With more and more teams making the transition to remote working, tools that help us stay connected and work collaboratively have never been more important. The right software allows team members to share ideas, keep track of projects, and communicate quickly and easily, no matter where in the world they are.
One popular solution is Slack. Since its appearance in 2013, the communication platform has become the collaboration tool of choice for many companies that value its searchability and range of communication options.
Originally a messaging service, Slack now also integrates audio and video calling, as well as file sharing. Although its aim of replacing email hasn’t quite come to pass yet, Slack is a great option for teams that need to share information and work collaboratively.
Like any tool, however, Slack is only as good as the people using it. At its worst, it can be a confusing muddle of notifications and channels that quickly overwhelms busy workers. Plenty of Slack users complain of notification overload and ‘Slack fatigue’.
This guide aims to help companies use Slack in a way that encourages collaboration and connection while avoiding the overload that comes with any poorly managed communication platform.
We’re assuming you are already familiar with the basics of how to use Slack, such as creating channels, sending messages, and doing simple searches. If not, the quick start guide from Slack itself is a useful read to get you up to speed.
Instead, we’re focusing on how you can use Slack most effectively to manage projects and keep your team connected. Some of the tips have to do with the features in Slack itself, while others have more to do with workplace etiquette and how it should be applied to online communication tools.
To get the most out of Slack everyone in your team needs to be on the same page. Even those who are tech-savvy and comfortable using the software will need training on how to work on Slack in the way your company prefers. Make sure you implement any suggestions we give here in collaboration with your team, so everyone can get the most from this useful tool.
Part 1: Slack Etiquette
Before we get into the features of Slack itself, to help you use it effectively, it is important to look at how your company can create good working practices.
Ideally, you’ll agree on how your team will use Slack when you first introduce the tool. But that’s a perfect world not many people live in. Instead, many of us are already using it and know that we could be doing so more effectively. A vital part of any improvement is agreeing on a shared etiquette for how and when you use Slack to communicate.
Slack etiquette is also not something that should be set in stone. As your use of the tool evolves, so too will your approach. You’ll find some ideas work and others need adjusting.
This is something you should revisit at least once a year (ideally more). You can remind team members of best practices, preventing them from slipping back to how they used to use the tool. You can discuss what works and what needs to change. And you can also take the opportunity to tidy up your channels, archive old ones, and remind everyone of how active ones should be used.
With that in mind, here are some suggestions that your company might find useful when you are agreeing on your Slack etiquette.
1. Send Fewer Messages
Notification overload is one of the most common criticisms of Slack. With multiple channels, users can quickly become overwhelmed by the number of messages they receive. When you consider that many people will also be fielding phone calls, emails, and even face-to-face interruptions, it is no wonder that some employees find they need to turn off Slack before they can get anything done.
One of the most basic things you can do to alleviate notification overload is to encourage people to send fewer messages. Before they post anything, your team members should think about whether what they are sending is necessary.
Questions to consider before posting are:
- Is this relevant to everyone in this channel?
- Is there another channel that this is better suited to?
- Am I sending this during the working hours of most people on this channel?
- Is Slack the right format for this question or piece of information?
- Should this be a direct message or in a public channel?
2. Send Longer Messages
This might seem counterintuitive. Surely if we send loads of essays via Slack won’t people simply stop reading them?
Absolutely they will, and we’re not encouraging you to write?War and Peace?every time you send a Slack message. However, many people are in the habit of sending lots of very brief messages in a short period of time. That equals loads of unread messages popping up on their co-workers’ screens, quickly adding to their stress levels.
Instead of sending lots of short messages, encourage team members to think carefully about what they want to say, so they condense their thoughts into one, slightly longer message. This means everyone on the channel only gets one notification, not five.
Sending longer messages also prevents people from starting their replies until they’ve grasped your entire point. We’ve all experienced branching conversations, where someone starts replying to the first part of a message before the original poster has finished typing the second half.
Conversations are kept organized and concise when people take time to compose their thoughts into a single post. Plus, you can make longer messages more readable and easier to scan by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and emojis.
