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Resolve to clean up your email signature

It’s no secret that we rely heavily on email communications to do our jobs. Many times these communications are the only interactions we have with colleagues and can often be the only representation they see of us and our department or organization as a whole. Your email signature is part of your professional appearance.

As you look at your New Year’s resolutions to improve your appearance or clean up some aspect of your home or workspace, why not resolve to take five minutes to clean up your signature? Here are some tips to help you put your best digital foot forward in 2020:

  1. Update your branding. We are fortunate to have many long-time employees at Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine, and they have seen many changes in our entities’ logos over the years. Now is the time to update any logos you may have in your signature. You can find approved logos here.
  2. Make sure any references to a Penn State Health entity use the appropriate nomenclature. For example, Penn State Hershey is not a current name. The correct name is Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. There is no Community Medical Group ― instead, there is a Community Practice Division and Academic Practice Division of Penn State Health Medical Group. Questions about the correct names? You can check our Style Guide’s Naming and Nomenclature Guidelines section for more info.
  3. Do not include quotes or personal mottos. While they may be meaningful to you, you are representing the health system as a whole, and your quotes or personal mottos may not reflect the views of others. To be safe and keep your signature clean and free of clutter, avoid adding additional comments.
  4. Standardize email signatures. By having standardized signatures across the organization, email recipients can quickly find key information like your address or phone number. Standardizing includes using the same font (readable fonts like Arial, Calibri or Time New Roman), same color (typically black) and same format (see example below).
  5. Be sure to include your name, title, team and department name, office phone number, organization URL and the confidentiality agreement.  Note – inclusion of your mobile, pager and fax numbers is optional.

Example:

John M. Smith
Program Manager – Planning and Governance
office: 717-531-1234 | pager: 717-255-3901
pennstatehealth.org
Information Services
Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine

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