by Leigh Goessl

Created on: January 29, 2008   Last Updated: July 16, 2011

Email has become a primary means of communication in the work environment. When the Internet first emerged as a means to share messages, society began to tread into unknown territory, and the boundaries of how to use company email weren't really clear. As a result employers were lenient and did not put many resources into constructing a formal email policy, but over time the need for one has became evident.

Today email is a primary form of communication and its availability is vital to conduct business due to it's great convenience and cost efficiency. Unfortunately with the convenience of email come a few disadvantages, and it is important for a company to protect computer and network assets. Spam clogs up network resources and malware causes considerable damage. Decreased employee productivity has also emerged as a valid concern because statistics indicate employee use of the Internet for personal reasons has and continues to grow.

As business grows more dependent on email, it is probably necessary for your company to draft a solid email policy and distribute it across the organization so everyone is on the same page of what is appropriate and what is not when it comes to using email.

Generally these are a few good guidelines to follow in development of acceptable email practices:

• Keep it business

If all members in your organization use their email primarily for business purposes, the risk of being infected by spyware, viruses or other malware is significantly reduced. In today's world professional and personal lives are converging, and while some personal email may be acceptable, over usage or abuse is not.

By minimizing personal usage of company email, the probability of spam and malware is significantly lower because it effectively eliminates employees using their company email address for personal reasons or to sign up on websites. Once this aspect is taken care of, companies are likely to decreased spam and they decrease the possibility of the company servers and mailboxes receiving emails infected with malware.

• Summarize preferred format

Give your employees guidelines on how to use signatures, greetings, and style. If you use a specific template, include this in your policy. Stipulate the 'do's and don'ts' of what kind of content is acceptable to write when responding to company emails.

• Outline appropriate usage

In your policy make clear to your staff what kinds of emails are inappropriate in content. This is not only to keep emails

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