In a new survey of business people across various UK industries,
44% said they do not have policies in place for e-mail use by staff
or have them but don’t follow them. Of those with e-mail use
policies in place, 32% said they have disciplined staff for e-mail
abuse.
The survey, entitled “Email: Coming out of the Amateur’s
Closet!,” was carried out by market research firm Vanson Bourne on
behalf of Interliant, an ASP.
Other findings show that 28% of e-mail users do not pay the same
level of attention to e-mails as they do to letters, although the
study does not distinguish between internal, personal and
customer/client correspondence in this statistic.
The survey also said that 24% of respondents “have received an
e-mail with an error that substantially changed the meaning.” More
than half of e-mails sent by 88% of respondents were
business-related, not personal. The most common number of e-mails
sent and received each day was between 30 and 50.
Of those firms using confidentiality notices and disclaimers as
automatic headers or footers in their e-mails, 34% of respondents
thought they would be legally effective. OUT-LAW.COM’s John Salmon
said:
“In most cases, disclaimers that in effect
tell a recipient not to rely on the content of the e-mail will be
ineffective. It is worth using confidentiality notices to cover the
situation where the e-mail is sent to the wrong person.”
Only 26% of respondents were aware of the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act which came into force in October 2000 and
creates an offence of intercepting e-mails except in certain
circumstances. In the case of employers, the rules for an employer
to follow if wanting to monitor staff e-mail are set out in
Regulations made under the Act, the Human Rights Act and a draft
Code issued by the Information Commissioner (formerly the Data
Protection Commissioner).
Salmon added:
“Although this report only surveyed a fairly
small number of individuals, it’s clear that there is still
confusion about what businesses can and cannot do with regard to
monitoring e-mail. Basically, any business giving staff e-mail
access should have an e-mail policy in place. For it to be
effective, the staff must know about it and it must be enforced. An
employer must not turn a blind eye to abuse of the policy and then
suddenly punish one employee for abusing it.
“E-mail policies need not just cover
monitoring; they should set out the steps for employees to follow
when, for example, e-mailing customers, to ensure the company’s
quality standards and procedures are not compromised.”
For a guidance on these rules and to request a free policy from
OUT-LAW.COM, see our article, Monitoring employee e-mail and
internet access in the UK.
One third of respondents said they conduct legally binding
transactions by e-mail – yet more than half of all respondents
incorrectly thought that contracts entered into by e-mail carried
less “legal weight” than contracts expressed in letter on headed
stationery.
