Email is a wonderful tool but it’s being used far too much in the workplace. It can lead to confusion, hurt feelings, and ultimately, frustrated employees leaving your organization. In this economy, can you afford to allow something to drive away your top talent? Here are some quick tips you should think about the next time you’re tempted to hit the “send” button.

Don’t Over Write

Have you ever found yourself having to read a message over and over? I’m guessing it’s because it wasn’t clear. Put anyone in front of a keyboard and a simple request can become paragraphs. If you have to use email, keep your message simple and to the point. Confusion doesn’t help your business. Get in the habit of reading your message out loud to see if it is easily understood. An investment of a few seconds could ultimately save you a lot of time.

No Tone

In email, it can be very difficult to understand the tone of a message. Imagine if your boss wrote, “Get it done.” Is that an demand, a joke, or something in between? You can’t tell and again, you have to spend time trying to figure out the meaning. Some like to put important things in bold, italics, or all caps. These choices may have a special meaning or they may be a product of someone quickly tapping out a message on a mobile device. Do not rely on the reader to understand your intention.

People Feel They Have to Respond

Ever see a simple request from the boss go out to staff and ever staff member feels they need to reply? Those replies are sent to everyone so everyone has to stop what they’re doing to read it. Do you want your team spending their valuable time doing this? If you need people to reply, then tell them to. Otherwise, have a policy that you don’t need message acknowledgement.

Was That Important?

How many times do you have to repeat something that you emailed a few days ago? There’s just something about seeing a message on a screen that makes it hard for people to remember. Plus, we get so many emails nowadays that it’s easy to lose one in your inbox or you forget to get back to it later.

Let Go of the Mouse:

Use email only for general things that you want people to know about. Think of it like an electronic bulletin board. This could include an announcement of quarterly earnings, the score from last night’s softball game, and employee promotions.For action items, like a new dress code, sales strategy, or news of a visit from the corporate office, resort to good old-fashioned person-to-person verbal communication. This can be done at a staff meeting or having the information communicated down through supervisors. You may think that talking will take a lot of time but in the end you’ll save time by eliminating misunderstandings.

If you must send an email, then you can have it outline the action item. In this case it’s more like a reminder or a reinforcement of a policy.

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Copyright 2009 Ken OkelKen Okel helps people and organizations get around the obstacles that are blocking the path to success.

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