Whether it is spam or general email not relevant to your work, the average office worker wastes 45 minutes each day trying to tame their inbox.
However, the amount of time spent on this chore could be reduced with email training, UK email management consultancy Mesmo has claimed
A survey by Mesmo found that 92pc of the 130 PAs it questioned said neither themselves or their managers had any form of email training, which the firm claims would help the three quarters of us who spend nearly half the working day sorting through and responding to email.
While this activity may seem to be a necessary part of the modern work day, Mesmo’s study found we may not be using our email to its full capabilities – 81.3pc of those questioned felt their correspondents do not use the ‘cc’ function correctly.
Some 62pc of respondents also felt the emails they received on a daily basis were far too long, with the optimum email being 4-5 lines in length.
Content also needs to be addressed, said managing partner of Mesmo, Dr Monica Seeley, as many users do not realise what is and is not appropriate to put in writing in an email.
“Many users do not understand how insecure an email is and that inappropriate comments in an email can be regarded as defamatory.
“People and organisations without training use email inefficiently. Organisations tend to produce a constant stream of communication and often make inappropriate use of the medium,” said Seeley.
However, the top concern arising from the Mesmo survey was the fact that almost half (43.4pc) of respondents said their company had no EDRM (electronic documents and records management) policy, while a further 30pc did not know either way.
By Marie Boran
