The effectiveness of training in reducing email defects

Previous research has shown that there are many defects associated with email use within the workplace. This paper describes the effectiveness of email training in enabling employees to write better emails. Employees were asked to evaluate the emails they received from specified senders before and after the senders had received training. These emails were marked against a set of ten criteria that covered different aspects of email, including whether the email had a suitable subject line, whether it was relevant and if it was easy to read. By comparing the results before and after the training it is possible to see how effective the training has been and which areas of email use benefited the most from the training. The results show that some of the email defects are more receptive to training than others. The data also shows the relationships between the evaluation criteria used. This is important because it shows how some of the problems with email are related; similarly it shows how an improvement in one area is likely to lead to an improvement in another. This paper highlights some of the problem areas often associated with email and shows the effect of training in reducing these email defects.