10 Slack tips to express your company culture, increase productivity, and create a supportive environment

Fairly simple to use and essential for distributed teams, Slack chat-style communication software has become established in many organizations as a tool for information sharing and collaboration.

At MAIN, Slack is our primary communication tool. We hardly ever send internal emails. Here are 10 tips in the form of commandments to express your corporate culture, increase your productivity, and create a supportive environment on Slack!

take the time to get organized

With the potential flood of channels, it is important to establish some basic rules to stay organized. The first six commandments cover the things we have done at MAIN to help us find our way collectively.

1- a channel nomenclature agreement, you will make

At MAIN, all our channel names have contextual prefixes(e.g., HR, team, management). This allows us to quickly categorize our channels.

• government-management-ca
• accounting management
• pro team
• personal team
• human resources management
• management-of-unsolicited-job-applications

2-Keep your channel names logical, you'll try

For example, at MAIN, we create channels by project and sometimes even a channel for each project component, adding certain suffixes to indicate the nature of the projects (e.g., -dev for a project in development that is not yet underway, -ext for a channel with collaborators outside the organization).

This allows you to quickly frame the context of discussions and avoid messages that are out of context.

• a-momentumpi (General channel for the momentumPI project, used to discuss day-to-day operations)
• a-momentumpi-idea (Specific channel for discussing the inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility components of the project)
• a-momentumpi-gouv and admin (Specific channel for discussing steering committees and administrative aspects of the project)
• a-momentumpi-education-pi (Specific channel for discussing the educational aspect of the project)

P.S.: The prefix "a-" stands for the business unit called "acceleration supportacceleration "

3-Document the channel headers thoroughly, and you will succeed.

Channel headers allow you to add themes. This could be a short sentence explaining the purpose of a channel. You can also add documents, external links, or links to folders stored in Google Drive. This is really essential for effective collaboration.

4- In the discussion threads, you will respond

If the devil is in the details, you can exorcise him by always replying through the discussion threads! We sometimes forget this, especially with the mobile app, whose discussion thread interface is not as intuitive, yet it is an essential trick for increasing your productivityin Slack.

Threads are a simple way to provide more context and clearly document all the details of an issue. They are therefore a valuable source of information, especially for colleagues who are called in to help (tagged) later in the discussion.

5- You will pin important messages.

At MAIN, we use a combination of discussion threads and pins to record subtopics that do not necessarily warrant a specific channel but may persist over time.

For example, in our #tech-team channel, we have a discussion thread for recording phishing attempts that may have slipped through our spam filters—cleverly named PHISHING ATTEMPTS OR OTHER "FISHY" ACTIVITIES THREAD ." This allows for quick reference by checking the pinned items in the channel header, and also allows new people joining the channel to quickly find useful contextual information.

6- Avoid private discussions

At MAIN, we have chosen to ban private conversations and encourage all work-related conversations to take place in channels. This practice is the one that generates the most resistance at first. Asking a question that seems insignificant or is addressed to a single person in public? Strange... It's true that it takes some time to get used to.

The reality is that several team members will jump into conversations to add their "two cents" and their "two cents," even if the conversation wasn't really directed at them!

That said, in a hybrid work environment, we have found that information is often fragmented and that the only way to get all the pieces of the puzzle is often through these public conversations. This approach somewhat replicates the natural tendency in the workplace to pick up information on the fly when two colleagues are talking to each other. And our projects are enriched by this practice!

bring your culture to life

With a decentralized teamthat rarely works in the same physical office, the organization's culture is expressed through the use of our technological tools.

Creating a connection with colleagues through inside jokes and playing with humor makes everyday life and relationships so much more enjoyable! The next four commandments are dedicated to corporate culture.

7- Using emojis, you won't sulk

At MAIN, we use emojis a lot to respond to messages in Slack. This is even mentioned when new recruits join the company. Even though the latest Slack update has relegated reactions to the background, they are an essential tool for our productivity! For example, instead of replying to colleagues with "done" when we have completed a request, we use ✅ . This avoids a notification, is quick and clear.

We also create custom emojis! Screenshots of colleagues taken at just the right moment and converted into custom emojis bring our culture to life and add a touch of humor to our workspace.

8-Use Slack status updates to communicate your status, you will

Slack offers the option to temporarily set a status linked to your profile. Some statuses are pre-programmed into the platform (e.g., 🌴 On vacation). Users can also set a custom status.

At MAIN, the team has created a code to let colleagues know when someone needs a break, is going through something difficult, or needs support from the team. There's no need to share your private life in public if you don't want to. Simply adding the octopus emoji (🐙) to your Slack status is enough to signal that you are in "please treat with care" mode. The use of this code is part of the onboarding process for all new recruits.

9- Encourage spontaneous collisions, you will stimulate

Still in the "status attached to Slack profile" category, we have added a status setting for all users to encourage spontaneous interactions between colleagues.

Much like working in the same physical space could do, we created a team status that was the antithesis of "I'm focused, do not disturb."

When we have a little gap in our schedule, we are encouraged to activate the friendly status "door open, I'm available, call me!" Visible to all other users, this status allows for spontaneous micro-conversationsand sometimes makes it possible toquickly confirm details about ongoing projects without having to schedule another meeting.

10- Create channels or include social apps, you won't hesitate

We have a channel specifically for people who enjoy playing Wordle. We also use apps integrated into Slack to provide other ways to connect. For example, we usethe Donut app, which randomly matches two people together every two weeks, inviting them to meet for 15-30 minutes to discuss non-work topics of their choice. For those who are lacking inspiration, the app even offers icebreaker questions if needed.

The Polly appallows you to conduct anonymous or non-anonymouspolls with your team. Any member can create a poll. So whether you want to find out "Which of these choices best reflects your regular use of Zoom (on a weekly basis)" or "What's the best way to prepare Kraft Dinner?", Polly is there for you.

Of course, every company has its own culture. How do you use Slack in your organization in unique ways that you would like to share with us? We're listening!

– Caroline Cloutier