Slack is an extremely popular communication platform for remote teams. This communication platform focuses on team collaboration. It is used by remote teams to keep in touch with each other through communication channels, to share files and to share progress updates. But you might wonder what’s the best way to use this platform if you want to build a strong community and remote team culture. There are many features, but not everyone knows how to use these. These features can help build a strong community where your remote team can share information and collaborate more effectively. Use the following tips to get the most out of your Slack experience.
Work with channels
You can create groups or send direct messages to a colleague on Slack. But I guess the most important feature on Slack that you should use are channels. You can create different channels for specific topics. This way you keep everything organized and give your employees the possibility to share their thoughts on a subject. This way, all the information on a specific topic is easily accessible and centralized in one place. Your employees don’t need to search all over their Slack to find the things said about a subject back. Companies with remote culture can also use channels for specific teams to stay connected and have daily check-ins. Assign someone as a moderator to manage all the channels, or make some sort of manual where your employees can easily find all the created channels.
Use polls
Another feature that can help improve your remote culture is to use polls. By using polls, your employees can become more engaged. It can be a basic question like what time everyone wants to have lunch, or it can be a survey about how your team thinks the remote culture of your company can be improved. Polls on Slack are quickly set up and shared. Everyone will get a notification, and it is very easy to respond to a poll. They can even leave a comment on the poll as an additional note.
Share availability
With a remote culture, it is harder for your employees to know what their colleagues are up to. On Slack, it is possible to update your status. For example, you can introduce a status for being on a walk, in a meeting, for being sick or just not being available at the moment. Your employees can even customize their own status. Especially when your employees from abroad live in different time zones, this can really make a change in your remote work culture. Everyone is more connected and updated on what their colleagues are doing. This way, they can figure out themselves if it is useful to send a colleague a message to ask for help or not when they are in a meeting, for example.
Recognize special moments
Special moments in remote culture can be birthdays, but also accomplishments of your employees. Get your team involved to celebrate everyone’s birthday by announcing this in a special Slack channel and maybe even have a short team meeting. To be reminded of birthdays, you can use BirthdayBot on Slack or give someone the task to send a birthday message to the team member in the channel. You can also create a channel to recognize accomplishments such as bringing in a new client or achieve the sales target! Companies with remote work culture that focus on celebrating special moments create a positive experience for their team and strengthen bonds between coworkers. You can even use emojis and GIFs to make it extra fun!
Integrate with other tools
With Slack, you can even collaborate with people from outside your company by creating shared channels. This makes it easier to stay in touch about projects, and you can keep using the platform you’re both familiar with. Also, Slack has a lot of integration possibilities to give your remote culture a boost. For example, you can integrate your Google Calendar on Slack. You will get reminders for planned meetings, and this makes it easier for colleagues to check the calendars of others to plan a meeting. Another app that can be integrated is Trello. On this platform, tasks can be created and assigned.
A few simple tips for Slack can easily help you build a strong remote work culture. One of the main features of Slack is to create channels. This can be about any subject, and it helps to get information organized. Another option that can really help with building a remote culture is to create channels to celebrate birthdays and accomplishments. Also, use integration tools like polls or other platforms and let your employees share their availability and optimize productivity.
