Department of Human Resource Management

Level-II

Course title: Utilize and Maintain Organizational

Information

Prepared by: Mr. Fami A. (MSc)

Nominal duration: 90 Hour

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 Unit One
Incoming mail Management
 This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the
following content coverage and topics:
 Checking and registering incoming mail
 Distributing urgent and confidential mail
 Sorting and dispatching mail
 Recording and reporting damaged items
 Specifically, upon completion of this learning guide, you will be able to:
 Check and register incoming mail
 Distribute urgent and confidential mail
 Sort and dispatch mail
 Record and report damaged items

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1.1. Checking and Registering Incoming mail
o Most of the mail received by a business/organization will relate to matters that are currently
happening so it is important that the mail is processed promptly and distributed to the correct
people.
o Incoming mail should always be processed, by following your company’s policies and
procedures.
o Before you process incoming mail ensure that you are familiar with the procedures that
apply in your business/organization.
o In order to process and distribute incoming mail appropriately you need to be aware of the
following points:
 receiving mail.
 checking and register incoming mail.
 identify and distribute urgent and confidential mail.
 sorting and delivering mail to the right person and location.
 record, report and deal with damaged, suspicious or missing item.

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A) Receiving mail
o Mail can arrive in a variety of ways including:
 Mail delivered by Ethiopian Post
 Mail delivered by courier
 Mail that is faxed
 Mail that is sent by email
 Mail that is hand delivered
o Some of the mail your firm receives will be delivered in the morning by Ethiopian Post.
o On occasions, documents will be delivered using an Ethiopian Post special delivery service,
such as registered post.
o Registered post provides an added level of security through a unique identification number
(UID No.) for each item and the need for the recipient to sign for the mail item.
o Be aware that some firms have a post office box.

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o Post office boxes are usually situated in a post office or in a shop that acts as an agent for
Ethiopian Post.
o If your firm has a post office box then mail, addressed with your firm’s post office box
number, will be delivered to the box.
o You may be required to pick up the mail from the box.
o You can look at the Ethiopian Post Internet Site (EPIS) to find out about other delivery
services that you may need to be aware of.
B) Checking incoming mail
o As it is very easy to accidentally damage a letter or a document when you are opening an
envelope/cover it is best to take your time and open each envelope with care.
o Once you have opened an envelope ensure that you remove all the contents.
o Often an envelope will include a covering letter and a number of attachments.
o You should check that all the attachments indicated in the covering letter have in fact been
included.
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 Checking mail may include:
 Enclosures or attachments
 Mail marked confidential, urgent or personal
 Mail sent express post or registered
 Mail that has been damaged
 Mail that looks suspicious
C) Thing to do if items are missing
o The followings are things that you should do if items are missing while handling mail:
i) Keeping items together
o Ensure items that arrive in the same envelope are kept together.
o You can usually attach items with a paper clip.
o For example, a cheque that arrives with a letter must be paper clipped to the letter
otherwise someone could receive the letter and assume that the sender has forgotten to send
the cheque. 6
ii) Date stamping
o After the mail has been opened you should ensure that, each item is date stamped.
o Date stamping on the incoming mail helps to identify when your legal firm received the mail.
o Original documents such as, birth certificates, qualifications, contracts and agreements should not be
date stamped.
o If a note of the date is required for original documents, then a colored sticky note can be date
stamped and stuck to the front of the document.
o Each organization will have different procedures for date stamping on incoming mail, therefore
ensure that you are clear on the date stamping procedure at your workplace.
o If you are unsure as to whether an item should be date stamped ask your supervisor.
o For example, some organizations expect all incoming mail (except original documents), to be date
stamped on the reverse top left hand corner.

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D) Registering incoming mail
o Many businesses require all incoming mail to be entered in a register.
o Depending on the procedures at your workplace mail may be registered before it is date
stamped.
o Check the office policy and procedures manual or ask your supervisor about the process in
place at your workplace.
o Mail can be registered either manually, in a mail book or diary, or electronically on a computer,
again this will depend on the process in place at your company.
o Keeping a register of all mail items received helps ensure that mail can be tracked.
 Information in the mail register should include:
 Who sent the mail;
 The date the mail was received;
 The addressee or who the mail was sent to;
 Contents of the mail;
 Subject of the mail;
 Date of reply; and
 Condition of the mail (for example, was it damaged or without a return address'). 8
 Incoming mail registration form
Date Description Recipient Attachements Condition Action

Letter from W/ro Chaltu Agreement Good Delivered

12/03/2015 Federal TVET Tolosa
Letter from Ato Kedir Cheque Envelope Bank
customer Seid torn cheque
10/03/2015
(cheque and inure
enclosed) report
HR Magazine W/rt Almaz None Good Circulate
15/03/2015 Abebe

