ALT-4 Email Etiquette for Internal Business Communication
It's all too easy to forget that internal business emails are still business correspondence and not personal messages. Even so, expectations are quite different from formal paper based communications. They tend to be less formal and the usual business requirements are relaxed. This coupled with the ease with which emails can be compiled and distributed means that you are required to know some basic etiquette for this type of communication. The top five tips for good email practice is provided below.
1. People are inundated with emails every day. It is very easy to send email and copy people in. To avoid overloading people with information that they do not need, only send the email to people who really need to see it or who have expressed an interst. The temptation is to copy everyone in to an email because it is easy to do so. A good rule of thumb is to only send an email to those people to whom you would have sent a paper based version of the communication. Email overload is a common business problem these days.
2. Emails are a more informal form of communication, but that does not mean that they can be abusive or sloppy. Your colleagues will not appreciate inappropriate or poor communcations. You should ensure that spelling and grammar are accurate. Do not use text language in emails. R U OK? may be OK on a cellphone text but should not be included within a business email. Another important aspect is to ensure punctuation is properly used. It is just as difficult to read badly punctuated emails as it is to read badly punctuated letters. One big difference with emails is the formaility employed when you come to sign off. These days it is perfectly acceptable to use 'kind regards' or 'best wishes' when signing off an email. There is no need for 'yours sincerely' or 'yours faithfully'.
3. KISS, Keep It Short and Simple. We have a lot to read, so the shortest and clearest emails will more likely get attention and dealt with. Actually this is true of any communication. Do not feel that you need to fill the screen with words. people find this off-putting and may not read it at all if it is too long. If all you want to say is 'yes please', then keep the message to 'yes please'.
4. Make the subject line meaningful and obvious so that poeple can easily identify the content of the email. It is very frustrating when you have a large number of emails to plough through not to have a good indication of the content of the email before you read it. Ensure your subject line makes clear the subject area of the email. To add clarity you might find it useful to use the priority and confidentiality flags available. This will help people to sort their emails.
5. If you are going to use read receipts, let people know. Only use if absolutely necessary, no-one likes to be monitored that closely, though they will probably find it acceptable if the reason has been explained to them. This is one of my particular pet hates.
6. There are a range of tags (or some people call these metatags) that you can attach to an email. These include indicators for confidentiality, levels of importance and level of urgency that the sender places on the information it contains. Make sure you sue these appropriately. It is very frustrating to recieve a large number of 'urgent' emails only to find they are not. If you overuse the facility, people will attach the 'cry wolf' syndrome to you and ignore your plea for urgency on future emails, when you may actually have a real need for urgency.
7. Use appropriate language in your email and do not be tempted to be abusive about someone within it. You would not do this on a message you commit to paper. The relative informality of an email can lead you to write things that you would not want to come back and haunt you. Check the email just before you send it in case. Do not forget that emails can be called up easily and passed to a wide range of people very quickly, so be sure that you are comfortable should that happen.
