Communication Skills Computershare Limited

Question: Discuss about theCommunication Skills for Computershare Limited. Answer: Introduction The report describes the formal email policy of the company Computershare Limited in Australia. Communication forms one of the most important aspects of business dealings. Different teams of a company need to communicate with a lot of people ranging from the employees of the company to the business partners and also with their clients. The companies interact with different people adopting different forms of communication such as verbal communication or telephonic communication. Sending emails also form an important method of communication in business (Joshi et al. 2012). Business people use email as a standard mode of communication. Emails only require an internet connection which is present in almost every business organisations in today's world. Email is a mode of communication that does not involve any cost or expenses. Emails help to maintain the soft copies of the documents exchanged. People can easily archive and retrieve email communications. Although emails cannot substitute other forms of communication, still emails function as an effective method of sharing information, be it personal or professional. Through emails businessmen all over the world share messages and information with the full workforce in a convenient, fast and precise way. Many firms doing business take the help of email conversations as their marketing strategy to share information with their partners, stakeholders or with the common public. The format in which emails are sent is also very catchy, and they can easily draw the attention f the recipients to whom they are sent (Clouse et al. 2015). The use of email conversations in business dealings has been revolutionary in the world of communication in business. Employees of a firm can access valuable information from a phone or a computer just by a single click. The customers or clients of the company can easily avail the information shared with them through emails. The use of emails by the firms can also help to increase their sale values and productivity. Companies interact with their target customers through emails (Eid and El-Gohary 2013). Computershare Limited The Company The company Computershare Limited is the highest ranked company performing the job of transferring stocks in Australia. The headquarters of the company is situated in Abbotsford in the Victoria district of Australia. The founders established the company in the year 1978. Since then the company has developed to a large extent through acquisitions. The workforce of the company comprises of 14000 employees. The company lends its services to more than 16000 customers spread across 20 countries all over the world. The main functions of the company include transferring of stocks and providing corporate trust and share plan with its employees. The company provides its services to the likes of United Kingdom, South Africa, HongKong, Denmark among a few others. The company Computershare is distinguished as the highest ranked provider of most of the services it offers in the global market. The company offers three important quality services to its client that consists of certainty, ingenuity a nd advantage. The excellent expertise of the workforce of the company, its vast geographical spread and the extraordinary level of service that it provides to its customers make the company one of the leading firms in the industry. The investment of the company in technology is also worth noting (Computershare.com 2016). Development of Formal Email Policy It is necessary for the company Computershare Limited to develop a formal email policy to perform the business activities. The formal email policy poses a restriction on the excessive or overuse and inappropriate use of the email system. The formal email policy of the company states that the company mail should be used only for the business purpose, and it should not cause any harm to the interests of the company. The formal email policy of the company does not allow any member of the company to use the company email to sell any products outside that which the company produces or for any promotional purposes. The formal email policy also state that no employee of the company should use the company email to harass, distract or intimidate any people outside the organisation, nor do the same with any of their co-workers as this would harm the steady workflow of the company (Lee et al. 2016). It is essential for the company to formulate the policy for using emails to lay the guidelines that the employees of the company should follow while using the email. This would reduce the misuse of the electronic mail service provided by the company. The management of the company has laid down the formal email policy, and they have granted the permission for the use of the email of the company. Hence, the company holds the right to dismiss the privilege given to the employees to use the formal emails if they find any misuse of the formal company mail (Mayer and Mitchell 2012). Issues While Using Emails Though emails are widely used in business dealings all over the world, there are many serious issues encountered with the use of emails. A great deal of the company's communication regarding business and the company's workflow is dependent on the use of emails. Though email forms the basis for the communications in