Managing Email Effectively

Managing email effectively is your responsibility

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.

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.

ARE EMAILS RECORDS?

Yes Just as paper and electronic documents may be official records, so may email messages and their attachments.

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

EXAMPLES OF OFFICIAL EMAIL RECORDS An official email record may contain or demonstrate: • the position of the department • business transactions • approval or evolution of a document • information from outside sources • briefing notes, directives, policies

• agendas and meeting minutes • work plans, schedules, assignments and performance results • decisions • final reports and recommendations • external deliverables

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

EXAMPLES OF TRANSITORY EMAILS A transitory email would be a message like one of the following: • duplicate copies of official records • draft documents where all critical content changes have been incorporated into a subsequent document • casual communications and personal messages

• information received as part of a distribution list • miscellaneous, “FYI” notices or memoranda on meetings, holidays, charitable campaigns, boardroom reservations, etc.

But – if you are ever in doubt about a record’s status…. Save it!

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.”

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.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SAVING AN OFFICIAL EMAIL RECORD?

You are

YOU SAVE IT WHEN: •

You are the originator – the person who created and sent the email message.

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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.

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WHAT EXACTLY MUST YOU SAVE?

The whole enchilada! Your Goal: To preserve the integrity of the original message in content, structure and context

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 [email protected] Health Canada | 123 Green St Ottawa ON K2P1B2 Santé Canada | 123 rue Green Ottawa ON K2P1B2 Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada

CONGRATULATIONS!

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You have just completed Managing Email Effectively – an IM selfstudy 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