The sample Employee Email Policy is available free to download, modify and print for your small business administrative office or Human Resources department.
The sample policy below on employee’s emails is tool to create a policy specific to your small business. It should reflect your normal operational and disciplinary processes. You should establish them from the outset and include them in your acceptable use portion of your policy.
An effective email policy will help your employees to understand what is expected from them as it affects their work which is a must for employers. This is a way to go on record to define what your employees can do from work provided devices or employee owned devices that are used for business purposes.
Employees are okay with guidelines because they do not want to act inappropriately and cross a line that they didn’t know existed.
The policy for employee emails below includes:
- Policy Heading -Includes company name and title of policy.
- Purpose – The purpose of this policy is set out employee’s responsibilities when using email in their day-to-day working activities.
- Acceptable Email Use – Use of email by [Company Name]’s employees are permitted and encouraged where such use supports the goals and objectives of the business. However, [Company Name] has a policy for the use of emails in that the employee must:
- 1. Comply with current regulations
- 2. Use email in an acceptable way
- 3. Never create an unnecessary business risk to [Company Name] by their misuse of the internet
- Unacceptable Email Use – The following behavior by an employee is considered unacceptable:
- 1. Using a company communications system to set up personal businesses or send chain letters
- 2. Forwarding [Company Name] confidential messages to external locations (See policy below for rest of Unacceptable Email Use.)
- Monitoring – [Company Name] accepts that the use of email is an important business tool. However, misuse of this facility can have a negative impact on employee productivity not to mention the reputation of the business.
- Also, all of [Company Name]’s email resources are provided for business purposes so the company maintains the right to examine any systems and inspect any data recorded in those systems at any given time.
- [Company Name] also reserves the right to use monitoring software in order to checkup on the use and content of emails to ensure compliance with this policy. This monitoring is for legitimate purposes only and will be done in accordance with a procedure agreed with employees.
- Sanctions – If it is believed that an employee has failed to comply with this policy, they will face the company’s disciplinary procedure. If the employee is found to have breached the policy, they will face a disciplinary penalty ranging from a verbal warning to dismissal. The actual penalty applied will depend on the factors such as the seriousness of the breach and the employee’s disciplinary record.
- Agreement – All [Company Name]’s employees, contractors or temporary staff who have been granted the right to the use of the company’s email services are required to sign this agreement confirming their understanding and acceptance of this policy.
- Employee’s Signature and Date
- Revised Date
Click on the link to download the policy below:
Sample Employee Email Policy