Table 1.1: Incoming mail registration form-1

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Example of an incoming mail registor
Date Mail Sender Comments Attachments Sent to Opened by
Received
28/7/04 Mr. Yee Letter Product Mr H. Gleitman Jullie Carpenter
specification
28/7/04 Mrs. Envelop torn N/A Ms M. Taylor Jullie Carpenter
Osborne
28/7/04 Future Contract Contract Mr I Kruber Jullie Carpenter
Decor
Table 1.2: Incoming mail registration form-2
o Once the mail has been registered it should be sorted and distributed to the appropriate
person.
o Note that you may be required to sort the mail before it is registered, again this will depend
on the procedures followed by your workplace.
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1.2. Distributing Urgent and Confidential Mail
1.2.1. Identifying and distributing urgent and confidential mail
o As with all other types of mail you should ensure that you follow the procedures in place at
your workplace for mail that is marked 'Urgent'.
o As a general rule, ensure that urgent mail is delivered to the appropriate person as soon as
possible and is dealt with before other types of mail.
o Unless you are specifically authorized to do so, never open mail that is marked 'Private and
Confidential', 'Personal', 'Confidential' or similar.
o Your company will probably have a procedure in place for dealing with this type of mail.
o Ensure that you are familiar with this procedure.
A) Confidential mail
o Mail marked confidential, personal or private should not be opened, unless you are
authorized to open it.
o If you open this mail by mistake, you should quickly re-seal the envelope with tape and
write on it ‘opened by mistake and your initials’.
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o It is not possible to do this for faxes and emails.
o If an email message is marked confidential and the addressees' name is written in the
message subject line, you can leave it unopened and forward it to the receiver or send a
message to let them know the mail has arrived.
B) Urgent mail
o Some mail is marked urgent.
o If it is also marked confidential or personal, you should treat it as confidential first and not
open it.
o You can either deliver urgent mail immediately to the person it is addressed to or you can
make sure it goes to the top of the pile when you are prioritizing mail for that person.
o Another form of urgent mail is express post.
o The sender pays extra postage for an item to be priority processed for prompt delivery.
o An organization may have specific procedures in place for sorting and distributing urgent
mail.

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1.2.2. Delivering urgent and confidential mail
o Mail should always be forwarded to the recipient within the organizations designated time
lines so business is conducted effectively.
o Speak to your supervisor if you ever have any problems with the time lines.
o Sometimes the problems may be out of your control; for example, if the mail is delivered late.
o You can distribute mail in various ways.
o For example, you may place mail for people in a separate folder and deliver it to them in tray.
o Some organizations may have an area where employees collect mail and you may be
responsible for depositing mail in the correct boxes.
o Large organizations may have mail collection points for each department.
o Organizations with numerous offices in various locations may have an internal mail system,
with specified collection points and pick-up and drop-off times.
o There may be a number of different internal distribution systems operating at the same time.
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1.3. Sorting and Dispatching mail
o Once the incoming mail has been opened, date stamped and registered it needs to be sorted
and then distributed to the appropriate person.
1.3.1. Sorting incoming mail
o The way in which incoming mail should be sorted will depend on the procedures in place at
your workplace.
o Ensure that you are aware of the procedures that are in place.
o Depending on the size of your company and the processes in place you would normally sort
the mail by business section or by individual.
o Once the mail has been split in this manner you will be required to sort the mail based on its
importance.
o Urgent mail is usually at the top of the bundle, followed by mail that has been sent by
courier or agent.
o Below this mail should be the private and confidential mail and finally any general
correspondence.
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o Note that your company may have specific rules regarding the handling of cheques and bills.
o Often this type of mail will be directed to the accounts department or to a nominated person.
o More than one person needs to be present when opening mail that contains cash orders or
cheques.
o Your supervisor will indicate how to process this type of mail.
o Once the incoming mail has been sorted it needs to be distributed to the appropriate personnel.
 Sorting mail may include:
 Adding a circulation slip
 Separating by order of importance for each individual
 Separating internal (organizational) mail and external mail
 Separating junk(unwanted items) mail
 Separating urgent mail to be distributed first
 Sorting by departments
 Sorting by location
 Sorting by seniority of personnel
 Sorting invoices, cheques and accounts
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1.3.2. Distributing incoming mail
o Each company will have its own set of requirements with regards to the distribution of
incoming mail.
o Often the mail will need to be distributed by a specific time each morning.
o If you have been given the responsibility of distributing the mail, ensure that you are aware
of the requirements in place.
o In order to efficiently distribute the mail, you will need to identify and understand the
structure of your workplace and the titles and roles that each person has.
o This is especially important when you receive a mail item that does not specifically indicate
for whom it is intended.
o When this happens, you will need to work out who the letter is for.
o This can be done by asking your supervisor, calling the sender or reading the letter and then
directing it to the appropriate person or business section.
o Often a company will have a tree-structure or an employee list that will help you identify
each of the individuals and sections in your company.
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1.4. Recording and Reporting Damaged Items
1.4.1. Dealing with damaged, suspicious and missing items correctly
o On occasions you will need to deal with mail that has been damaged, mail that appears
suspicious and lost mail items.
A) Damaged mail
o Damaged mail should be sorted, date stamped and registered following the same process
used for other incoming mail.
o The damage should be recorded in the register.
o Once the damaged item has been processed it should be delivered to the person to whom it
has been sent with an explanation regarding the fact that it arrived in a damaged condition.
o The recipient can then decide what action, if any, needs to be taken.
B) Suspicious mail
o Your company will have specific procedures in place for dealing with suspicious mail items.
o Ensure that you are aware of the procedures to follow.
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C) Missing items
o Often an envelope will contain a covering letter and one or more enclosures.
o The covering letter should indicate what enclosures, if any are meant to be included.
o Check that all the enclosures detailed in the covering letter are, in fact, included.
o If an item is missing you should register the letter and any enclosures that have been
included and then inform the recipient of the letter that certain enclosures are missing.
o The recipient can then decide what action needs to be taken.

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END OF CHAPTER ONE
THANK YOU!!

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