Policy on out of office email response

Effective: 11/1/05

Policy

The College of Biological Sciences (CBS) has established standards for sending automatic email responses when out of the office on vacation or for extended periods of time. The purpose is to provide timely information, improve communication, and present a positive, professional image for the College.

Guidelines

When you are out of the office and unable to respond to email for extended periods due to vacation, leaves of absence, or other purposes, you need to set up an auto-reply message for your incoming emails that notify senders of your plan for responding to their emails.

The process for setting up an auto-reply message is outlined below:

Setting up auto responses on your email account

• Go to: www.umn.edu/dirtools
• Enter your username and password & click ENTER
• Go to the section: Manage Your Email and click on Set E-mail Forwarding and Autoreply
• Follow instructions to set up Autoreply
• And then SUBMIT

Upon your return to the office, follow the same process to log into the section: Manage Your Email and follow the instructions to deactivate your autoreply message.

Example: Out of office reply

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office from [DAY, DATE] to [DAY, DATE] and unable to respond at this time. I will review your message following my return on [DAY, DATE]. If you need immediate assistance, contact [NAME, PH#, EMAIL ADDRESS].