Why is it imperative to have a company Email Policy? It is simply good business.
Having a clear and detailed email policy is critical for the long term. It allows you to enforce or react to situations that may arise later.
Smart Business Practices
Let’s assume you have the best people in the world working for you. You know them and trust them. That still does not negate the need for a Business Email Etiquette policy—that’s more of a reason to have one.
Employees understand and appreciate having policies in place to guide them and help them avoid potential problems. It’s a win-win situation.
The best-case scenario is that you will never need to refer to your policy statement due to employee behavior. However, if you find yourself in that situation down the road, you will be relieved you have terms and conditions in place for your protection.
Technology is part of the workplace now, including internet and email access. Employees use your network, equipment, and brand’s email address daily.
This makes it easy for employees to surf the web during company hours. As a result, they can share non-business-related emails and links, sometimes becoming less efficient and not paying attention to the job at hand.
Similarly, this can lead to the circulation of unnecessary or inappropriate messages and the illegal copying of sensitive business content. That’s called unnecessary business liability.
Improper business email activities can lead to:
Claims of sexual harassment and discrimination. We all receive emails by contacts with the latest joke or meme. Some of these can be misunderstood, offensive, or inappropriate in a professional environment.
Misaddressed messages that lead to the intentional or inadvertent release of trade secrets. One typo, dot, dash, or space where it shouldn’t be. Folks typo email addresses all the time. Your business then risks sensitive company information or inappropriate NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content being exposed outside the company.
Network and spam issues. Employees who do not use your business technology within established protocols or misbehave using a company email address. Subsequently, this can cause providers to blacklist or cancel your accounts due to complaints.
Copyright infringement issues and the possible legalities that can ensue are among the most misunderstood issues online. Copyright infringement involves using content or images without the original creator’s/author’s permission.
Abuse of email may also lead to:
Creating a negative perception of your business image, legitimacy, and credibility. Do not underestimate the power of perception related to your business’ email activities.
Drain on limited storage and resource capabilities.
Slower response times for legitimate business activities. Employees lose focus on priorities and customer service.
Waste of computer resources. Large gratuitous downloads can negatively impact your storage and bandwidth allowances, not to mention lower employee productivity.
Email forgery. All company emails should use your dot com/net/org to identify all employees, including a standardized permanent email signature that all employees use with each email they send.
Business Email Policy Basics
Any email policy should start with the basics. You will want to review each carefully and then jot down and add the specifics unique to your business.
Specify that the computer and email system are for authorized purposes only. It states clearly that company equipment is solely for business activities related to the performance of an employee’s job responsibilities during company time.
Set clear expectations of employee privacy. Trends indicate that most current email policies explicitly state that employees should not expect privacy when using company-owned equipment and resources during company time.
Establish monitoring as the right of the employer. Employees should expect and acknowledge this fact.
Make sure employees understand to avoid improper use of copyright-protected material.
Outline the specific types of content employees must avoid in their email communications.
Have employees sign and date the email policy. Put a copy in their personnel file and give them a copy for reference.
Be Smart and Have a Business Email Policy
For more details and guidance, check out my Business Email Etiquette eBook. It also includes a complete Business Email Policy that you can tailor to your specific needs.
Having an email policy in place will ensure employees know all the issues and best practices necessary to use email properly when communicating online using your company’s resources.
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