The Internet and The Way We Work
Part 1  - Email

It almost goes without saying that their has been an explosion in regard to the use of email.  It’s no wonder that the Postal services are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.  This month I would like to share some thoughts starting with email.

First, I think it is important that there be consistency within a company in regard to the email address.  In our organization everyone email address is some combination of their name and/or initials and our domain of comp-search.com.  This is despite the fact that our employees are spread throughout North America and actually use many different internet service providers. 

Setting Guidelines
As a business we imposed some criteria on the use of our company email.  First, we don’t allow any personal correspondence using the business email address or company computers. The reasons are obvious and let me illustrate a couple of them. The opportunity for viruses increases with the amount of emails you receive. Still a serious risk even assuming you are using a good screening system and/or anti-virus software (you are -right?).  But an even bigger reason yet is the extra time it takes - company time to handle personal emails.  I begin to wonder about the people that are constantly sending the ubiquitous forwards, jokes, articles they have read, etc. generally has absolutely nothing to do with work. 

Web Based Backup
One things we do allow is the use of the web-based email service from Hotmail. For the simple reasons that it was easy to use from any computer, anywhere and was useful as a backup if our own server was ever offline. I will admit to coming very close to getting rid of it several times because of bulk/junk mail (SPAM, UCE)  that comes through it.  However, if you are willing to work at it there are some good screening tools available that can reduce a lot of it (see below).  

Filters and Rules
Our email system as most do comes with a set of very helpful but rather challenging filters to help make sure our work email stays work related. With these filters (in outlook they are called - Rules) we can tag incoming Spam and have it automatically deleted. Our system actually learns to do a better job the more we use it and, in time,  really does reduce amount of Spam and the time wasted on junk mail. We recommend you take advantage of a similar system. One additional caution, never respond to SPAM they then know your address is live and they can and will sell it to other Spam generators at an even higher price. Guaranteeing you even more of what you don't want.

Monitoring Use
The rights of employers to monitor employees Internet activities has been deemed a legitimate and legal business practice. Our company policy clearly states this and we have the monitoring tools in place. It is a tremendous temptation to spend too much time on the Internet and the cost to employers is too great to ignore. We don't publicize the exact methods used for obvious reasons but the acknowledgment that the PC's are company property and all transmissions are potential business records is made very clear.  Unfortunately, we have, on occasion still been appalled to see employees misusing the system and particularly a heavy usage of business time on personal emails and Instant Messaging (IM, Chat). Employees must know that this is being scrutinized and jobs have been lost over it.

Job Seekers
As far as candidates are concerned, we strongly suggest that they use a personal email address on any correspondence relative to a job search. As mentioned above, having employers or recruiters email you on the job may become public knowledge to your current employer. One other point, we recognize most personal email addresses are just that "personal". As such many of us choose unique or cute sounding addresses. We encourage them to have a professional sounding email address. You can set them up quickly and for free at many sites. Realize how a potential employer may misread your address. One of our classic blunders was prejudging an applicant who's address was acid_angel@something.com the person we pictured by just reading this address was totally inaccurate. If we had not been more diligent than most hiring managers we would have never known that she was a Chemistry major (Acid) and known to all her friends by the name  Angel. She turned out to be an ideal candidate but she risked not even being considered, simply because of her email address.

Contacts
We encourage job seekers to use networking to expand their efforts and email is an excellent way of staying in touch. Our own contact database is essentially the culmination of our dedicated networking efforts for the past 18 years within our industry. Recently we had a client come to us who was intrigued with the size of our databank and saw a potential value that we hadn't totally noticed. What they eventually proposed to do was to have us screen (or datamine) our databank relative to some specific criteria they supplied.  Next, we would contact those meeting the base criteria and update their information including getting a current email address and permission for our client to contact them directly.  Quite frankly I was surprised how many gave us a business address and how few said I don’t have a personal email and therefore you will have to postal mail anything. The client then emailed (only email) to the addresses we gave some general information about opening they had, some background on the company and simply referred them to their website. Interestingly, just on that brief contact about  8% responded back. The client thought so much of the high caliber of the individuals responding that they arranged interviews with four (4) immediately.  One of those was hired and yet another was a strong runner up. They are now exploring with us whether we would be interested in standardizing such a service not only for their company, but also for their franchisees. After this overwhelmingly successful trial we are obviously considering it.

eNewsletter
Finally, I want to reference this eNewsletter since it in essence an email.  My bias is that for those of you who are employers -- it is very appropriate to receive at your company email address. It does regularly feature information relative to your role as an employer. Correspondingly, the newsletter has always served the dual purpose of addressing the needs of job seekers as well. With that said we do feel it more appropriate for candidates to only receive this at a personal email address.  Regardless, we are extremely sensitive to the issue of spamming therefore do not want anyone to receive our Newsletter at any address who doesn’t want it.