e mail guidelines

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E-Mail Guidelines for Internal Correspondence

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Who should be addressed in the “to” field of your e-mail? Only persons with clear and comprehensible mandate to act Make sure to highlight each person addressed in the “to” field with a paragraph in the

message text

Persons who only need to be informed should be included in the “Cc” field These recipients should have no mandate to act They are not required to read the message on the same day

Emails are to be avoided late in the evening and over weekends. Time the email to be sent out the next morning

using the Outlook e-mail options

Who should be addressed?


Where possible the subject line should already explain the topic without having to open the email. I.e. ‘Please call me back – Ext. #123’

If a email is only sent for informational purposes, the subject line should be marked with ‘FYI‘ As there is no call for action, include everyone in the “Cc” field and address the e-mail

to yourself

Emails should be clear and comprehensible and wherever possible should not necessitate follow-up queries.

An inbox is not a filing system. Please only use it to

store emails that require further processing. Archive all other emails.

Make it clear


Select carefully! Don’t use a superior to apply pressure If a senior person needs to be included in the conversation, take the time to explain the

topic offline.

If a topic can’t be resolved in the first instance due to barriers / bottlenecks (calls, follow-up emails, etc. have failed), the topic may be escalated to a superior. Inform the superior properly and ask for advice If the topic can’t be resolved by including a superior in the correspondence, the

discussion needs to be resolved offline

When to escalate?


1// Where possible, please praise your colleagues in person. Personal thanks is more honest and does not impose any incoming mail strain. ‘You’re welcome’ notes should not be sent by email either.

2// Within a department, a conversation in person takes precedence above email where possible.

3// Pressing matters always require a conversation in person. Measures discussed should then be recorded in an email or as part of the minutes.

4// Emails that are not resolved after a reply causing additional questions should be discussed in person and not as an email chat.

5// All emails should be limited to five sentences. This does not apply to meeting minutes that cannot be collated into a single document due to absences, etc.

5 rules to keep it short


While on leave, one or more representatives for all relevant responsibilities need to be announced in the auto reply mail. State, that the emails will not be read automatically but that the sender needs to

reach out to the representative in urgent matters. The representative in charge will copy the original recipient into the conversation. If the sender has not reached out to the representatives, ask the sender if the task is

still relevant before taking action Should the representative solve the issue, he or she will send a final email to the

original recipient posting the word ‘closed’ into the email body

Upon return from leave read the last email first. Should the last email relate to a topic be marked ‘closed’,

no action is required Align with your representatives for all open issues before

getting back to the sender It helps to change the view to ‘conversation’

Prepare your absence

e mail guidelines

Business