Use good email practice to ease workload 

Those of us who work in a role that requires computer use will understand the impact that emails can have – not just on our working day but also our ability to switch off when we head home or are away on holiday.

So often we find ourselves caught in never-ending chains of emails that we are not involved in or coming back to mountains of emails after annual leave.

The Wellbeing Strategy group, therefore, wants to share best practice when using emails – please take note of these recommendations and implement them in your work. This will hopefully help people to have better control of their inbox and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed!

• While there can be challenges because of the international scope of our business, it is really important that emails sent out of work hours are kept to a minimum, unless urgent.
  • Be particularly mindful of this if you are a manager – consider the expectation it is placing on your team if you send emails over the weekend, or when on holiday for instance.
  • We know that sometimes you may need to catch up on emails outside of work hours – however, use the delay delivery option to postpone the time the email will be received to the next morning.
• Don’t automatically hit ‘Reply All’ on an email thread – does everyone currently cc’d in need to receive your response? If not, take them out and just respond to the people affected.
  • Be especially aware of this when emails are more ‘admin’ related – you do not need to confirm a meeting time with all 10 people on an email, if only three of them are attending!
• If you’re about to email someone and notice they are out of office is on, or if you reply to a group email and see someone in thread is away, take a few moments to think whether you must send that email to them now.
  • It can feel a real challenge to get back on top of emails after time away from the business.
  • Help out your colleagues by waiting till they return if you can.
  • Or, if there is an email thread that is likely to continue developing while they are away, remove them from the thread and then send the latest update to them just before they return.
• Finally, ask yourself – does it need to be an email? Instead, could you give the person a call, or even speak to them face to face if they are at the same site as you?

There will always be occasions when urgent emails need to be sent out of hours, or to big groups of people. But if we all make a conscious effort to minimise email overload, we can help ourselves and our colleagues to switch off, take a break and return to work refreshed and motivated!