LOTUS NOTES USER PROTOCOLS

Transcription

1 LOTUS NOTES USER PROTOCOLS Introduction From monitoring how South Yorkshire Police staff make use of the software, it became apparent that there was a need for a set of regulatory instructions to supplement existing knowledge of the software. These User Protocols are not an operator s manual on how to work with Lotus Notes. They have been written to help you to use the software safely and efficiently, and to provide guidance on what is considered Best Practice. It is worth bearing in mind that the protocols have been approved by the South Yorkshire Police Professional Standards Department. Does your have a purpose? What may seem an important issue to you will not necessarily be so significant to others. When sitting down to write, you need to consider the purpose of your . Will the actually achieve anything? Does it actually tell the reader anything? Ask yourself, If I don t send this , will my intended audience be any worse off without it? Consider whether your will actually achieve anything Will a phone call do? One sure way to clog up a colleague s inbox is to bombard them with s where the messages could have been successfully communicated in a different way. If there is no need to have a record of your communication, why not simply pick up the telephone? Consider using the telephone to get your message across Writing Depending on the content of and what you need to say, your writing style may be formal or informal, in much the same way as a telephone call may be either a relaxed conversation between friends, or a more conventional message to a colleague. Try to think of as a 'written phone call'. should never contain offensive slang terms or discriminatory comments.

2 Be formal or informal, depending on your target audience. Never use slang or discriminatory comments. Content Be succinct to the point. Be concise and clear. We receive so many s, and it is frustrating to spend time wading through extraneous text to get to the heart of the message. Don t hide your message. Say only what you need to say. Appearance - Keep it simple All staff must have a signature on their s. This will include the following information: - Name Post Address External Telephone number Internal Telephone number External E mail There may be a temptation to append all manner of icons, images, flashing text boxes to the foot of your . You should not do this. Whilst these may show that you have a creative mind, they often take up quite a lot of IS Server space in transmission. Don t add icons, flashing text etc. to your Title Your should always have a subject title. This adds to the professional appearance of your work and will make it easier for all concerned to find it later. Protective Marking Always title your . In accordance with Force policy every should carry a suitable Protective Marking. Most commonly this will be Not Protectively Marked, sometimes Restricted. For further information

3 refer to the South Yorkshire Police - Information Security - Protective Marking System Policy document It is a good idea to add the words Not Protectively Marked to your signature. This will automatically appear every time you go to New Memo. For instruction on how to do this click here. For security reasons, never send s that are protectively marked Restricted over the internet. Always Protectively Mark your . Don t send Restricted over the internet. Setting up an group If there are a number of people that you regularly about a particular topic that is common to you all, why not set up an group? Rather than laboriously entering individual names each time, simply select the group (whatever you have named it) and Lotus Notes will automatically send it to all the people you have included under the group name. Be sure to regularly check your groups to make sure they are up-to-date (remove or add people, as necessary). Be selective about who you include in your groups, particularly where sensitive material is involved. Save time when you regularly share information with the same people, set up a group add Inappropriate Never write or pass on that is contrary to Professional & Ethical standards. An exhaustive list is not necessary where common sense prevails, but such a list would include: Obscene/pornographic text or images Discriminatory (on the grounds of race, gender etc.) text or images Jokes blue or otherwise Material that is likely to cause offence to a specific person or group of people You should always report anyone who contravenes this instruction. Never send inappropriate . Report those who do. Untargeted Even when you have a genuine reason for sending work-related , it is still necessary to properly target your audience. Think about who you really want to read your and don t use group

4 addresses unless you are certain you want this entire group to receive your mail. To find out exactly who is included in an group (all individuals and sub-groups), click on the Details button on the Select Addresses dialogue box. By not being selective or by picking an inappropriate group you run the risk of a scatter gun approach across wide areas of the organisation. Always give thought to who you intend should read your . Always target your audience Junk Mail Junk Mail is unwanted mail. This may include information circulated on: Sports & Social club topics sales & wants staff leaving dos Often the sender is not selective and these s end up all over the place. Sports & Social club topics and sales & wants should be posted on the relevant electronic notice boards that are available on the SYP Intranet. Staff leaving dos also have an electronic notice board. You should not use the SYP system for any of the above. However, if there is an unavoidable need to do so, consider your target audience. For instance, circulating your own department about a leaving do is acceptable. Sending the same to all SYP employees (because they just might happen to know the leaver ) is not acceptable. Blanket ing can overload the IS Servers and cause frustration for recipients who have no interest in your message. Group Debate by Never send Junk Mail. Use other forums. Staff Associations (or similar groups of staff) should not use as a forum for conducting debate, unless they have their own group. Often senders are not selective in who they target. There are other forums more suitable for this purpose, most notably the Intranet Feedback facility which can be used as an electronic notice board. Don t hold group debate via (unless a unique group has been set up). Confrontational

