GM (Ghost Manager): “Hi, file attached, refer to history below. Have a good day.”  

CM (Conceptual Employee): When?

GM: ASAP.

CM: FIY (For Your Information) I’m getting married tomorrow! See memo ref 64582 sent 3 weeks ago.

GM: Con-gra-tu-la-tions!!! But we still need this work ASAP!

CM: DIY!!!

All the retention surveys show that the relation between the manager and his team member is one of the most important reasons influencing the choice to stay or leave an organisation. Among these reasons we find: Too little coaching and feedback, a feeling of not being valued or recognised and a loss of trust in leader. How do you think a team member feels if their manager prefer to use email rather than seeing them? 

An HR matter
This abuse of emails is not rare. Far from it! And it’s spreading to our social life. They are now used to thanks a team member, to ask something urgent, an advice or an appointment, to accept an invitation to a wedding or to offer congratulations! How can you be sure anymore that the employee receiving the mail is really engaged to do his job or the manager sending the mail really concerned by his work and the well being of his employees. Is it hard to tell?
The IT department has done its part of the job with the netiquette to give advice on the “how to” write an electronic message (Do not type in all caps, do not leave the field subject blank, do not forward dumb jokes, etc.). But when the new behaviour has an impact on motivation and turn over, the HR department must step in quickly!

HR professionals have to help managers to understand that emails don’t have to be used as the only way to communicate with their teams.

Emails are a powerful tool and can help people to organise their time. Theoretically they should have the choice to process it when they have the time for it. This is not how employees view it: They have a feeling of urgency and of being continually controlled. 

Managers like this way to communicate because they can send short message without loosing their time going to see their employee. But when you communicate electronically without facial expressions, gestures and intonations, the message received can be very different from the message sent. For example a message “May you review the job done please?” could be interpreted as “You messed up idiot!” 

Use email to add value, not frustration
An email is not just the sum of ASAP, OK, Thanks, urgent and Regards. The first use of emails is to ease the job and add value. The first added value should be of course the file transmission. Someone needs a file located on your personal hard drive and you send it. If the case the file is on the network, you send him the link to reach it with one click. But be careful! Things are going faster and faster and the information sent in the morning could be obsolete at midday. That means that the mail sent will not be accurate when it is read. Better to pop up in the office of the collaborator to let him now about a recent update after having sent the email.

Another constructive use of emails by a manager is to prepare a meeting with the team. Send an agenda of the meeting and the do to list to prepare in order to help his team to be ready. Questions arisen should be able to be communicated face to face.

Email can also be used by the manager as a daily report from each of his team members, especially if they working outside the organisation. He will be able to have a history easy to follow up of the progress of the project and keep a history of events (it could be useful in a legal case). The manager will have to answer to each of them to acknowledge he read the mail and give some advice. Of course, it won’t replace the weekly meeting. Here emails are an extra support for the employees and help them to improve their productivity. It is the best way to use email and to enhance commitment and trust in the work place between the manager and his subordinates. 

Another way to communicate, not the only way Of course people should use emails to communicate, but not only email and not when they are working on the same floor or in the same team. Phone, formal and informal meetings, lunch, etc. have to stay the main way to exchange ideas and advices. A smile is much better that an emoticon . A short conversation, even a bit “stormy”  is much better than an email exchange. A clear oral explanation is much better than a written text.. A lunch invitation is much better than an e-postcard and or an oral congratulation better than an e-greeting!

Managers and team members need more than ever to communicate and emails have to be used to facilitate the work of collaborators not to be drawn into pointless reading. For each email it’s a bit of time lost by every team member. It's the manager responsibility to ensure that the time spent by his employees to read his mails isn't a waste of valuable time. People have less time than ever today because they have too much information to absorb. Before sending an email or copy people on the messages, every manager should ask himself if the information is important.  If the answer is no, they shouldn’t send it. If it’s yes they should pop up, say hello if they haven’t seen their subordinate today, to give the information. If it’s  maybe, it’s time to think twice before hitting the send button!