Acceptable Use Policy - What is it?

An Acceptable Use Policy (for email usage) is an official company statement on how it expects its own employees to conduct messaging on its own business email system. The policy should detail the company's position on how its email users should conduct communication within and outwith the company - whether for business or personal use.

The Acceptable Use Policy web site has been designed to provide the necessary information for organisations, managers and employees to make sure that all parties get the best out of email communication in the workplace that they should be getting. The web site is based centrally around the use of an Acceptable Use Policy, but other wider issues regarding email management, email filtering and email monitoring are also discussed in depth.

Acceptable Use Policy issues are discussed in which the organisation has become reliant on email communication and has become embedded into an organisation’s communication structure to conduct its business activities.  However, email communication is at serious risk: employers are, in some instances, failing to comply with current law, corporate policies are not being adhered to, expensive resources are being wasted, security breaches are occurring, and offensive/libellous email communications are being sent by employees.  These breaches must be taken seriously as offending organisations can, and have been, taken to court.  The latest publicised lawsuits only confirm that damage can be done to company brand, reputation, competence, alliances and customer relations.

Acceptable Use Policy solutions are discussed in how each component of an organisation, whether management or employees, people or processes, technology or surrounding policies of use, should be closely looked at to make sure that the organisational and procedural framework has been adopted to release the potential of digital communication.  These solutions are split into issues regarding Acceptable Use Policy setting for organisations as a whole; for managers who are responsible for their departmental staff; and for individual employees themselves who are the end users of the email system. The author has also linked to recommended readings for each of these organisational roles.

Acceptable Use Policy recommendations are then put forward, in that, every organisation must firstly assess its own need for email communication, monitoring and policing of its email system by implementing an ‘impact assessment’ exercise, and then to make sure that all legal, management and user-centric issues are being addressed.  Only then, can an organisation be secure with using email technology to assist in achieving organisational objectives and regulatory compliance through the use of carefully designed corporate policies and employee participation.

Acceptable Use Policy materials are included within this web site to allow both management and their staff to easily accumulated key information surrounding email management; in the creation of a sound acceptable use policy; to identify and assess the core issues, risks and after-effects on the introduction of email filtering and monitoring on employee communication. Also included is a researched and filtered documentation library from both academic and commercial specialists on email management and monitoring; sample templates of existing acceptable use policy statements; relevant white papers on the creation, maintenance and deployment of an acceptable use policy; and examples of publicised war stories of legal battles when monitoring emails in the workplace.

An Acceptable Use Policy is an absolutely necessary corporate document to protect both the organisation and its employees from the dangers embedded in today's digital global communication network.