Email could be costing companies more than £10,000 per
employee per year according to research from Loughborough
University's Dr Tom Jackson.
In a paper published in the International Journal of Internet
and Enterprise Management, Dr Jackson argues that a strategy of
'email training' for staff and improved email management could
improve staff efficiency and minimise time wasted on irrelevant and
unnecessary emails.
During a two-year study Dr Jackson observed employees at four UK
businesses with staff numbers ranging from 23 to 20,000. He
distributed questionnaires to identify organisational email use and
email problem areas before delivering seminar- and computer-based
training to groups of employees at two of the
organisations.
An email training tool, developed by Dr Jackson at Loughborough,
was also utilised to flag up possible defects in emails prior to
sending.
Results showed estimated costs of email per employee ranging
from £5,197 to £10,621 per year dependent on the
average number of emails received per day and number of email
end-users, and based on an average salary of £24,603
(National Statistics Online, 2007). The figure also takes into
account an assumed overhead of £23,244 per employee per year.
Email inefficiencies result from the written quality of email
messages, the quantity of email received and the ineffective
configuration of an organisation's email applications.
Through training, staff can identify when email is the most
appropriate communications channel, learn how to write effective
subject headers and concise messages, and decide who really needs
to be copied into each email.
"Our findings may help organisations to become more effective in
managing their email communication systems," said Dr Jackson, a
senior lecturer in the University's Department of Information
Science.
"By reducing the volume of irrelevant and untargeted email and
by reducing the frequency with which an email application checks
for new email, the cost of email use can be optimised.
"It is recommended that communication managers or others
responsible for email policy and management examine their email
policies and develop a 'snapshot' of how their employees use
email.
"Such information will provide an organisation with a useful
foundation from which to build their training to increase the
effectiveness of their employees."