5 is a less personal means of communication than face to face contact or telephone conversation. Facial and vocal inflections are not easily communicated by , and comments of a seemingly innocuous nature may be viewed differently by the recipient. It is relatively safe and comfortable to sit in front of a computer and fire out (potentially) confrontational or inflammatory that you may later regret or have to explain to your line manager. If you receive an that you perceive as being inflammatory, never reply straight away. Put the matter to one side until later (next day if possible). Think about what you have received. Is it really as bad as you first thought? If it is, then you may need to consider whether it is serious enough to raise a grievance or to contact the writer s line manager. Before replying it is a good idea to seek advice from your own supervisor. When you do actually reply think Professional. Be cool and calm. Put your point of view across clearly and without recourse to confrontational words. You should note that experienced users regard typing in capital letters as shouting. Don t send inflammatory or confrontational . Don t react without reflection. Consider consequences. Talking 'Face to Face' It is important that users consider when to use and when to use other communication media such as the telephone. We should guard against any tendency for individuals to avoid personal (face to face) communication - people must still talk to each other and not simply sit in an office and send out . Alternatively, walk round to the office next door and give the message in person. Consider the potential pitfalls in using as opposed to speaking face to face. Management by A basic principle in successfully managing staff involves a personal touch. Sometimes an is appropriate; where a record of an instruction is required, for instance. However, a face-to-face talk often achieves a better understanding and boosts relationships. Total Management By is to be discouraged; it could ultimately prove detrimental to motivation etc. Consider the potential pitfalls in using as opposed to speaking personally with your staff. Attachments Always look to incorporate the information you wish to convey into the body of the itself, as opposed to attaching a document. If at all possible, Give the message in the itself, and not in an attachment.

6 Attachments - particularly substantial documents - use a considerable amount of space and bandwidth This doesn t just apply to MS Word or Excel documents, but also to MS Powerpoint, databases, Acrobat documents etc. Alternatively, lodge the file in a shared computer drive and let your simply direct the recipient to it. Don t attach documents to . Where possible, give the message in the itself. Be secure - lock your PC Before leaving your workstation even for short periods you should always lock your computer. Press the Ctrl and Alt and Delete keys on your keypad simultaneously and Lock Workstation in the dialogue box. Never leave your computer open and unattended. Think of what could be sent and to whom, by someone else, in your name and from your terminal. There may be no malicious intent, but what might be intended as a bit of fun often has serious implications later. If you see a colleague walk away from his/her computer and not lock it, stop them and remind them to do it. Never use a computer that is logged in under someone else s name. Never give your password to someone else. Always lock your computer before leaving your workstation. Never give your password to anyone. Whilst your away Obviously work goes on whilst you re away on leave. Clicking Tools, Out Of Office and then completing the dialogue box will enable a facility that automatically sends a message to anyone who has ed you whilst you re away. However, this is not enough to ensure that necessary (urgent) work is dealt with. There have been instances where quite urgent mail has lain unanswered in an individuals inbox whilst the person was away on leave. All staff should open (give access rights) their inboxes to their immediate Line Manager. Line Managers should plan to regularly check the inboxes of absent staff and deal with any urgent mail. It may be necessary to keep a note on what has been dealt with (and inform staff on return) to avoid duplication of effort. The same principle applies to your diary.

7 During staff absences - Line Managers need access to inboxes and diaries in order to action urgent business. Supervisors plan to regularly check your staff s inbox and diary whilst they re away. You have a Procedural Information to disseminate Policies and procedures govern most of our work. New procedures are constantly being added. There is also a need to continually revise existing practices to meet the ever-changing needs of the organisation. If you need to inform individuals or groups of a new procedure or a change in an existing procedure, don t seek to give the details in an . Use the to direct people to where the policy/procedure can be found (usually the Intranet). You can even create a link to the procedure. To find out how, click here. It may be useful to add brief comment or tell your audience which part of an existing procedure has actually been changed and why etc. An should never be the only extant source of policy or procedure. There must always be an easily accessible reference point; otherwise there is a danger that instructions will not be complied with. Don t use to give details of procedural instructions direct your audience to source. Never make an the only source of procedural instructions. Dealing with incoming mail There is a strong temptation to try to deal with incoming as soon as it appears in your inbox. Often, you will be in the middle of other work and the arrival of can be distracting and even, if there is a continuous stream of it, quite stressful. Providing you know (and Lotus Notes shows these in a different colour) which have been opened (or otherwise) there is no need to open incoming mail immediately. Alternatively, you may wish to open an , but not act on it immediately. Again providing you have a system that reminds you of this, plan to answer s when the time is right for you (bearing in mind the needs of the sender, time limits etc.). There is usually no need to action as soon as it arrives. Plan to action at the right time. Linking

8 Messages about one issue may be contained in several different s. It is frustrating, at a later date, to have to backtrack through folders to pick up all the pieces of a thread. When writing, always refer to a previous (subject and date) if appropriate. By using Reply With History, previous messages are included with your new text and will go some way to providing an audit trail, if required later. Make use of the Discussion Threads folder to track an and all replies to it. Ensure that any attachments are not sent back k. (i.e. click the right mouse button and simply Cut them) if there is no reason to do so. Make it easy to find all threads later - always refer to previous , make use of the Reply With History function and the Discussion Threads folder. Printing s has brought savings in areas such as paper purchase and printer costs. However, there is tendency to print hard copies diary entries, messages etc as a backup or because I feel more comfortable with paper. There will always be some s that require saving as hard copy. However, you should never print without good reason. Don t print s without good reason. Organising your mail Don t leave all of your mail in your inbox. Create a system of folders (and sub-folders) to help you organise your mail so that it is easy to track down when you need it. Use folders to organise your mail. Weeding and Archiving Your mail address will rapidly become congested and full unless you regular weed and archive your holdings. Don t keep everything. Be selective in what you keep. Regularly set aside some time to Weed your folders.