A poll by content management association AIIM found that 38 per cent of large firms and organisations reported that their email operations are "complete chaos", with many end users unaware of their company's policy on email archiving.

A substantial number of businesses in Britain do not have a coherent policy or procedures to govern email compliance, posing a number of corporate risks, while two thirds (70 per cent) fail to actively review or archive email content created by employees that have left the company.

The report on compliance and information management states: "This highlights the deeper issue of training employees to understand and cope with the implications of compliance."

AIIM discovered that just 27 per cent of organisations use document management systems outside Outlook to archive emails in a fully searchable and traceable form, while 16 per cent choose to print copies of important emails that are then filed.

The study suggests that companies must improve their enterprise content management systems and their understanding of electronic records in order to ensure compliance with regulations and legislation and strengthen their business.