The charter details how people can improve productivity, reduce stress, and communicate more clearly through email. The charter draws heavily on Expert Messaging's experience in training thousands of people in how to utilise modern office communication tools better.

The research was conducted over an eighteen-month period and monitored almost 4,000 people from 150 UK-based organisations, the key findings revealed:

• 77% of people check email within the first five minutes of turning on their computer
• People save on average 2,769 emails each
• 72% of users spend at least one hour per day on email on average
• 39% spend two hours plus dealing with email
• Users received on average 34 emails per day - 47% of which do not help them do their jobs
• People send on average 24 emails per day: roughly two thirds of which are replies, forwards, or copies of emails sent by others. Only one third is originated by the sender.

"Many people spend up to half of their working day chained to email; there is no doubt it has become a main way for businesses to communicate. Paradoxically, organisations pay almost no attention or provide any guidance on how it should be used", explains Bob Hallewell, MD, Expert Messaging. "Consequently this most widely used medium generates the greatest levels of misunderstanding between people and is a great source of work place anxiety and stress."

"We are proposing a Global Email Charter that people can sign up to in order to ensure they have given thought to the way they communicate with email."