PURPOSE
At Inscripts (I) Pvt. Ltd. (“Inscripts”), communication plays an essential role in the conduct of our business. How you communicate with people not only reflects on you as an individual, but also on us as an organization. We encourage you to communicate with colleagues, clients/customers and business contacts as per the guidelines provided in this Office Communication Policy (“Policy”).
APPLICABILITY
This Policy applies to all individuals working for, or at Inscripts.
1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
(i) Your written, oral communication as well as your conduct with or without the use of Inscripts information technology and communications facilities should be sensible, professional and lawful, with respect for your colleagues and for Inscripts and should be in accordance with this Policy and all other policies, rules and procedures of Inscripts.
(ii) Confidential Information: All information relating to our clients/customers and our business operations is confidential in nature. “Confidential Information” shall mean and include, without limitation, any technical, commercial and/or financial information, improvement, inventions, know how, innovations, technology, trade secrets, professional secrets, technical specifications, copyrights and any other intellectual property, discoveries, ideas, concepts, papers, software in various stages of development, techniques, models, data, source code, object code, documentation, manuals, flow charts, research, process, procedures, functions, customer names and other information related to customers, price lists and pricing policies of Inscripts. All Confidential Information stored in any medium, need to be treated with utmost care.
(iii) Official communications are protected by intellectual property rights. Downloading, uploading, posting, copying, possessing, processing and distributing material from the internet may be an infringement of copyright or of other intellectual property rights, and hence should not be included in any official communication.
(iv) Particular care must be taken when using e-mail, Inscripts blog or internal message boards as a means of communication, as your actions, expressions of your intention and opinions may wrongly implicate Inscripts.
(v) While sending messages via e-mail or via the internet, the employee shall be professional and avoid using casual and/or foul language.
(vi) You must not use any mode, medium or media to upload or write any material which would subject Inscripts and/or its directors and/or employees and/or its affiliates to disciplinary or legal action in any manner. Such material may include, without limitation discriminatory statements (on the grounds of a person's sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief), defamatory statements, false/misleading statements, Confidential Information and/or other unlawful material (for example, any material that is designed to be or could be construed as, bullying or harassment by the recipient).
2. USE OF ELECTRONIC MAIL
a. GENERAL USE
(i) Always use the e-mail template specified by Inscripts.
(ii) Do not amend any e-mails received.
(iii) Do not access any other person’s inbox and/or other e-mail folders, nor send any e-mail purported to be sent from another person’s e-mail address.
(iv) All Inscripts policies and procedures apply to employees' conduct on the internet, especially, but not exclusively, relating to intellectual property, confidentiality, company information dissemination, standards of conduct, misuse of Inscripts resources, anti-harassment and information and data security.
(v) It is recommended that all re-read and check any email before sending it out from Inscripts.
b. BUSINESS USE
(i) The customer/client must be made aware that the use of e-mail is an acceptable form of communication while communicating with Inscripts.
(ii) If the e-mail message or attachment contains information pertaining to any subject matter where time is of the essence, keep in mind that an e-mail is not necessarily an instant communication and may not be the most appropriate means of communication in the given circumstances.
(iii) If you have sent an important document via e-mail, always telephone the recipient to confirm that the e-mail along with the requisite attachments have been received and read.
(iv) In every instance, file a hard copy of any e-mail (including any attachments) sent to or received from the customer/client before deleting the electronic copy. This shall apply to all internal e-mail transmissions concerning customer/client matters.
c. PERSONAL USE
(i) Although Inscripts e-mail facilities are provided for the purposes of our business, we accept that you may occasionally want to use them for your own personal purposes. This is permitted on the condition that all the procedures and rules set out in this Policy are complied with. Please note, however, that if you choose to make use of our facilities for personal correspondence, Inscripts may need to monitor such communications.
(ii) Under no circumstances can Inscripts’ facilities be used in connection with the operation or management of any business other than that of Inscripts.
(iii) All personal e-mails you send from Inscripts facilities must be marked PERSONAL in the subject heading, and all personal e-mails sent or received must be filed in a separate folder marked "Personal" in your inbox, should you wish to retain it after reading.
(iv) You must ensure that your personal e-mail use:
o does not interfere with the performance of your duties;
o does not take priority over your work responsibilities;
o is minimal and limited to taking place substantially outside of normal working hours (i.e. during any breaks which you are entitled to or before or after your normal hours of work);
o does not cause unwarranted expense or liability to be incurred by Inscripts;
o does not have a negative impact on Inscripts in any way; and
o is lawful and complies with this Policy.
3. USE OF INTERNET
(i) Please use the internet sensibly at your workplace. We wish to convey that, any of your acts on internet which are in violation of the cyber security laws, copyrights laws, licensing terms, etc., if committed using Inscripts’ computers, servers or official accounts may be deemed as committed by Inscripts. Such activities may adversely affect Inscripts, and you shall be personally held liable for any and all damages incurred as a result of such acts of violation as stated above.
