, Ray Daws on & Darren Wils on ‘Reducing the effect of email
interruptions on employees ’ International Journal of Information Management Volume 23,
Is s ue 1, (February 2003) pp 55-65.
Baby image credit: Flickr Ben Grey (acces s ed 02 October 2014).

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