Friday, April 20, 2001

The Spam Within: Internal Email Spamming

Respondents to a recent survey conducted by Gartner, Inc. report that 34 percent of the internal business e-mail they receive is unnecessary. Gartner analysts refer to this e-mail intrusion as "occupational spam," and advise that managers take proactive steps to reduce it.

"Employees are e-mailing their co-workers in higher frequencies in an effort to be helpful and more communicative," said Maurene Caplan Grey, Gartner senior research analyst. "In reality, they are cluttering e-mail in-boxes, filling up servers and sapping productivity with the volume of these messages. In a slowing economy, where businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and increase productivity, simply cutting out unnecessary e-mail will have an immediate impact."

The Gartner survey, which posed a range of questions to workers on their use of e-mail and instant messaging, also revealed that employees spend an average of 49 minutes per day managing e-mail — and that 24 percent spend more than an hour per day on this activity. Survey respondents also report that only 27 percent of the e-mail they receive demands their immediate attention.

"If a company rids itself of occupational spam, it will experience a 30-percent savings in the time its workers spend managing e-mail," said Gartner Research Director Neil MacDonald. "Managers should set the tone for e-mail usage and train employees to use e-mail more efficiently."

Gartner's recommendations for avoiding occupational spam include:

- Count to 10 before hitting "Reply All" — then count to 20.

- Use distribution lists with caution. Send e-mail only to people who need the information.

- Email kudos and praise are great, but recipients of such messages should be encouraged not to hit "reply all" in responses that merely echo the congratulatory message.

- Recipients of unwanted e-mail should craft "polite reminder" replies, gently letting occupational spammers know that — although they have the recipient's support — they did not need to send this particular e-mail to this particular person or list.

- Invest in intranet tools for remote team collaboration. Chat rooms, bulletin boards and even instant messaging are more efficient than e-mail for such collaboration.

- Encourage senders to consider how high up their e-mail message really needs to go before they get results. Copying the top dog for effect frequently produces a negative impression.

- Try to identify one person in a department who will "own" an e-mail thread as early as possible. This reduces unproductive "team e-mail problem solving" and avoids duplicated effort.

- Stop the "friendly fire" — don't originate or forward jokes, chain letters or other non-business-related e-mail.

- Assume that agreement is implied. Avoid sending needless responses of concurrence like "I'm with you 100 percent," "You bet," "Thought so," or "Glad to be of help — anytime."

- Initiate the last e-mail. End messages with phrases that close a thread, such as "All set now," "No action required," or "FYI only — no reply necessary."

Greater China Potential Gold Mine for eRecruiting Firms
If you're a recruiter looking for a golden opportunity, IDC says you should head east - Far East. According to the global market intelligence and advisory firm, Greater China - China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan - represent a gold mine of untapped opportunity for the erecruiting market.

"Several factors in addition to the region's large population contribute to our belief that online executive search firms, online job boards, Internet media and services firms, and niche recruitment sites have an excellent opportunity to increase their business in Greater China," said Ellen Julian, director of Career and Learning Services at IDC. "Like in other rapidly developing markets, enterprises in Greater China are experiencing a shortage of high-level managers and skilled individuals in a variety of vertical industries and occupations. These factors, combined with a loosening of government restrictions on the Internet market, make the region ripe for erecruiting."

IDC estimates erecruiting in Greater China will generate nearly US$500 million by 2004 - remarkable considering the market was under US$5 million in 1999.

Seizing this opportunity won't be without its challenges, however. According to IDC, Taiwanese and Chinese Internet users strongly prefer to surf the Web in their native languages. "Recruiting sites in these countries that aren't steeped in local language and culture will face an uphill battle," warned Christopher Boone, an analyst for IDC's eRecruiting research program. "Also, the soft Internet advertising climate can be seen as a serious inhibitor of online recruitment Web sites in Greater China, which receive a large portion of their revenue from advertising."

Nevertheless, IDC is optimistic about erecruiting's potential in Greater China. "In the short term, job seekers and employers will be drawn to the Internet as a resource for recruiting. Longer term, they will be drawn to the Internet as a source of career management activities," Boone said.