(ii) Whenever you access a website, you should always comply with the terms and conditions governing its use.
(iii) You shall not provide your Inscripts e-mail address when using public websites for non-business purposes including but not limited to online shopping and/or subscriptions to any magazines, software or any other related matters.
(iv) Access to certain websites are blocked during normal working hours. If you have a particular business need to access such sites, please contact Inscripts Information Technology Team.
(v) You must not:
o use any images, text or material which are copyright - protected, other than in accordance with the terms of the license under which you were permitted to download and/or use them;
o upload packet-sniffing and/or password-detecting software and/or malware of any kind whatsoever;
o seek to gain access to restricted areas of Inscripts network;
o access or try to access data which you know or ought to know is confidential;
o introduce any form of computer virus;
o carry out any hacking activities
o under any circumstances use Inscripts systems to participate in any internet chat room, post messages on any external message board or contribute to any external blog unless expressly permitted in writing to do so by Inscripts.
o download and/or stream songs/movies/non-work related content.
(vi) In event of such unauthorised usages of internet, Inscripts may as per its discretion, initiate strict disciplinary action including termination of services (post an enquiry and probe in the subject issue) against concerned employee/consultant/staff.
4. MISUSE OF INSCRIPTS FACILITIES AND SYSTEMS
(i) Misuse of Inscripts facilities and systems including, abuse of its telephone, e-mail, or the internet in breach of this Policy will be treated seriously and dealt in accordance with Inscripts disciplinary procedures.
(ii) In particular, viewing, accessing, transmitting, posting, downloading and/or uploading any of the following materials in the following ways, while using and/or accessing any of Inscripts facilities, will amount to gross misconduct, and Inscripts may at its sole discretion after giving the employee a reasonable chance of being heard, terminate the services of the employee:
o Material which is sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, pornographic, pedophilic or similarly discriminatory and/or offensive; or
o usage of offensive, obscene, derogatory or criminal material or material which is liable to cause embarrassment or harm, in any manner whatsoever, to Inscripts and/or any of its directors and/or its employees and/or its affiliates and/or its customers/clients or bring the reputation of Inscripts and/or its directors and/or its employees and/or its affiliates and/or its customers/clients into disrepute; or
o any defamatory material about any third-party and/or organisation, or material which includes statements which are false and/or of a deceptive nature; or
o any material which, by intent or otherwise, harasses the recipient; or
o any other statement which is designed to cause annoyance, inconvenience and/or anxiety to anyone; or
o any material which violates the privacy of others or unfairly criticises or misrepresents others; or
o .Confidential Information about Inscripts and any of its directors and/or its employees and/or its affiliates and/or customers/clients;
o any other statement which is likely to create any liability whether criminal or civil, and whether for you or Inscripts and/or its directors and/or its employees and/or its affiliates; or
o material in breach of copyright and/or other intellectual property rights; or
o online gambling; or
o unsolicited commercial or advertising material, chain letters or other junk mail of any kind.
(iii) If Inscripts has evidence of any event of misuse set out here in above, Inscripts reserves the right to undertake a more detailed investigation in accordance with its disciplinary procedures and at its sole discretion, may terminate the employment of the employee in accordance with his/her employment agreement.
5. PUBLIC RELATIONS
The CEO being the spokesperson of Inscripts shall be the only one to clarify and disseminate the true and fair stand of Inscripts or any adverse reputation event to third parties and/or to the media, if deemed fit by Inscripts.
6. SYSTEM SECURITY
(i) Security of our information technology systems is of paramount importance. All client/customer’s data, information, documents shared with Inscripts needs to be kept confidential at all time. Every time you use the system you take responsibility for the security implications of what you are doing.
(ii) Inscripts systems or equipment must not be used in any way which may cause damage, or overloading, or which may affect its performance, or that of the internal or external network.
(iii) All employees shall keep all confidential information secure and use it only for the purposes it is created for, and he/she shall not disclose the confidential information to any unauthorised third party.
(iv) Keep your system passwords safe. Do not disclose them to anyone. If you have disclosed your password to anyone else, ensure that you change your password once they no longer need it.
(v) You should always exercise caution when opening e-mails from unknown external sources or where, for any reason, an e-mail appears suspicious and/or when a suspected virus is received.
