Email Policies
Having a stated email policy can help you to better manage your emplyees' email usages. As litigations from miss-use of corporate emails is on the rise, it has become essential to have in place a corporate email policy. PatentAgentip will help your company to install a proper email system and policy that will avert any unsavorable court cases. Prevention is better than cure. It is both affordable and easily manageable. In case of legal court actions, PatentAgentip will help you in any litigation work that might come your way in unexpected moments. Insure your company now.
Your company and FRCP
Do you know that under the recently amended FRCP legislation in the US, you can be fined and imprisoned if convicted? Well, what is FRCP then?
FRCP means Federal Rules of Civil Procedures, which includes things like instant messages, emails, and those data received and transmitted through laptops, enterprise networks, personal digital assistants and mobile devices. It also includes those captured in data bases and even SMS, so it looks like enterprises will need to be very aware as to what is received and transmitted from these devices and be ready for any civil litigation that arises from their uses. You are now expected to be able to retain these corporate messages and present them for inspection on demand. It calls for a whole new ball game in data storage and retrievals, and your IT department must be ready for it. Are you then ready? If you need more information about how to prepare for the FRCP legislation, please click here to enquire.
A serious thought for company email policies
It is often believed that the slogan, “if the thing is not spoilt, don’t try to fix it” as a good advise in the ICT world and to a lesser extend in our everyday lives. However it would be very inadvisable to follow it when it comes to corporate email policies. What is the reason for it?
In a recent survey done by Emedia Research in 2008, it was found that 32 % of top level management staffs don’t know that there are corporate data leaks from their company and almost 90 over percent believes that they are powerless when it comes to the leaking out of confidential information. And the main channel of these leakages? Yes, you guessed it, outgoing emails, especially from lower level staffs that just get the kick of telling all and sundry about the newest developments. Together with emails, instant messages have also become an easy outlet of information. With the increase use of mobile devices, it would seem that the leakage pipe would become even bigger!
Then there is such a thing as saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and place. There has been a sharp increase in the number of inappropriate emails being taken as the source of civil suits in the US. With the increase of retrenchments, there will also be an increase of flaming emails being sent out to discredit management, and before things get out of hand, it would be advisable to institute a corporate policy to reign in any future unpleasantness facing the corporation. There has always been a policy of letting the staffs do what they think fit, but in order to be safe than sorry, it is time to correct that policy and to put up some sort of fences. In short, there has to be a viable corporate email policy put in place, even for those small enterprises out there, eking out a decent living!
Can you use the company’s email to send out letters to your union members?
The American Labor Relations Board issued an important edit in late 2007 regarding the use by employees of the company’s emails to communicate with fellow members and it clearly stated that the email system cannot be used with ‘non-work related ‘purposes. And what followed after that edit was the objection filed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals which is heading towards the U.S Supreme Court for an interpretation. Such is the complication with the use of company apparatus when it is not clearly spelled out. Companies are therefore advised to thread carefully on the email issues as it could undermine its own business if an ugly case crops up between employer and employee.
The interpretation of ‘non-work’ activities is itself open to being murky, unless it is a clearly stated in the contract. Unfortunately, small firms, which formed the majority of enterprises, are seldom prepared in such circumstances, and do fall precariously in danger of being unceremoniously booted out of business by unnecessary court cases. For the employers, it is more of not buying an insurance policy thinking that bad things only happen to other guys! But don’t let yourself being caught with your pants down. Treat company email policies as one of the important things to be spelt out clearly before you even think of hiring that meek and obedient looking somebody before they one day turned into your nemesis!
If you need advice on company email policies and how to manage them, why not give PatentAgentip a thinker? Sent an email here to inquire
July 13, 2009
Would you consider an email hosting service?
Before you plan to start up a company, the first thing you should consider is how to manage your company email system. At the heart of any enterprise is the communication system and one of the most important criteria is the cost of using the system. There are free email systems and there are paid for systems. Then, there is the security issue as well as the legal issue. How would you go about structuring the company system then? One of the easiest way is to leave your email system to an outsource like email hosting. It is managed in a way that will leave you to concentrate on your core activities. However, outsourcing your email system might not be for everybody. For big enterprises like banking and insurance services, there is a requirement mandated by the international agreements like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other accountability acts that requires an in-house system. But generally for the average enterprises out there, it is pragmatic to get their email hosted and managed by a professional third part.
Slow mail going out the way of the Do-Do bird?
In the internet era, those things that we used to do at snail spaces will inevitably be casted aside. One of the latest victims is our post office snail mails. Like the off line yellow pages and the morning newspapers, users are running away in droves. It is understandable though, with most of our younger generations cultured on instant gratifications like sms’s, online buying, instant messages and video calls, there is no more use for anything that moves at snail pace. In a recent article penned by a young teenager sponsored by an established media publication, it was reported that over ninety percent of youths don’t read newspapers! How pathetic? Well, it is the sign of the times.
At the corporate level, it used to be the norm of sending out piles of letters which were stamped by using a franking machine. Well, the franker is now gathering dust in most offices as there is a faster and more convenient email system to replace it. However, even when emails become ubiquitous, there are normally no corporate email policies in place. A well set up email usage policy is becoming important, if employees and employers do not wish to fall foul of litigation problems. When something goes wrong, someone will have to be answerable. Sometimes, just the act of sending out that seemingly well intended and innocent email could go wrong by just a wrong click. Or worse, it is used to frame up somebody that has love lost! In order to avoid complications later on, companies should put in place a corporate email policy first before anything, and not only that, everyone must comprehend it as well, even if it has to be coughed in legalistic terms that they don’t understand.
July 22, 2009.
A wrong posting can get you the boot.
According to internet security firm Proofpoint, who did an interview with company chiefs who overseas emails, 40% of the companies have email monitoring done on their staffs, and thirty percent of the lot engage special staff to do the monitoring. So it looks like snooping on employee’s internet communications is a given. It was however not known whether the employees were aware or informed about the activities, though. And the main reason for doing so was the concern about employees knowingly or unknowingly leaking out vital information.
The medium that is usually used for posting critical information is the message boards. Following behind are individual blogs and social network sites. The situation in the U.S. has become critical, such that companies have to resort to sacking erstwhile employees. It was reported that almost 6% of the companies surveyed had given the pink slip. Before the situation gets worse, companies should have put in place a clear policy on email uses so that employees know where not to thread. Not only that, these policies should be updated often so that new forms of activities are covered.
August 18, 2009.