STAFF DEVELOPMENT: Email Etiquette & Best Practices

Brendan Murphy on Tue, June 9, 2020

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Welcome! Please see below 2 sections:
1. The adopted email etiquette approach chosen for Saint Michael by the leadership
2. Industry emailing best practices as provided by Colleen

SMAA EMAIL CULTURE & ETIQUETTE

During many conversations over the last year, the questions surrounding the topic of email etiquette has arisen multiple times. As such, Colleen, Steve & Ken were asked to take the lead in establishing the “Saint Michael approach” to email culture and etiquette. This is different from “industry best practices”, which can be found below:

  1. FOR WHAT EXACTLY AM I RESPONSIBLE?
    This is really a question of,what does email professionalism look like at Saint Michael?

    First, let it be said that everyone is hired partially out of an innate belief they can professionally manage their responsibilities and the tools of their job. Email is simply one of the tools we need you to manage. Therefore, the Saint Michael expectation is that you manage your email: generally speaking, being aware of what is in your inbox; even if you can’t or choose not to answer an email at that time.

    Secondly, and based on the first point: if you are aware of what is in your inbox needing to be addressed, Saint Michael email etiquette expects each of us to manage those emails, and the expectations of the people who sent them, in a timely manner.
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  2. HOW QUICKLY SHOULD I RESPOND TO EMAIL SENT DURING BUSINESS HOURS?
    We recognize some emails simply don’t need to be answered. However, part of managing your inbox is prioritizing what is most urgent. Urgent emails should be answered the same day. All other emails needing to be answered, should be answered–generally speaking–in 72 hours*.

    *We completely own and recognize there are a few staff who receive so many emails daily this becomes untenable. However, prioritizing urgent email responses is still key and going as quickly as possible.
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  3. HOW QUICKLY SHOULD I RESPOND TO EMAILS SENT OUTSIDE OF BUSINESS HOURS?
    This is about teamwork and respect. Some of us email during work. Others of us email as things occur to us (or when catching up on email) without an expectation of an immediate response. We do not hold an expectation that email will be answered outside of business hours, with the following caveat:

    -Email sent needing an immediate response before the next business day should be the exception, not the status quo. Respect your teammates.
    -We suggest adding something like RESPONSE NEEDED ASAP, or RESPONSE NEED BY [DATE/TIME] at the beginning of the subject line, so the recipient understands and can easily see this is urgent.
    -If you are the person receiving the email, please understand this moment is special and with a measure of grace, fully answer your teammate’s email.
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  4. WHAT IF THEY AREN’T ANSWERING MY URGENT (AND MARKED) EMAIL?
    Again–this is all about respect. As teammates, if it truly is urgent and you need a response but have yet to receive it, try texting them. If that doesn’t work, call them. If you don’t think your email is urgent enough to do the above–perhaps it can wait until the next business day.

    THIS IS A PRIVILEGE. Please don’t abuse being able to reach out directly to a teammate after hours. As opposed to social calls–business calls should be the absolute exception to “normal”.
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  5. Shouldn’t I keep everyone in the reply, all the time?
    Not necessarily. See below.

EMAIL INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES

Using the TO Field:

  • The TO field is, according to the rules of email etiquette, meant for the main recipient(s) of your email.
  • To be more precise, this field should be used to include the recipients who are required to take action in response to the email.

Using the CC Field:

  • CC stands for Carbon Copy. The CC field is used to refer to the concept of the carbon copy as it sends additional copies of a single email to one or more recipients.
  • The TO and CC fields are often used interchangeably because no matter which one you use, there is little difference in the way your recipients view the email.
  • However, the general practice is to use the CC field to send a copy of the email to people just to keep them in the loop.
  • Email etiquette says that the people you keep in the CC field are not expected to take any action or reply to the message.

Using the BCC Field:

  • BCC is for Blind Carbon Copy. It sends copies of the email to multiple recipients, the only difference being that none of the recipients are made aware of who else has received the email.
  • The BCC field is used when you want to send an email to multiple recipients but do not want any of them to know about the other people you have sent them to, typically to protect the privacy of the recipients.

When to Use Reply and Reply All

  • REPLY is when your email goes to a single person — either the person who sent the original email or the person who sent the last message in the thread you’re responding to.
  • REPLY ALL is when you respond to everyone on the thread. Other recipients will see a message you Reply All to, whether they’re in the “To” or “Cc” fields.

Reply vs. Reply All

  • Use Reply when you only want to send your message to a single person in an email thread — either the original sender of the email or the last person to reply in the thread.
  • Reply All when you want to respond to every contact on the thread.

When deciding between Reply and Reply All, ask yourself a series of questions:

  1. Is the email addressed to me?
  2. Does more than one person need to know the email was responded to?
  3. Will the other recipients be confused if they don’t see me respond?
  4. Does the email impact 70% of people on the chain?
  5. Do the others need to remain on the chain?

To help you keep it all straight, here’s a helpful list to refer to when deciding when to Reply All:

  1. If your response will impact at least 50% of the people on the chain.
  2. If others on the email will be confused if they don’t see your response.
  3. If you’re on an email with a small group of people working on the same project.
  4. If you think others on the chain might have the same question you have.
  5. If your manager solicits feedback from everyone on the email thread.