(vi) Due to the significant risk of harm to Inscripts’ electronic resources, or loss of data and/or Confidential Information, from any unauthorised access that causes data loss or disruption, employees should not bring personal computers or data storage devices (such as floppy disks, CDs/DVDs, external hard drives, USB / flash drives, or similar devices, laptops or other mobile computing devices, or other data storage media) to the workplace and connect them to Inscripts electronic systems unless expressly permitted to do so by Inscripts. To minimize the risk of unauthorised copying of Confidential Information, any employee connecting a personal computing device, data storage device, or image-recording device to Inscripts networks or information systems thereby gives permission to Inscripts to inspect the personal computer, data storage device, or image-recording device at any time with personnel and/or electronic resources of Inscripts choosing and to analyse any files, other data, or data storage devices or media that may be within or connectable to the data-storage device in question in order to ensure that Confidential Information have not been taken without authorisation. Employees who do not wish such inspections to be done on their personal computers, data storage devices, or imaging devices should not connect them to Inscripts computers or networks.
(vii) Violation of this Policy, or failure to permit an inspection of any device (either personal or provided by Inscripts) by any employee or person, shall result in disciplinary action which may include immediate termination of employment or engagement, depending upon the severity and the nature of the offence.
7. PERSONAL BLOGS AND WEBSITES/SOCIAL MEDIA
(i) This section of the Policy, and procedures provided for herein shall apply to personal blogs, websites and all other personal web content (e.g. personal podcasts) even if created, updated, modified or contributed to, outside of working hours or when using personal systems.
(ii) Inscripts recognises that in your own private time you may wish to contribute to social media including but not limited to online forums, such as websites, blogs and message boards, or you may take part in podcasting, webcasting or forums of a similar nature. For the avoidance of doubt, such activities are expressly prohibited during working hours, and while working on such personal work, you cannot use Inscripts systems.
(iii) If you post any content on the internet, written, vocal or visual, on your personal blog(s) or any of your actions on any social media platforms and/or any other external facing profile and related content, which identifies, or could identify, you as an employee of Inscripts or associated with Inscripts and/or if you discuss your work or anything related to Inscripts or its business, products, services, customers and/or employees, Inscripts expects you, at all times, to use good judgement, conduct yourself appropriately and in a manner which is consistent with your contract of employment with Inscripts and with Inscripts’ policies and procedures. It should be noted that simply revealing your name or a visual image/picture of yourself could be sufficient to identify you as an individual who works for Inscripts.
(iv) If a blog post, or your post(s)/actions on any social media platform and/or any other external facing profile, and related content, clearly identifies that you work for Inscripts and you express any idea or opinion, then you should add a disclaimer in a prominent part of your post, that “the contents of the following paragraphs are my own personal views and not those of Inscripts (I) Private Limited”.
(v) Whenever you post / use trademark, copyright and other intellectual property rights of other companies you will be legally responsible for the same.
(vi) Remember that all social media platforms have usage related terms and conditions, so please read and follow the same.
(vii) The following acts will be treated as gross misconduct, and Inscripts at its sole discretion may, after giving the employee a reasonable chance of being heard, terminate the employee on commission of the same:
o Breach of any of the provisions/guidelines mentioned in this Policy
o Revealing Sensitive, Private and Confidential Information about Inscripts or any person(s) /entity related to Inscripts in a personal online posting.
o Using a personal blog or website to criticize or defame Inscripts, its clients or its directors and/or employees. You should respect the corporate reputation of Inscripts and the privacy of others at all times. If you have a genuine complaint to make concerning a colleague, or a matter concerning the workplace, the employee should bring it to the notice of Human Resources Department of Inscripts.
o Posting comments about a customer or vendor that could be perceived as demeaning, threatening, retaliatory or discriminatory.
o Accessing or updating a personal blog or website from Inscripts computers or during work time.
(viii) Any negative post or any negative review or any related content about Inscripts, its Directors and /or employees posted by an employee either directly or indirectly, which may defame Inscripts and/or bring its Directors and/or employees into disrepute, on any social media platform or on any website, is prohibited, and in such event Inscripts will take necessary legal action or recourse available to it under law including terminating the services of such an employee forthwith.
8. OFFICE TELEPHONE AND PERSONAL MOBILE
(i) No personal calls shall be made by the employee from Inscripts office landlines and/or mobile phones.
(ii) If under any urgent circumstances the employee has to make any emergency call, then prior written permission has to be obtained from Business Support.
(iii) Usage of personal mobile phones should be minimal during working hours.
(iv) Your mobile should be either on silent or vibrate mode when in the office. Since we are in close quarters with co-workers, the simple ringing of a cell phone can break your concentration or disrupt others.
(v) If you do take a personal call on your cell phone while in the office, keep your voice down. Most people do not want to hear the conversation you’re having, so be considerate of others. Better yet, take your conversation down the hall, or step outside to talk.
9. NON - COMPLIANCE OF THE POLICY
Non-compliance with the provisions of this Policy will result in disciplinary action, which, at Inscripts sole discretion, after giving the employee a reasonable chance of being heard, may result in termination of the employee.