Effective internal communication is vital to the success of any business. In addition to ensuring an effective flow of information between employees, departments and other stakeholders, good communication boosts productivity, enhances employee engagement, and drives progress toward critical goals. In a fast-paced and often virtual workplace, communication is even more essential.
Ineffective communication results in more than misunderstandings and confusion. One recent report estimates poor communication in the workplace accounts for a loss of near seven and one-half hours per employee per week. This means that ineffective communication can cost an organization more than 18 percent of its annual salaries paid.
Digital Communications Tools
The growth of remote and hybrid has given rise to many digital workplace communications tools. Designed to facilitate messaging, file sharing, project management, video conferencing and other tasks, these tools make team communication and collaboration easier than ever before. From the widely adopted Zoom to more complex enterprise solutions, digital communications tools improve workflow, streamline task management and optimize communications.
One of these tools is Slack. Slack is a real-time messaging app designed for businesses to communicate about projects, information, clients and schedules across various teams. It currently touts 32 million daily users, a number that has increased from 8.7 million in 2019 and is projected to rise to 47 million by 2025. Slack’s popularity grew drastically during mass shifts to remote work during and after the pandemic. Today, it stands as a vital communication tool for many businesses and is celebrated for the way it brings teams closer together.
Flexible Features of Slack
Slack was first developed internally at the company Tiny Speck during the development of a video game, but the organization pivoted to pitching its communication product instead. The cloud-based tool focuses on the implementation of channels or “workspaces.” These are multi-modal, real-time chat rooms that can integrate with other applications and functions. In many cases, teams can benefit from a fast, centralized place for internal messaging to remove overload from other frequently used channels like email or social media. Like with any workplace technology, it’s important for organizations to have a strategy in place to effectively leverage Slack for improved communication and project management.
Key features of the platform include:
- Channels: These spaces allow users to organize conversations by team, topic or project. In addition to group messaging board and direct messages, users can create and share to-do lists, manage project schedules, produce shared calendars and maintain frequent communication. All of this occurs in one organized space that can integrate with other tools including Outlook, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams.
- File sharing: While email offers attachments, Slack enables consistent and organized file uploading and sharing so documents and media can be easily organized in one place. Slack’s integrated search function can then parse through messages, files and other media based on search terms.
- Application integration: Slack has built-in integration with many other commonly used workplace applications such as Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox and ZenDesk. It’s also possible to custom-develop integration with internal company software or industry-specific tools.
- Emojis: Slack has a wide range of emoji response options to embed in conversations or provide “reactions” to posts. Because of Slack’s approach to emojis, many organizations use these to creatively communicate about project progress or needs.
Six Unexpected Ways to Make the Most Out of Slack
Slack provides useful guides and tutorials on how to make the most of their platform, but there are a handful of unexpected benefits that organizations can leverage today and into the future. Whether you’re considering a new tool in your communication suite or optimizing your current Slack strategy, here are six less common strategies to help you make the most of the tool.
1. Facilitate communication with external parties.
Slack is primarily thought of as an internal communication tool, but it can also be leveraged for external communications. Consider inviting key players that fall outside of your company, such as clients, vendors, stakeholders or subject matter experts to maintain consistent collaboration.
2. Set custom notifications for improved project management.
One critique about Slack is the frequency at which it can interrupt an individual’s workflow. This is especially true for managers or leaders who are spread across a large number of projects or teams. Custom notifications make it possible to prioritize which messages, actions, tasks or reminders make it through to your desktop.
3. Create Slackbot responses for frequent communications.
Slackbot is a built-in chatbot for teams to share common information on their channels, such as frequently asked questions, core project details, or overall business and communication protocols. For example, users can develop automated responses for queries about Wi-Fi passwords or website login credentials. Users can also program the bots to send reminders, schedule meetings and act as an internal knowledge base.
4. Use a private Slack channel for individual goal setting and organization.
Private channels help individual users organize their tasks and business activities. This can be especially helpful when tracking many projects or balancing multiple roles or clients.
5. Conduct a poll for quick, anonymous decision-making.
Users can use slack to create a poll and collect responses so team members can vote on topics and provide feedback. Emojis are one way collect poll responses, while dedicated apps like Simple Poll can be integrated for more advanced features. The anonymous nature of these polls helps to improve transparency and response rates for better decision-making.
6. Collect data for powerful business insights.
Any tool that maintains business communications in one place can be mined for valuable, data-driven insights when combined with data analysis and metrics. When teams use Slack as a primary internal communication tool, the insights can be powerful. Integrated tools such as Social Wall collect information about the communications within organizations to distill insights about a culture, brand image, productivity, communication styles and even conflict resolution methods.
Enhancing Your Toolkit
As technology changes, so do our opportunities for communication within and outside organizations. As a business, staying on top of these trends can mean the difference between effective internal operations and the loss of valuable time and resources. Slack is a powerful tool that meets the standards and expectations of individuals in today’s workplaces while improving organizational connectivity and transparency. Achieving this takes a strategic effort that focuses on the core needs of your team, clients and network while keeping an eye out for unique, unexpected opportunities to maximize the tool’s benefits and features.
