Whether there are one or 1,000 employees, keeping track of the appropriateness of each and every message can be a difficult task. Email, originally a tool for quick, informal communication, is now a business-critical application. According to a recent survey by my company, C2C Systems, and Osterman Research, the average employee sends 44 emails a day and receives 87 messages. In many cases, the email, whether business or personal communication, is sent and forgotten. This can mean trouble for an employer if the message is in some way offensive, harassing, obscene or defamatory.

Tom Gober, forensic accountant and senior manager of Summerford Accountancy in Birmingham, AL, has seen many legal cases in which email has been the single most importance source of evidence. In a recent insurance fraud investigation, Gober conducted a thorough and complete email search. "We had looked through email before, reading each one, but we didn't have this kind of volume," he says. "There were thousands of emails, and we had to find the 10 percent that was extremely important to the fraud case."

How can a company make sure that its messaging system isn't a legal liability? There's no way to guarantee a risk-free workplace, but companies should think about developing a comprehensive policy and using software solutions to uphold standards for email usage.

E-policies
While some personal email usage may be okay, companies should make it clear that company email is specifically for business communications. Such a statement is called an e-policy, a corporate statement and set of rules to protect the organization from casual or intentional abuse and IT system failures or litigation against the organization. By explicitly prohibiting racist or sexist language, chain letters or pornography and other offensive material, companies can reduce their liability.

E-policies abound on the Internet, but you'll probably want to adapt them with the help of legal council. Most email and Internet use policies clearly state that the email system is company property and use of the email system is for official business only. There are typically sections on confidentiality, personal use, restrictions and email management.