We are committed to staff wellbeing and understand that email, whilst an essential communications tool, can also be a source of potential stress. The following guidance is designed to help minimise the impact of email overload.
Composing emails – some words of advice
If you want to reduce the number of emails you receive, a good start is to reduce the number you send so….
- Think – before you send, there are many other ways to communicate other than email. Could a phone call or a face-to-face meeting suffice? Who are you sending to and who are you copying in and why? If you can, use the phone or meet first and use email as a written confirmation of action points
- Does everyone need your email? If you are replying, do you really need to ‘reply all’?
- Consider your recipient carefully – how will the content and tone of your email be interpreted?
- Subject lines – make sure they are easy to understand and relevant to the content
- If sending ‘broadcast’ style emails, consider the use of ‘INFO’ or ‘ACTION’ within the subject line to help the recipient prioritise the email
- Use the ‘High Priority’ function sparingly and only when necessary
- Be specific – all emails should have a clear and specific reason to be sent. It may help to insert a title above your paragraphs, particularly in a long email and to help you order your thoughts
- Layout – check that your email is clearly laid out. Large chunks of text rarely get read. Keep your emails short and to the point using short sentences and paragraphs.
- You may wish to use bullet points to make your email clearer and easier to digest. Lengthy text is best attached as a document
Rules and alerts – advice to help you cope with ‘email fatigue’
- Consider disabling alerts and check your emails at set times of the day
- Consider setting up rules so ‘circulation’ and cc’d emails are diverted to a separate folder
Top tips and reminders
- Email use should be restricted to council business and not for personal use
- Internally, consider using Teams for quick updates or to check a colleague’s availability. Rather than emailing, why not message them asking them if it is convenient to have a quick chat and go and see them or have a Teams call?
- Emails are the responsibility of the sender, and action by the recipient should not be assumed. Only the addressee should have actions. People that are copied in are not expecting to have any actions given to them
- There is no expectation to read and action emails out of hours, unless you are on call or have made particular arrangements with your manager
- Use auto response when you are out of the office without email access, on days off and for holidays or to clarify part time working arrangements. This should advise when you are back in the office and give details of a colleague to contact if an urgent response is required
- Part-time staff should advertise their working arrangements at the bottom of their emails. See ‘Email Signatures‘ to see what our corporate style is
- Avoid using UPPER CASE as it looks like you are SHOUTING
- It is not normal business practice to attach ‘read receipts’ to emails and it is preferable that you don’t do this
- If sending external group emails make sure you are not breaching UK GDPR regulations by making addresses visible. In some instances you will need to use BCC.
- Emails can be used as a confidential communication channel by making this clear in the subject heading or at the top of the email. Remember once an email is sent it can be forwarded on (or saved as a screen shot) with or without your permission. Emails can also be subject to a Freedom of Information or Subject Access Request, so think carefully about what you say and how you say it
- Emails containing personal data must comply with UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 Legislation. If in doubt please seek advice from your Information Asset Owner or MVDC’s Data Protection Officer or Deputy Data Protection Officer BEFORE pressing send. Further information on UK GDPR
- Be sure to set up an outbox delay, details of how to do this are on Molly here: https://stagingmolly.molevalley.gov.uk/gdpr/
- Phishing training is mandatory for all staff. To report phishing, use the ‘Phish Alert’ button in Outlook
- Always proof-read before sending
- Don’t forget that taking regular breaks from your desk and screen is also recommended
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
If email stress is getting on top of you, you can access Employee Assistance Programme free and in confidence.
You can also access the Health e-hub app and online portal – a comprehensive library to help with all sorts of challenges. This includes some great articles such as Ways to Reduce Email Overload based on the following book and Work-life Balance: Top Tips
IT Security Policy
This Guidance should be read in conjunction with the IT Security Policy, which is available on Molly.
February 2019, updated January 2023