Recent work for a client reminded me of a useful reminder a Federal court recently gave employers about the hazards of notifying employees about policies via email. The case involved an employer’s distribution of a new dispute resolution procedure that included arbitration. The employer sent all employees an email outlining the new policy. Later, the employer tried to compel arbitration with one employee suing for disability bias who claimed he never got the email message. Using a “tracking log,” the employer was able to prove the employee got and opened it. But the employer could not prove the employee read it or clicked on two critical links in the message. Thus, the court refused to require the employee to arbitrate his dispute with the company. The court suggested to the employer that it should have: (1) required the employee to send a reply mail acknowledging he read and understood everything; (2) asked employees to reply back accepting the new procedures; or (3) held a meeting announcing the new policy and keeping track of who attended. In short, the key to electronic notice is that an employer be able to prove an employee got something, was alerted to its importance and acknowledged the same. I typically analyze this kind of an issue by asking myself these questions: could the employer prove, and how would it prove, that an employee received a copy of a policy and was informed he/she must read and be bound by it? In other words, if a dispute arises, once the employer lays out its electronic records and explains the notice system, will a judge or jury or other investigator (EEOC, unemployment comp., etc) be convinced that indeed, the employee got the policy and reasonably knew he/she was bound by it? Obviously, this was the great evidentiary value of the traditional hardcopy form signed and dated by the employee and kept in the file. An employer should try to replicate that type of evidentiary value in the electronic world. Thus, consider having your IT person setting up the electronic notice system show you, the HR official, the evidence on a dry run, i.e. print out-- or otherwise present-- such evidence to you or another neutral observer and see if you are convinced you have satisfied this level of proof. If you are not convinced, I think you need to go back to the drawing board on your electronic system and make sure you have the evidence linking the policy at issue directly to a specific employee.