Manage emaileff
- 2. Managing email effectively is your responsibility
- 3. AT THE END OF THIS MODULE YOU WILL: • Know your responsibilities with respect to the management of email. • Understand that email messages can be official records. • Distinguish between emails that are official records and emails that are transitory records. • Recognize when you must save an email. • Understand what you need to save. • Have an awareness of the security side of email. • Be familiar with some IM email best practices.
- 4. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES • As a GoC employee you are expected to: – Distinguish between emails that are official records of business and emails that are “transitory” in nature. – Regularly delete all “transitory” emails. – If available, systematically transfer email records to an official central repository such as RDIMS to ensure accessibility, appropriate classification and preservation. – Understand the basic security and privacy requirements of email.
- 5. ARE EMAILS RECORDS? Yes Just as paper and electronic documents may be official records, so may email messages and their attachments.
- 6. OFFICIAL RECORDS MUST BE SAVED Official records document or provide evidence of a department’s business activities. You must save all of your official records. This means email too
- 7. EXAMPLES OF OFFICIAL EMAIL RECORDS • the position of the department • business transactions • approval or evolution of a document • information from outside sources • briefing notes, directives, policies An official email record may contain or demonstrate: • agendas and meeting minutes • work plans, schedules, assignments and performance results • decisions • final reports and recommendations • external deliverables
- 8. TRANSITORY RECORDS SHOULD BE DELETED • Transitory records are records that are only required for a limited period of time in order to complete a routine action or to prepare a subsequent record. • You should dispose of or delete transitory records once they have served their purpose, including email messages and attachments
- 9. EXAMPLES OF TRANSITORY EMAILS • duplicate copies of official records • draft documents where all critical content changes have been incorporated into a subsequent document • casual communications and personal messages A transitory email would be a message like one of the following: • information received as part of a distribution list • miscellaneous, “FYI” notices or memoranda on meetings, holidays, charitable campaigns, boardroom reservations, etc.
- 10. But – if you are ever in doubt about a record’s status…. Save it!
- 11. EMAIL AND ATIP “It is unlawful to delete any email or document, once a formal Access to Information or Privacy (ATIP) request is received or anticipated by the department, relating to the subject.”
- 12. EMAIL AND ATIP • All email is subject to Access to Information or Privacy (ATIP) legislation – official and transitory • It is illegal to delete transitory records that are required for an active, or anticipated, ATIP request, litigation or official investigation. • Also note that personal comments in emails cannot be removed when providing an email record upon an ATIP request.
- 13. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SAVING AN OFFICIAL EMAIL RECORD? You are
- 14. YOU SAVE IT WHEN: • You are the originator – the person who created and sent the email message. • You are replying to an email message, thus creating a new record. – You must save it as a complete email message (including all of the original text, your additions and any attachments you may add). • You receive an email message from outside the department, and the following conditions apply: 1. It forms part of a departmental record; and 2. You are the first person from your department named on: • the “To” field of the email. • the “CC” field of the email.
- 15. WHAT EXACTLY MUST YOU SAVE? The whole enchilada! Your Goal: To preserve the integrity of the original message in content, structure and context
- 16. TO MEET YOUR GOAL • Save the entire email with all header/footer information and all previous messages in the thread. • Save all associated attachments (unless they are completely irrelevant to the message). • Apply your organization’s file naming conventions (if available) or use meaningful file names when saving email. • If available, save your email messages to a central repository such as RDIMS.
- 17. BASIC EMAIL SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS • Information with a designation higher than Protected B should not be sent via email, saved on network shared drives or in RDIMS. • The security level of your email is based on the content within the email and/or the content within the attachment - whichever is higher. • Do not overlook the physical security requirements of hardcopy emails. • Be conscious of whether your email contains personal information about someone and protect that person’s right to privacy.
- 18. IM BEST PRACTICES IN EMAIL • Try to keep to one main topic per official email record to ensure accuracy in filing/classifying the message. • Use meaningful subject lines that reflect the content of the email message. • Use meaningful and descriptive titles on email attachments. • Be careful with personal comments and opinions – they will become part of the record.
- 19. IM BEST PRACTICES IN EMAIL • Use signature files for all outgoing email messages containing official GoC business. – Signature files should contain: • Sender’s name; • Sender’s title (optional but advisable) • Institution; • Telephone and fax numbers; • Postal address; and • Email address. – Signature files must be in both official languages.
- 20. SAMPLE EMAIL SIGNATURE FILE Look forward to seeing you in November. Yours Sincerely Jane Doe Jane Doe Project Manager/Gestionnaire de projet 613-123-4567 | facsimile / télécopieur 613-123 4567 | TTY/ATS 613-123-4567 613-123-4567 doe.jane@hc-sc.gc.ca Health Canada | 123 Green St Ottawa ON K2P1B2 Santé Canada | 123 rue Green Ottawa ON K2P1B2 Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
- 21. CONGRATULATIONS! • You have just completed Managing Email Effectively – an IM self- study module. • You may now: – Test your knowledge with the following quiz. – Review other IM self-study modules in this series: • Information Management 101 • Information Security • Records Management and You! • IM and the Departing Employee • Privacy and Personal Information – What Canadians Expect • Understanding IM Within the Federal Government