Slack Tips for Teams Working Remotely
We live in a technologically advanced world, so it is no surprise to see companies that choose not to have a regular office. Instead, they organize the work remotely. Also, the year 2020 surprised the world with a worldwide pandemic; therefore, even more people have started to work from home.
Remote work has its advantages. First of all, you save time because you do not need to deal with traffic when you are driving to the office or getting back home after a long day. Secondly, you get an opportunity to carry out your tasks in a less stressful environment.
There are some disadvantages, as well. One of the biggest struggles that businesses encounter is decreased productivity. Luckily, there are group communication tools like Slack that can help put the productivity levels back up. We will share some tips for teams working remotely and using Slack.
Tip #1: Automate the Workflow
One of the best things about Slack is that you can use workflow automation in Slack with the AhoyTeam tool. AhoyTeam is smoothly integrated into Slack and makes the management of teams much easier.
First of all, you can create automated workflows that you can assign and send notifications and reminders about. Secondly, you can use a great set of templates, including remote employee offboarding, onboarding, new equipment request, weekly happiness survey, and much more.
Tip #2: Edit Your Profile Settings
Before you get started, you will need to fill out some details about yourself for your Slack profile. As you will be working remotely, it is important that your teammates can quickly identify you by seeing your picture, name, and position, especially if you are an employee of a big corporation.
Tip #3: Make Use of the “Do Not Disturb” Mode
Slack has the “Do Not Disturb” mode, and it is an effective way to show that you shouldn’t be contacted at the moment. There are two moments when this mode can be really effective.
The first moment is when you are no longer working in the evening or have not started your day yet because it is still too early. The second is when you need to focus and cannot afford to be disturbed by notifications, including messages on Slack.
Tip #4: Change Your Status When Needed
Another advantage of using Slack is the possibility to change your status. For example, if you have some personal business to attend to, like going to the dentist, you can add your activity status and tell others when you are going to be back.
Also, suppose you are working in an international company, and you are having a day off because there is a national holiday in your country. In that case, you can add a globe icon and write “national holiday.” This way, your colleagues will know that you won’t be available that day.
Tip #5: Use Direct Messaging
Direct messaging on Slack makes it easier to connect to colleagues of yours, no matter if it is a member of your project team or the CEO of the company. If you work for an international corporation, it is nice to know that you are just seconds away from talking to someone who may be living on the other side of the world.
Tip #6: Take Advantage of Threads
Slack has a great function called Threads. You can use these to reply to a specific message a colleague has sent you directly or someone posted on a channel. The feature helps teams to focus on specific topics and saves time because the entire conversation is available in a single thread. Otherwise, you would need to scroll through the chat history to find messages that may be scattered all over the place.
Tip #7: Respect the Work Hours
As you are working remotely, it is quite easy to get distracted by a single notification. It can disturb you when you are trying to relax after spending the whole day in front of a computer.
Many people are feeling stressed about their jobs, income protection, and health in times of a pandemic. Therefore, it is important to have some resting time for yourself. If you see that a coworker has their notifications snoozed, wait until they get back online to talk to them.
Tip #8: Try the “Mark as Unread” Function
In those times when you are pretty busy and check Slack really quickly, there is a chance to miss some important messages. To make sure that it does not happen, the next time you check Slack in a rush and read some messages you have no time to reply to at the moment, remind yourself by setting the message to “Mark as Unread.” When you are not as busy and get back on Slack with the intent to reply, you will see that messages marked as unread will be red, and you will know which ones to check first.