business, it has some flaws and uncertainties attached to it. Some of them are listed below: Insecurity A high amount of insecurity is attached to the delivery of information and documents that are confidential in nature. The confidential documents and information that are exchanged through emails are open to all as all the employees of the organisation get hold of it. Emails can be harmful to the system Often emails carry viruses as there is no mechanism for the certification and authentication of the sender of emails. No guarantee in delivery there is no guarantee that the emails will reach its destination well on time. Hence, the same level of uncertainty is attached to the use of emails as it is attached to postal communication (Hamilton 2013). The company Computershare Limited uses official emails to maintain a steady workflow in the business. There are some issues attached to the use of emails for this purpose. The company cannot use emails to share active applications with its employees or customers as emails are more efficient to deliver written messages. The use of emails is not a very efficient method to share files as the files do not get dispatched in a much organised manner (Sapp et al. 2013). Email Addiction Another issue that the use of emails has is the problem of email addiction. Some people develop a deep connection with their email inbox that interferes in their day to day activity. Some people develop the habit of checking their email inbox very frequently even when they are not in their office. Physicians and psychologists term this habit of people to be addicted to emails (Clouse et al. 2015). The author describes some of the symptoms that reflect email addiction as follows: Checking emails more than a time in an hour even when one is not at work. Looking at all the messages that come into the inbox immediately when it comes even if one is not working in the office. One wishes to respond to every message that comes instantly as one sees the messages. One disrupts the real life balance and hampers regular activities to deal with emails (Raphael 2016). People can get rid of email addiction very easily by following some simple steps which the author describes below: People should keep in mind that there is no such thing as email emergency. If the sender of the email has something urgent to convey, then he can contact the person in some other quicker way. People should set a time limit for themselves for the use of emails. People should set a particular day for themselves on which day they would not use the emails at all (Raphael 2016). Email addiction is a problem that is increasing day by day with the development of technology and with the increase in work pressure. Legal Implications on the Use of Emails Email is the least expensive and fastest method of communication, but the non-judicious use of emails in business can pose a great threat to the business. The employers of the company Computershare Limited have concerns regarding the use of emails by their employees. The concern of the employer is regarding the following issues: Theft of confidential and sensitive information by the employees. The loss of productivity of the employee. The transfer of virus affected file through the emails of the employees to the computers of the company (Maiello and Maiello 2010). The author discusses some of the legal issues in connection with the formal email policy of the company. Issues Regarding Discrimination Emails play a significant role in the issues regarding discrimination of all kinds. Hence, while formulating the email policy, the company would include a norm that no employee should use their personal emails on the companys system. The company also has a rule in its email policy that employees should only exchange professional information with other employees of the company. The email policy of the company also includes a point that the company does not allow, nor permit any of its employees to convey controversial messages regarding age, gender, caste, religion or race through the company email (Barry et al. 2014). Issues Regarding the Privacy of the Employees Every business organisations should formulate their email policy keeping in mind the protection of privacy of their employees. Though employees use the companys email to conduct business transactions, they have the right to protect the privacy of the information they share in the companys email (Brooke and Paige 2015). Benefits of Formal Email Policy The company Computershare Limited has established a formal email policy for its employees. The formal email policy of a company has certain benefits. The acceptable use policy of emails set out by the company defines the responsibility of each employee to use the company emails judiciously in their business dealings. The company encourages its employees to use its email to support the goals and objectives of the company. The formal email policy of the company states that the employee must assure that they use the company email in a way that is acceptable and non-objectionable, the use of the emails must agree with the existing legislative policies. Under the email policy of the company, the employees should not create any unwanted risk in the business of the company by misusing their email. Hence formulating a formal email policy the company can ensure the above mentioned facts. Moreover, another important benefit of establishing a formal email