Professor Cary Cooper Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University has described email as “one of the most pernicious stealers of time”.

Is this a little strong for something as simple as email?

Maybe not.

Gladeana McMahon, Director of Training at the Centre for Stress Management , writes that the use of technology is responsible for more interruptions in the workplace than anything else.

On average, she claims, we are interrupted 56 times per day – which is equal to every 11 minutes!

Isn’t it time people in your organisation were using email more productively?

It is such a quick win. All common sense – but not common practice.

Email etiquette training from Emailogic will give each of your staff 31 minutes extra time every day.

New research carried out at Stanford University shows that many of us subconsciously hold our breath or breathe shallowly when replying to emails.

It has been long proven that breathing correctly will reduce stress.

The most effective solutions are so often the most simple.

Have a more stress free 2012 and when replying to your emails – take a breath.

The use of virtual classrooms has many advantages.

One sector which embraces this method of delivering training is the charity sector – they often need to train staff in national or international locations and sometimes in small groups. They have to achieve good value for money.

The use of virtual training methods is the subject of a survey by Towards Maturity – an organisation which seeks to improve the impact of learning technologies in the workplace.

The results revealed that online learning has increased steadily across all sectors over the last 12 months, with virtual meetings now in use by 65% of organisations and virtual classrooms by 46%. To see this survey in more detail click here.

Emailogic offer elearning and webinar training on effective email and meetings. Emailogic also train trainers on how to develop and deliver training content for delivery over live webinars.

We are partnered with the Charity Learning Consortium to offer exclusive discounts for the non profit making sector.

If you are begining to deliver training webinars and want advice on how to improve your results – speak to one of the Emailogic team on 01452 886556.

A recent survey by Emailogic shows that following email training 115 Directors and senior managers of top UK firms are now saving 1 hour every day on the time they spend reading, writing and managing their email.

This is the equivalent of £56 billion worth of UK director’s time per year.

Whilst the cost of that time would make a most welcome contribution to most European countries national debt – what could all those directors produce with what equates to 20 extra working hours every month?

Click for more details of the email management survey.

Have you ever thought that every email you have ever read is a “historic” communication?

Even if the message was written 1 minute previously it was actually communicated in the past.

So every single email is “dead” in terms of life energy.

The real live “buzz” that is created during a telephone call, a web meeting or face to face conversation - when you can see or hear someone’s immediate response – is lost.

Good email etiquette is so often misunderstood. Business users just move information around or react to someone else. They are passive – not pro active and generating something new.

If you need to move something on or inject some passion into an issue – avoid email.

A rule of thumb when using email is that brevity is key.

Long emails can be less productive – and demand more time to read.

Think about the recipient of your emails. Use simple sentences to convey your message clearly. An email etiquette tip here would be to make one point per sentence. This gets that message across clearly.

You will find that good email etiquette is rewarded with clear and prompt replies.

How many times have you received an email with the subject line RE:RE:RE:RE..?

One client has a rule that they pick up the phone if an email goes backwards and forwards between managers more than twice. It is quicker.

Or maybe the sender is using an old subject line but for a new message – change the subject line – keep it in context with the message. It will be much easier to find in the future too.

Asking your recipient to scroll through pages and pages of text is poor email etiquette.

You are asking for their time and giving them extra work to do.

Send emails that you would like to receive.

At Emailogic we are often asked “So what is best practice for managing email?”

From a software perspective there are many solutions.

Gmail and other email packages have filters which can sort out most spam or junk as well as Trojans or other malware.

As good as many of these are – software is only part of the solution.

It is important that individuals take responsibility for unwanted email – it is only by changing our attitudes and behaviour that we can really manage our email effectively.

So here are some behavioural tips to change your email management:
- be responsible for emails you receive
- tell people who send you unnecessary emails, politely, to ‘e-off’
- when appropriate pick up the phone
- file or delete emails ongoingly

Just doing these few things will make email management almost a pleasure – not a chore.

The majority of business communication happens over email – and the law sector is no exception.

The results Emailogic achieve with law firms are consistently higher than average.

Results from legal clients show an average time saving of more than 45 minutes per person per day – which equates to a staggering 25 days per year saved!

Other results which stand out are:
- reduction times email accessed per day by -54%
- inboxes size cut by -34%.

Feedback from lawyers who attend email training:

“Of all the courses I have attended on working procedures this one has had the most beneficial effect on my behaviour and working day, relieving some of the stress caused by email”.

Another delegate put it more bluntly: “Everyone in the world should do this training”

We agree.

If your firm could also benefit from such improvements then contact us – and your fee earners can start billing up to 25 more days every year.

A recent white paper from the global IT company Citrix looked at the usage strategy of their internal virtual communications.

They compared the efficiency of web based (visual and audio) conferencing with teleconferencing (audio).

The results showed that the visual element of webinars increases the participation of attendees, improves the efficiency of decisions and, most surprisingly, reduces the time it takes to complete projects.

Staff also report that they intend to utilise webinars more often than telephone conference in the future – especially when organising team meetings – and for staff training.

Emailogic offer fabulous interactive training webinars focusing on issues where staff can easily improve their personal effectiveness: email training and effective meetings training.

Both webinars are packed full of techniques that delegates immediately put in to practice to:
- save time
- communicate with impact and
- have successful meeting outcomes.

Emailogic web based training is delivered in a highly engaging way making use of all interactive tools available including live polls, instant chat and virtual ‘hands up’– ensuring engagement remains high (we measure it) which maximises the impact of the training.

Putting your staff through an Emailogic live webinar is also a great way of making them aware of what can be achieved with webinar interactive tools.

So if you are using or thinking of introducing web conferencing in your organisation ask Emailogic to run a webinar for your team.

Click here or call us on 01452 885556.