You Need to Know These Awesome Email Etiquette Tips Now

pixabay

When people hear the term ‘etiquette,’ they tend to think of stuffy, formal dinner parties that involve too many forks, white linen napkins, and uncomfortable suits and gowns.

This discomfort and stress people associate with it is unnecessary. Etiquette is important to have in several settings, and it’s easy to learn. And one of the most important places to act appropriately is in the office.

In an April 2014 report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), companies listed professionalism in the top four competencies they consider to be essential in their candidates.

Proper manners in the office is not as simple as refraining from cursing at your co-workers or saying “thank you” to your team. Communication is the most important aspect of every company, and email is a major part of that.

For job seekers, email is usually one of the first modes of correspondence they engage in with potential employers, so learning how to write professional emails is crucial to the job hunt.

Let’s take a look at how you can help job seekers learn proper email etiquette:

Create Accurate Subject Lines

Subject lines need to be accurate because people who suffer from the swamped inbox scroll through subject lines to see if they absolutely need to read it or if they can trash it. So when sending important emails, make the subject line direct and show that it clearly addresses business needs or responds to concerns the recipient has.

For example, when job seekers are asked to provide writing samples to a potential employer, their subject line should read, “[Name] Writing Samples for [Position Title].” This way, the hiring manager sees the name and position and recalls the candidate before opening the message.

Use Professional Salutations and Signatures

Email etiquette reflects manners you would use in person, as well. For example, people don’t tend to greet their bosses in the morning with a “Yo.” These informal, colloquial expressions show a lack of professionalism and tell the reader that the sender doesn’t care to be taken seriously.

Use professional greetings like “Hello” or “Hi.” It’s fine to be relaxed through the writing, but that should not impact the greeting.

Similarly, signatures ought to be respectful. “Best Regards” and “Sincerely” are great examples. This should be followed by a signature block in the same font as the body.

The signature block tells the reader about you — your name, the company you work for, your title — and provides contact information like a telephone number. But that should be it. Candidates should keep this simple and avoid artwork or an excess of meaningful sayings.

Proofread Everything

This is common sense, so let’s be brief — check spelling and grammar. When emails are riddled with errors, the writer looks lazy, careless, and ignorant. Job seekers won’t impress employers with there poor grammer, comma, misuse and terribel spelling.

See? It looks bad, it’s hard to read, and it distracts from the content.

Proofreading also involves checking the tone. While people like to write in a clear, straightforward way, some audiences may perceive this as anger. It’s important to show some personality, but within reason. Attempting to add humor is usually a bad idea because tone and sarcasm are received differently in the written word than in speech.

Finally, encourage candidates to take a moment to look at how the email appears. Is the font too fancy, illegible, and small? Perhaps there are varying sizes. These types of oversights are costly.

Make it easier on the reader — write in black, keep the size around 10 or 12, and select a classic font like Calibri or Arial.

Confirm Recipients

Always double check email addresses to confirm the people your candidate is trying to reach get their message. Also, confirm job seekers aren’t replying to too many people.

The ‘reply all’ option is generally a no-no. Email overload is a problem in the workplace, contributing to the ‘overwhelmed employee’ trend, which was regarded by 65 percent of executives as an important or urgent topic to address, according to Deloitte’s March 2014 survey.

By simply confirming the right people are receiving the email, candidates avoid being the source of stress or confusing people. For example, there is no reason to copy several recruiters if the candidate is replying to one hiring manager about scheduling an interview.

When using proper email etiquette, candidates can demonstrate their professionalism and strong communication skills, both of which are essential and in high demand in the job market.

How are you training candidates to develop proper email etiquette?