policy of the company is that the compa ny can avoid certain unwanted behaviour of its employees (Zucker et al. 2013). Some of the unacceptable behaviour of the employees include the following; Using the company email to send chain letters or to establish personal business connections. Sending confidential company information to outsiders Storing and distributing information or images that may be considered as obscene or illegal using the company email. Transferring advertising and commercial material from the company website. Using the information that has a copyright in a way that violates the copyright using the system of the company (nibusinessinfo.co.uk, 2016). These are some of the activities of the employees that the company can avoid by formulating a formal email policy. Enforcement of the Formal Email Policy The formal email policy of the company Computershare Limited is quite strict. The company encourages all its employees to strictly follow the formal email policy. The following are some of the ways following which the company can implement its formal email policy: Creation of individual email account: the company should create individual accounts for all its employees. Establishing security measures: the company should ensure that the passwords for the email accounts are strong enough so that they do not get hacked easily. The company should encourage employees to change their passwords on a regular basis. Specification of email usage: the company should clearly mention the norms that the employees should follow while using the email of the company (Marketing Donut 2016). Conclusion The report describes the formal email policy of the company Computershare Limited based in Australia. The report highlights the necessity of the formulation of the email policy of the company. The report throws light on some of the issues involved in the usage of emails. It describes the problems of email addiction and the legal implications of the use of emails. The report states the process in which the company enforces the email policy on its employees. References: Barry, C.L., McGinty, E.E., Pescosolido, B.A. and Goldman, H.H., 2014. Stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy: public views about drug addiction and mental illness.Psychiatric Services. Brooke, P. and Paige, R., 2015. User-visible cryptography in email and web scenarios.Information Computer Security,23(1), pp.58-72. Clouse, K., Schwartz, S.R., Van Rie, A., Bassett, J., Vermund, S.H. and Pettifor, A.E., 2015. High mobile phone ownership, but low Internet and email usage among pregnant, HIV-infected women attending antenatal care in Johannesburg.Journal of telemedicine and telecare, p.1357633X14566569. Computershare.com. (2016). Our story. [online] Available at: https://www.computershare.com/corporate/about-us/who-we-are/our-story [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Eid, R. and El-Gohary, H., 2013. The impact of E-marketing use on small business enterprises' marketing success.The Service Industries Journal,33(1), pp.31-50. Hamilton, C., 2013.Communicating for results: A guide for business and the professions. Cengage Learning. Joshi, M., Singh Ubha, D. and Sidhu, J., 2012. Intellectual capital disclosures by Indian and Australian information technology companies: A comparative analysis.Journal of Intellectual Capital,13(4), pp.582-598. Lee, J.L., Choudhry, N.K., Wu, A.W., Matlin, O.S., Brennan, T.A. and Shrank, W.H., 2016. Patient use of email, Facebook, and physician websites to communicate with physicians: A national online survey of retail pharmacy users.Journal of general internal medicine,31(1), pp.45-51. Maiello Brungo Maiello. (2010).Legal Issues and Email: Why Your Business Should Have an Email Policy - Maiello Brungo Maiello. [online] Available at: https://www.mbm-law.net/newsletter-articles/legal-issues-and-email-why-your-business-should-have-an-email-policy/839/ [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Marketing Donut. (2016). How to implement an email policy. [online] Available at: https://www.startupdonut.co.uk/startup/employees/people-management/how-to-implement-an-email-policy [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Mayer, J.R. and Mitchell, J.C., 2012, May. Third-party web tracking: Policy and technology. InSecurity and Privacy (SP), 2012 IEEE Symposium on(pp. 413-427). IEEE. nibusinessinfo.co.uk. (2016).Sample acceptable email use policy. [online] Available at: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/sample-acceptable-email-use-policy [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Raphael, J. (2016). E-Mail Addiction: Five Signs You Need Help. [online] PCWorld. Available at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/150928/addiction.html [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Sapp, K., Goldschlag, D. and Walker, D., Mcafee, Inc., 2013.System, method, and device for mediating connections between policy source servers, corporate repositories, and mobile devices. U.S. Patent 8,572,676. Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2016). The Advantages of Email in Business Communication. [online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-email-business-communication-122.html [Accessed 4 Jun. 2016]. Zucker, E. and Werner, E., Mcafee, Inc., 2013.Method and system for policy based monitoring and blocking of printing activities on local and network printers. U.S. Patent 8,446,607.