Slack - Best Practices

v1.0

Gurpreet Singh
16th Mar 2020
Why Slack?
● Implementing Slack makes sense when you are aiming for organization wide collaboration within and
across different teams

● While there is no one definition of a successful Slack implementation and adoption, it should improve
efficiency in terms of communication, transparency while reducing the number of emails exchanged

● Slack does more than what emails, Hangouts achieve individually or even together - it creates one
integrated platform for everyone to communicate as well as managing and archiving knowledge
Optimizing Slack usage
1. Learn the basics
Right number of Channels
● Creating channels at an
organization level is creating
an information architecture
● Have different channels which
serve different objectives
● Use thread in conversations to
avoid clutter
2. Customize 3. One Platform
Streamline Workflows Integration
● Get the team to agree on Integrate Slack with
how to use hashtags / different required apps
mentions / user groups
● Standardize structure of ● Salesforce Chatter
Announcements / Daily ● Zoom
Updates ● Google Calendar
● Google Drive
● Jira
Using Slack
● Mobile and Desktop apps to track notifications -
○ There is an option of email notifications as well, but the point of Slack is to get away with the emails
○ Slack is considered more efficient on Desktop App as compared to Slack in Browser

● Customize notifications the way you want to receive and keep a track of conversations - Direct messages /
keywords / mentions / hashtags

● Threaded conversations make the channel free from clutter or else things will soon go out of hand

● Slack works best when we maintain self discipline in following the agreed workflow, and guidelines
on how to use different features and the way we communicate with our fellow team members
Notifications
● You can customize when you are contactable through Slack and when you are not. If someone needs you,
they can force notifications through to you

● You can set your ‘Status’ and update the same often - this can be used to communicate your work timings,
whether you are out of office etc.

● Set different notification settings for different channels - individual channels have their own notification
settings. Depending on the criticality, you can decide on what best works for you

● There is option to set different notification preferences for mobile and desktop apps

● DND feature - You will not receive messages notifications, but you can go through them later
Additional way to manage Slack
● Pin messages to conversations

● Keyboard Shortcuts

● Slack System Status to check if there is any downtime

● Forward slash - added functionality by selecting a command. Command can be an external service or an
internal Slack feature

● Star label - Use a ‘Star’ mark on your most important channels if you are actively involved in a number of
channels

● Keyword Alerts - Slack allows you to be alerted when any team member enters a certain set of keywords.
You can change these settings in Preferences / Notifications section
Set Rules for Channels
● Determine the number of channels based on the nature and volume of messages that will be exchanged

● As a simple policy, if you are not participating in a channel, you can either leave it or not join at all

● Threads, Hashtags and Mentions have to be used together to keep the conversations organised and channel
relevant

● Have the team leads as local channel admins to make sure channels are organised
Workflow Builder
● Workflow Builder is a set of tools to automate routine processes into workflows in Slack and workflow is
an automated version of a multi-step task or process

● Workflow comprises of a trigger and a set of steps to follow to complete a task. You can add collaborators
to help with workflow management and improvements

● Some examples of workflows that can be implemented:

○ Daily reminder to post stand-up in channel
○ Reminders to create MOM post every meeting - you can use the integration with Google Calendar into this
○ Update teammates on your work status or a reminder to all team members to post what they will be doing during the
day
Tools Integration
● Having all the tools inside Slack platform cuts down on the time you have to spend between different tools
as well as it increases transparency

● Two way integration of Slack and Salesforce Chatter allows you to to send updates from Slack into
Chatter and vice versa

● Google Calendar integrated with Slack updates your status in Slack when you go into a scheduled
meeting. So you would not be expected to reply to messages on Slack while you are in a meeting

● Zoom integration lets you start the zoom meetings with anyone from the channels itself

● There is a learning curve to understand how different apps work inside Slack, but it is worth going
through each one patiently as it increases efficiency in the long run
Working from home - Best Practices
● Keep Status message on Slack as well as Google Calendar updated about your availability

Reporting in relevant channels by different teams

● Update Daily Task/Activity on Slack

● Update Project Plans and milestones On Slack

● Update Weekly Goals & Critical activities on Slack

● Managers will report on key-business-Number - daily and weekly on Slack

Group and one-to-one Calling
● Slack gives you this functionality to initiate one-to-one calls and add people as well in group calls

● You can start calls from the Direct Messages as well from Channels. You can then invite people to the call
as well

● In the standard plan that we have subscribed, we can add up to 15 people in a Group call. There is an
option to share the screen as well
Resources
● Guide to working remotely

● Being a good citizen inside Slack

● Channel naming conventions

● Guide to Workflow Builder

Thank you!