High-street bank HSBC has increased head office employee
productivity by an extra two hours a week after running a pilot
training scheme on how to use e-mail more
effectively.
The bank estimated that 1,650 of its employees spent 25 minutes
less a day dealing with e-mail, which allowed them to spend time on
more productive work. The staff received a 90-minute training
session in using e-mail.
The increased amount of data generated by e-mail has become a major
cost for organisations, straining storage systems and making
compliance with corporate governance regulations more of a
challenge.
Michael Burlison, research analyst in infrastructure strategies
service at Meta Group, said IT directors should be pushing their
organisations to offer e-mail training because it was an easy way
to cut costs. If the IT department does not take a lead, the HR
department will, he said.
David Roberts, chief executive of user group the Corporate IT
Forum, said, "Organisations have done server consolidation. E-mail
looks like the obvious next challenge."
"The e-mail training ought to be a set of recommendations that
organisations can adopt," added Roberts.
A spokeswoman for HSBC said, "We set out to reduce the sheer volume
of e-mail traffic staff deal with every day. The programme changed
the e-mail habits of 1,650 head office staff, reduced the time
spent e-mailing, the amount of irrelevant copying in and the
resulting stress to employees."
E-mail advice
- Use the message's subject line to clearly state the purpose of
the message
- Do not copy people into an e-mail unless it is necessary
- Limit the number of folders in an in-box to one
screen.
Training benefits to HSBC
- Increased productivity from staff
- E-mail specialist teamIT training advised HSBC on the
training.