Email Etiquette for Internal Business Communication
E-Mail is one of the most powerful business communication tools in the world, but with great power comes great responsibility. Millions of E-Mails are exchanged within company networks every day. Many E-Mails, if not most, are poorly written, confusing, and serve no useful purpose. There can be a trade-off between the speed of communication and the quality of the written message, but done properly, good E-Mails are extremely valuable tools. Here is a set of etiquette standards that will help you send more effective E-Mails as internal business communication:
1. Clearly define the purpose of your E-Mail, including any desired actions for the recipient to do. If you want someone to make a decision, or support your action plan, make sure you tell them at the beginning of the message and ask for a response or confirmation.
2. Organize your message with an outline before writing and stick to the outline. Too many E-Mails wander from subject to subject for no apparent reason. If your message is too confusing, people may ignore it or misinterpret it, causing unintended consequences.
3. Make your message simple, clear, and appropriate to your audience. Write using simple, but complete sentences. Omit unnecessary words or descriptions. Also, write with your audience in mind. A company vice-president may not want to know about the details within your message, but they will want to understand the underlying logic of the message. People in different levels in the organizational hierarchy, by contrast, may need to see the details.
4. Have something meaningful to say if you are replying to someone else's E-Mail. Don't just agree with or repeat what somewhat else has written: this only wastes space on your company's E-Mail servers. Add something constructive to the conversation, whether it's agreement or disagreement.
5. Be civil - don't commit personal attacks in your E-Mail. In addition to being poor etiquette, it's unfair and it will alienate you from your colleagues.
6. Don't put unnecessary personal information in your E-Mail. You shouldn't assume that co-workers want to know about your personal problems or your daily activities.
7. Use humor with care: we don't all share the same sense of humor. This is particularly important when communicating with people from different cultures and in general when contacting people that you don't know well.
8. Never write something in an E-Mail that you wouldn't want to see used as evidence in court. It can happen.
9. Spelling and grammar count. E-Mails containing bad spelling and poor grammar look sloppy. These kinds of errors will make people question the value of your E-Mail and will damage your standing in their eyes. Don't just rely on your spell-checker. Proofread your E-Mail, on paper if necessary.
10. Consider alternate methods for file sharing. E-Mail can be a quick means to exchange documents, but E-Mailing files can use valuable disk space. Many E-Mail systems will have size limits, making E-Mail file exchange impossible for large documents that are larger than 1 - 2 MB. Consider using a document management system or a Web-based file sharing system for document exchange.
11. Ensure names or E-Mail addresses are correct before sending: misspellings can cause E-Mails to be lost or sent to the wrong person, particular in an internal E-mail system where several people may share the last name.
12. Beware the "Reply All" function! Don't send your reply to the world. Feel free to edit the number of people on the TO or CC lists if they don't need to see the information. Also avoid using "Reply All" back to distribution lists unless absolutely necessary.
13. Beware the "Forward" function! Someone else may forward your E-Mail to other readers. Take care to ensure your comments are clear, accurate, and well organized as you never know who might be reading them.
These 13 rules of Email etiquette for internal business communication can help anyone use this tool effectively. Just imagine how much better E-Mail communication would be if we all followed these rules!
