Does your company have an email policy? Did you even know there

was such a thing? Well, there is, and if your company doesn’t

have one you are not only risking the professional image of

your firm, but also risking potential liability issues that may

arise from the misuse of your company email system.

Having a published email policy accomplishes three objectives.

First, it teaches your employees how to use email in a

professional manner. What’s that? You’ve never really given

much thought about the emails your employees send out? Well,

you should, because ill-composed and unprofessional emails not

only reflect on the employee, but on you and your company, as

well.

Chances are most of your employees don’t even spell check the

emails they send to your customers and partners. Chances are

even greater that they are sending other items through your

company email system that may get you sued.

Consider this: if one of your male employees sends an email to

a female employee that might be considered harassing in nature,

you may be judged to be just as liable for damages when her

attorney comes calling with harassment suit in hand.

Creating a company email policy also helps lay out the ground

rules for personal use of company email. When an employee is on

your clock, using your computer equipment, and your network, and

your resources they should understand that personal emails

should not be sent or received using the company email system.

This can be a hard rule to enforce, given that kids now email

their moms at work after school and soccer coaches email

everybody, but as a rule, personal use of the company email

system should not be allowed.

An effective company email policy also helps cover your

corporate backside against liability. Take the example above of

the potential harassment suit caused by an insulting email. If

your company has a clearly-stated email policy that details

what is considered inappropriate, you can minimize the

company’s liability by proving that employees were trained in

the proper use of email.

If you can prove that employees knew that sending such emails

were not acceptable under company policy, your liability can be

greatly lessened.

Having a good email policy can also give you a competitive

advantage over the competition. As email becomes the

professional communication medium of choice, composing

professional, thoughtful emails can truly put your company

ahead of the pack.

I can tell you from experience that I have actually won

contracts simply because the customer was impressed that I

replied to his email quickly and professionally. In other

words, I’ve made thousands of dollars just because I respond

quickly and use a spellchecker. Is this a great country or

what?

How do you create an email policy? If you have other existing

policies in place, such as those that pertain to business

communications, access to confidential materials, personal use

of the telephone, sexual harassment, etc. you should be able to

establish an email policy using the existing policies as

guidelines.

If you need to start from scratch you can still write the

policy yourself with a little time and research, however, many

companies rely on professional consultants to do the job for

them. When you realize the importance of an email policy and

understand the ramifications of not having one, you’ll probably

agree that its money well-spent.

An email policy doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out document.

Most policies are no more than a few pages long, written in

plain English that every employee can easily understand.

The key to the success of your company email policy lies in the

training of your employees. You can’t just establish a policy

and expect everyone to follow blindly. Once the policy is

written it should be distributed to employees and can even

become part of future employment contracts. Explain the policy

to your employees and have them read and sign to signify that

they understand and will adhere to the rules.

Many companies are now realizing the importance of email and

are putting on training seminars that not only teach their

employees how to stick to the policy, but how to compose and

respond to emails, as well.

Here's to your success!