It’s the classic post-festive season scenario. Upon returning from the Christmas break, you come back to the office (or your work-from-home desk as the case may be) to an endless queue of unread emails from team members who persisted working through the holidays or after you left early for your break; your boss who has all these new department demands for their new year agenda; and clients, business partners, and other important stakeholders eager for your input, assistance, or clarification.
With the plethora of emails you have to wade through, chances are, you’re hurriedly scanning through and responding to them, so you can get down to real business; actually doing the work you’ve planned to do for the new year.
The problem is, according to a report from Preply, a foreign language learning platform, approximately 90% of employees believe that workplace misunderstandings and miscommunication have a common starting point: email. In fact, based on the study, email has the highest rate of causing fractured communication and workplace anxiety, with 67% of misunderstandings sprouting from voice messages, 71% from phone calls, 79% through direct messaging, 80% from text messages, and an overwhelming 87% via email. The research was conducted in November and surveyed 1,030 U.S. employees to explore communication preferences in the workplace.
However, despite the negatives, email still ranks highly as being the most preferred mode of workplace communication. With the transition into hybrid-remote work being one of the key priorities for this year, it’s essential for workers and especially leaders and managers, to get this critical aspect of the workplace infrastructure right. Going into the office and having in-person meetings all the time is not the answer. So should we abandon email altogether? That’s not the answer either.
Instead, our approach, particularly if acting in a leadership role, should be focused on adapting communication methods and tools to suit each team member or stakeholder, according to their preferences, and being mindful of how we write and even when we write and send emails.
Here are some basic email guidelines to bear in mind:
Should This Be Sent In Another Way?
Before sending an email, ask yourself, Do I really need to create a new email trail? Does this need to add to someone’s already full inbox folder, or can I send it via another format, such as a Slack or Teams message? How urgent is the message? If I send it via email, will they be more likely to receive it sooner and on time than if sent via text, voice message, or call? Would this issue be better resolved via an alternative form of communication such as an impromptu video call or scheduled meeting?
Could This Be Misinterpreted?
Once you’ve compiled the body of your message and are ready to hit send, look over it carefully and ask yourself, Could any aspect of this message be misunderstood? Could the subject line cause undue anxiety for my team members? Might this email come off as inappropriate or offensive, because of our cultural or age differences?
Does It Need To Be Sent Now?
Is it really urgent or can it wait? The worst time to send an email is when you’re upset, particularly if the person you’re directing the email to is the cause of your frustration. Similarly, if you’re composing an email or responding to an existing one in a hurry, you might miss important details, appear to be inconsiderate, or totally miss the point and respond to what you thought they were saying. Worse, you could end up breaching data privacy and send the email to the wrong person with a similar name by accident, or copy everyone into a conversation that was intended to be private, which of course, cannot be undone.
How Can This Reflect The Right Tone Of Voice?
Emails, in common with with other text-based forms of workplace communication, have one thing in common: they miss the human element. Vocal intonations and body language help us create a more well-rounded picture of what someone is trying to convey, and without these aids, communicating may be convenient but risk being easily misinterpreted, and tensions could foster. So aim, as much as possible, to inject some of your personality and a human voice to your written messages. You could use a warm, conversational tone, mention the recipient’s name in your greeting, and sparingly use emoticons in more laidback workplace settings, and in line with organizational etiquette.
Through following these guidelines for your email correspondence at work, you can contribute to a healthier work culture, more engagement, and less frequent delays and hiccups affecting project completion. Embrace these email communication skills this new year so you can easily build and maintain healthy relationships with team members, managers, and stakeholders, wherever they may be.
Forbes