Email Helpdesk

Email is increasingly a source of stress and frustration in the work-place.  Rather than be the great efficient tool we need, it can dominate and even intrude on our general effectiveness.  So how can we take back control and let it work for us, rather than the other way round?  You need to tackle the issue at both a practice and policy level.

1.  Decide when to check emails

Encourage all email users to check their emails periodically rather than continually.  The ‘new email’ beep alert should be switched off and emails checked at a time when the user decides.  How often in the working day obviously depends on the nature of the job – for some people, once or twice a day will be sufficient.  Others may need to check every two hours.  The stress and inefficiency of responding to every new email as it arrives should be obvious, but it can be addictive to be reactive in that way.  Batch opening is more efficient and less stressful.

2. Delete – deal – delay

Emails are best managed by the 3D rule:

• Delete anything irrelevant, redundant or simply rubbish
• Deal with emails that need a quick response and file as necessary in the right email folder
• Delay in reaction or reply if it will take time or research – maybe set up a Pending folder which can be opened later

3.  Agree abbreviations for different sorts of emails

It helps everyone if they know immediately if an email is for information (FYI), for action (FYA), a response to something previous (RES) or just a quick message (QM).  The QM can even be limited to the subject line.

4. Attach only if necessary

Encourage people to use hyperlinks to documents if they are on the shared network drive, rather than attach.  It not only reduces the size of the email but also ensures each recipient accesses the same and most up-to-date version of the document.  If it’s not on the network, large documents should be zipped up (compressed) and small documents may be better pasted into the body of the email itself.

5. Limit “everyone” emails – create a weekly e-bulletin or use the intranet

So many inboxes get cluttered with the “everyone” or “all staff” circular emails.  A weekly e-bulletin which collates as much as possible is not as big a task as it may seem.  HR teams often find it useful to manage this process, using one mailbox to collect the various messages and then cut and paste into a standard format.  Then discourage unnecessary use of the “everyone” address in training, guidelines and through peer pressure.  The e-bulletin can be added to the intranet if you have one that works well.  Or you could add a notice or bulletin board to the intranet, split between ‘work’ and ‘personal’ messages.  If you go down that route, make sure you have an effective moderator so that notices are kept up-to-date.

6. Use time-expiry options

There will still be a legitimate use of the “everyone” address for the urgent (often mundane) message.  Encourage people and provide training so they know how to use expiry options for time limited messages.  That way the email is deleted before it’s even seen if people are away and they don’t have the frustration of ploughing through and deleting redundant messages.

7. Give people training in good email practice

It is easy to assume that everyone knows how to use email.  It may not even appear on the induction checklist for new starters.  Ensure people know how to set up new folders so they can organise their emails systematically.  Email and electronic calendars or diaries should be integrated so the emailed agenda and relevant papers are saved with the appointment reminder.  You need to decide who has the responsibility for email training – HR or IT or both?  Some training can be done in-house but you may decide to provide out-sourced workshops.  It’s more cost-effective to host a workshop for 12-20 people with an external trainer than send staff on external courses.

8. Provide ongoing support

Initial training in, for example, Outlook is good.  But make sure follow-up help and support is available, either through refresher courses (30 minutes after lunch break can make significant changes to email stress levels) or by offering an at-desk support.  It’s worth considering how you can identify an email champion or guru for each team to provide peer support rather than rely on HR or IT staff.  You often find that someone in a team has learnt some good habits on how they manage their own email.  So encourage them to share their knowledge around the team and make sure their line manager both agrees and encourages their peer support role.

9. Use Organiser / Rules to manage and filter

Most email programs have an Organiser or Rules function which automatically moves incoming emails to an appropriate folder by subject matter or sender.  So for example the CIPD e-newsletter can be filed on receipt into a ‘CIPD’ folder and read when time permits and you don’t need to trawl through your inbox or file it manually.  Of course, spam or junk mail that gets past your main email filters can be permanently deleted by a rule!

10. Enable email archiving

One source of email stress is the fear of losing that one really important email.  So people often keep everything, just in case.  This can mean a huge inbox or lots of separate folders.  Check that users know how to archive emails to keep emails in their organised folders by date order – so if you vaguely remember that email came in last May, you can click open the May Archive and find it more quickly than searching through the last six months.  Archiving also reduces the network load and the risk that your mailbox cannot accept new emails and the stress-inducing network Over Limit messages.

In summary:

• Resist checking emails continually
• Respond with the 3D rule – delete, deal or delay
• Provide initial and on-going training
• Use Organiser/Rules and archiving