School of Health, Nursing & Midwifery Etiquette - Protocol

Transcription

1 School of Health, Nursing & Midwifery Etiquette - Protocol Introduction The following guidance introduces good practice for writing and sending s. It also introduces a School protocol for signatures, out of office messages and use of mailing groups. It covers the following areas: response timeframes signature template Out of Office template Protocol for reply all and cc options The guidance offered is intended to support the use of communication and introduce standards for the benefit of both sender and recipient. Response Principles and Standards Staff to staff correspondence There was concern that staff feel under pressure to reply to s sent outside business hours, while this builds expectations on the part of students and colleagues that responses can be expected around the clock. However, at the same time, it was recognised that some staff work flexibly and choose to manage their s outside core working hours. Standard 1: s written outside working hours should be saved as a draft and sent the next working day (or put on a timer see appendix 1). Failing that, the principle should be acknowledged that staff who outside business hours should not expect a reply. Staff-to-student correspondence Standard 2: staff should normally aim to reply to s within 2 working days, even if this is a holding statement providing an indication of when the student should expect to receive a reply (see exemplar below). Exemplar: Dear Student Thank you for your . I am unable to provide you with a full response/ answer your query at present but, rest assured, I will do so within 2 working days. Regards

2 Out of Office Messages Standard 3: staff should activate an out-of-office message when they expect to be away from campus (on annual leave or university business, or due to part-time/ flexible working patterns) for more than one day (see appendix 2). Please note that this is not necessary/appropriate if working at home as the expectancy is that staff, with that arrangement, as agreed by line manager, will respond to s (this arrangement will be recorded on the outlook calendar). The content of the message should specify the timescale of their unavailability; An alternative contact or mailbox should be indicated; It is recommended that staff invite correspondents to copy them into any s sent to their alternative contact, to save them following up unnecessarily on their return; The appropriate campus School office contact and opening hour details should be provided. Freedom of Information requests should be redirected to the UWS mailbox. Exemplar: Thank you for your message. I am on annual leave from Monday 2 November until Friday 13 November inclusive, returning to work on Monday 16 November. If your message is urgent please contact AN Other (job title) at address or on X XXXX. If you do opt to contact AN Other, I d be grateful if you could copy me in to further s, for information. Please note the XXXXXXX campus, School office telephone number is xxxxxxxxxxx and the opening hours are XXXX to XXXX. If your message relates to a Freedom of Information request, please resend it to foi@uws.ac.uk

3 Signatures Standard 4: staff should mandatorily include the following minimum information on signature (see appendix 3): Name Role title/ designation Room number and campus School name University name Telephone contact number address Where relevant, staff signatures may optionally include the following: Title Institute name Full postal address Fax number Working pattern if part-time or flexible Link to programme details Information on/link to publications Staff are also invited to include the following information: School Wordpress site link - Link to School/UWS Twitter feeds - Athena Swan badge Only include UWS and business related links/ information Standard 5: staff should mandatorily attach their signature when corresponding with students, staff (as appropriate) and external partners/agencies. Exemplar: Dr AN Other Programme Leader, BSc (Hons) XXXXXXXXX Room 999, Paisley Campus School of Health, Nursing and Midwifery @ address XXXX School of HNM Wordpress link School of HNM Twitter Feed Athena Swan badge Please note my working hours are Monday to Wednesday, 8:45am 12.15pm

4 NB. Academic staff may also wish to include details of their office hours. Use of Reply all/cc Function Reply All The all-staff facility is provided for distribution of important work related messages only, where the majority or all staff in the School need to be informed and should not be used where the message is targeted at smaller groups. Staff should take particular care not to reply to an all-staff by using the reply all facility. The all-staff facility should not be used to generate a staff electronic discussion forum on any subject. Standard 5: where responses are sought to an all-staff , staff should only reply to the sender CC Function Standard 6: staff should be cognisant of escalating, by copying in (without consent of the original sender) colleagues not directly involved in the discussion. Where new participants are added to an thread, the rationale for their inclusion should be stated in the for the avoidance of doubt.

5 APPENDIX 1

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7 APPENDIX 2

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9 APPENDIX 3

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