Three Steps For Keeping Your Employees' Email
From Landing Your Business In Court

By Patricia S. Eyres

With an estimated 1.3 trillion email messages being sent annually, electronic mail is quickly becoming the communications medium of choice in many business settings. While email transmissions do offer many benefits, such as speed, ease of use, and relatively low cost, business owners are learning the hard way that email is a visible and potentially perilous communications tool.

You've Got Mail!

For example, one company faced six claims of sexual harassment because an employee downloaded an “adult bulletin board” to the company's computer system and programmed it to display the offensive material on employees' screens when they accessed their mail. Another company paid $2.2 million for racially charged email messages exchanged on its system by employees. But these incidences don't only occur in large organizations. Companies as small as ten employees have had to discipline employees for misuse of company computer systems, with violations ranging from inflammatory messages to software piracy.

Email abuse and Internet misuse can cripple communications, disrupt operations or embarrass a business. It also increasingly leads to real legal liabilities. Inflammatory or abusive content, off-the-cuff jargon, ambiguous instructions, imprecise memos, embarrassing gossip, unprofessional language or breaches of confidentiality are all a fertile source of concern for email writers and their employers.

Many of these email related challenges can be eliminated or controlled through proactive techniques for generating and maintaining online communications. The three most critical steps every company should take to reduce its chances of an email disaster are: 1) Enact an email usage policy; 2) Enforce it regularly; and 3) Educate employees and managers about the email usage policy.

Implement these measures today so your employees' email transmissions don't hinder your company's operations.

Enact an Email Usage Policy
To improve your company's control over employee email, adopt policies that clearly define what rights the company reserves and explain that email communications are not private. The specific language of the policy will vary depending upon the company, the industry, and the specific needs of the work environment. The policy should be written and incorporated into employee manuals or policy books. Employees, indicating that they have read it and agree to be bound by its terms, should then sign the policy.

Some common email usage policy highlights include the following:

Define the permissible uses of the email system. Make it clear that the business owns the email system. All messages that are created, sent or received using the system remain the property of the company. Indicate that workplace email systems are to be used for business communications only. Personal business is unauthorized and should not be conducted at any time. Additionally, it is wise to state that offensive, discriminatory or disruptive email messages are strictly prohibited. All non-discrimination policies should also refer to email as a prohibited medium for inappropriate content.

All employees should be made aware that access to messages received by or transmitted through the email system is limited to persons who need to know the information. Employees should disclose information or messages only to authorized employees. Equally important is to put employees on notice that any communications created, sent or retrieved using email may be read by individuals other than the intended recipient.

Define appropriate and impermissible content. Employees must know specifically what is allowed and what is prohibited in the email system. Explain that messages containing insensitive language, racial, sexual, ethnic or religious material is not acceptable. Prohibit all offensive or disruptive messages, as well as abusive, obscene or vulgar language, gossip, ridicule or retaliatory messages. Further explain that downloading sexual, racial, religious, or otherwise discriminatory or offensive material from the Internet is not allowed. Inform employees that violations will result in appropriate discipline.

Reserve the right to monitor email. To keep your employees in compliance, specifically reserve the right to review, audit, intercept, access and disclose any business or personal messages created, sent or received on the email system. To assure legally sufficient employee consent, the policy should contain a clear description that the employer will monitor the email, which goes well beyond simply reserving the right to do so.

Enforce Your Email Usage Policy Regularly
Establishing a policy is only the first step to limiting liability when monitoring email. Equally important is enforcing the policy in a manner that makes it fully effective in eliminating employees' alleged reasonable expectations of privacy. To make your employees continually aware that the policy is in effect, consider using an electronic disclaimer that is triggered each time the individual logs onto the email system or accesses a personal email mailbox. This also helps establish that the employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy.

Enforce your email policy systematically and regularly, even for what may seem like a minor offense. Failure to do so could result in waiver of the employer's rights. For example, employees may allege that they expected privacy because the employer was known never to enforce its monitoring policy and was also known to be aware that employees were exchanging personal or private email messages. Be advised, though, that employers must exercise caution and monitor only in situations where monitoring is necessary to protect legitimate business purposes. Train management on the use of the email technology to assure that accidental leaks of information obtained do not occur.

Educate Employees and Managers About the Email Usage Policy
Despite the prevalence of email abuse and consequences played out in the media, many employees still believe their email is private and transitory, and that personal access to the Web at work is untraceable. Employers must educate their employees that this is not so. A good employee education system will alert employees that the use of passwords does not indicate a message is confidential or that the company will not be able to intercept it. Additionally, it will point out that the deletion of a message does not give an assurance that it will not be retrieved or read. Employees should understand that until the message is written over on the hard disk drive, it is retrievable and that the company has the technical tools to do so and so reserves the right.

As email communication continues to dominate the business world, it's more important than ever for employers to keep tabs on employee email messages. Not doing so could leave the organization in the midst of legal troubles. In today's electronic age, smart companies will enact and enforce an email usage policy and will educate employees and managers as to its purpose and use. It's one measure that could keep your employees safe from inappropriate communications and could save your company millions of dollars in potential lawsuits.

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The MHEDA Journal • First Quarter 2002 • Volume 31, No. 1 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.