Don't Touch That 'Send' Button! - e-mail messaging skills

HR Magazine, July, 2001 by Andrea C. Poe

Managers need to bone up on their e-mail messaging skills to improve communication in the workplace.

When Marnie Puritz Stone worked as an account executive at a Dallas-based public relations firm, nearly all intra-office communication was done via e-mail-no matter how sensitive.

"All communication regarding hiring and firings were sent via e-mail," Stone explains. Her managers may have felt they were being efficient, but she and her colleagues thought the managers were rude.

"I think that the callousness with which [some] e-mail deliveries new-good or bad-is a poor way to show leadership," she said. "And it creates a lot resentment."

Stone's manager created even more resentment when it came to providing feedback, which was done mostly through e-mail. "I was reprimanded via e-mail, which was really bad," she recalls. "Criticism via e-mail leaves you very belittled since you can't respond."

In addition, e-mail is incapable of creating tone, which increases the potential for misinterpretations. Things that may be cleared up quickly in a face-to-face conversation often fester when the recipient misinterprets an e-mail message. Managers may think everything is rosy, when just the opposite is true.

Indeed, the lack of interactivity that e-mail affords people has introduced more communication problems in the workplace. While the writer may believe he can tell his complete side of the story through e-mailuubecause it s not a live conversation with interruptionsuit can leave the recipient feeling ambushed and powerless.

The lack of etiquette and rules for e-mail communication also poses problems. Rules for phone conversations don't apply because e-mail is not an interactive conversation. Nor do the rules for written correspondence, which is more formal and not instantaneous. So, e-mail falls somewhere in the middle of a phone call and a letter, which is why its etiquette is confusing to people.

E-mail has its own rules, says Pernfl James Cunningham, president of Ethologie, a business and protocol consulting firm in Colorado Springs, Cob., and co-author with Sue Fox of Business Etiquette for Dummies (IDG Books Worldwide, 2001). "Using all caps is considered screaming on email. And, though unintentional, [it] can be offensive," Cunningham says.

Therefore, training on e-mail communication should not be overlooked. Managers would never hire a customer service representative or a receptionist without sufficient phone training. And, companies often have standards on how to compose formal letters. Managers should apply the same care and attention to e-mail communication, experts say, not just with e-mail leaving the office but with intra-office e-mail as well.

"How you communicate with each other affects productivity, morale and retention," maintains Kenneth Pritchard, a human resource and management consultant in Lusby, Md.

"Electronic communication is too important to ignore," adds Rick Barry, president of Barry Associates, an Arlington, Va.-based information management consulting firm. "Coinpanies need to be very specific about what they expect from employees."

Formal Training or Suggested Guidelines?

While all employees can benefit from help with e-mail, managers need it most. After all, they are the ones responsible for representing the company to other employees, and they also regularly must distribute important information.

"If you want to establish good email communication skills, managers have to set the example for other employees," says Carol Beaudu, president of CJB Associates, a Seattle based HR consulting firm specializing in technological issues.

The fact that managers most likely have used e-mail for many years may create some resistance if you suddenly introduce mandatory e-mail training, says Beaudu. One way around that is to make the training optional. Beaudu suggests giving brown bag lunches with catchy titles such as "10 Biggest E-mail Blunders" to attract people to the class.

Or, you can follow the example of financial services firm Merrill Lynch in New York, which identifies key people who need the training due to their job circumstances. Merrill employees and managers who want to exercise a telecommuting option, for instance, must demonstrate that they have strong e-mail communication skills and can handle less face-to-face contact. Communication skills are measured through performance reviews and managers' recommendations of potential telecommuting candidates.

"If they don't have the skills they need to [communicate through email] successfully, we turn that into a development discussion, put them in training and re-evaluate it after they've taken a course," explains Janice Miholics, vice president and manager of global and telework strategies at Merrill Lynch.

The New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) in Princeton, N.J., gets the job done as soon as employees come through the door. E-mail etiquette is handled under an umbrella Internet training session required of all new hires. They are taught the basics: how to communicate quickly but with courtesy, how to refrain From putting into writing anything that could come back to haunt them and the importance of proofreading e-mails before sending them.