3. Edit and Review Messages Before Sending
Slack offers the opportunity to edit your posts, so if you do make a mistake, you can easily rectify it. However, it is best to encourage your team to properly read through and edit their messages before sending them, so later edits and clarifications are kept to a minimum.
Slack channels can be fast-paced, and it is no wonder that people feel pressured to respond quickly before the conversation moves on. However, when your team members slow down a little and take some time to consider their response before sending it, they are less likely to need to send lots of messages where one would have done.
4. Consider What Format is Most Appropriate
Since Slack is a real-time messaging platform, many teams start to treat it as a synchronous communication channel. People get into the habit of expecting near-instantaneous responses, which piles on the pressure and means employees struggle to focus on their work.
Take some of that stress off your team by emphasizing that a Slack message is not the right format to use if you need an immediate answer on something. If it is urgent and cannot wait fifteen minutes, an audio or video call is likely to be the better option.
Managers can help to lead the way here by making sure each channel has set expectations for response times. Ideally, times should be long enough that team members who might have muted their Slack to focus on a piece of work can see the message and respond.
On the other hand, Slack is a quicker, less formal channel than email. While your team might not need to respond instantaneously, it is also not the place for messages that don’t need a response that day. If it is outside work hours or a topic that requires lengthy consideration, an email might be a better choice.
5. Create Channels Mindfully
One of the advantages of Slack over email is that it allows you to sort your communications into different channels. Instead of having everything in one place and trying to keep track of long email chains, you can set up team- or project-specific channels that are dedicated to one area of work.
However, Slack’s channels can also be one of its downsides. Many companies end up creating hundreds of different channels, some of which overlap. So, being intentional about creating new channels is essential to keep your Slack workspace organized and easy to navigate.
It is common practice to create a new channel for each new project. This is brilliant for cross-team working and means everyone working on the project can easily share updates and find vital information.
Most teams will also want one or two channels dedicated to their team. Then there are the whole organization channels, which are used for important announcements that affect the whole company.
You may also want channels dedicated to knowledge sharing and learning. Plus, you should have some channels dedicated to socializing – discussed in more detail below.
Before creating a new channel, Slack users should consider:
- Does a similar channel already exist?
- Who needs to be in this channel?
- What is the purpose of this channel?
6. Encourage Socializing
Slack is designed to replace the flow of conversation you’d find if you were all based in the same office. When teams are spread out across multiple offices or working remotely, Slack often becomes the best tool they have available to get to know their colleagues.
A team that feels connected is more likely to work productively and with fewer interpersonal conflicts. People who develop a bond with their colleagues are also less likely to quit, meaning you’ll retain valuable staff for longer.
Make it clear to your employees that some non-work use of Slack is allowed, and even encouraged. However, non-work chat should also be limited to dedicated channels, so those who are trying to concentrate don’t get distracted by cat videos or discussion of the latest staff book group.
You might want a whole organization social channel where anyone can drop in, e.g., #watercooler. Many companies also have topic-specific social chats, grouped around interests such as running, food, music, or whatever else your colleagues enjoy.
7. Review Channels Regularly
We mentioned this in the introduction, but it is worth repeating. Since most companies create new channels for every project, you’ll quickly find that the number of channels becomes unwieldy and makes your Slack workspace difficult to navigate.
Prevent Slack creep by regularly reviewing your channels and archiving any that are no longer in use. We prefer to archive channels instead of deleting them because this keeps the chat history available and searchable, while still preventing any new messages from being sent.
If you aren’t sure how to archive your channels, Slack’s guide is here.
It is also possible to unarchive a channel. Think carefully before you do this, however. Is unarchiving really appropriate, or would it be better to create a new channel?
8. Use Direct Messaging Sparingly
Slack gives you the option to share posts to a channel or to message individuals directly. However, if you are using Slack mainly to keep everyone connected and up to date, there’s a real risk that overusing the DM function will result in team members missing out on vital information.
Even if you just want to ask someone a quick question, there’s a real likelihood that others in the team will find the answer helpful too. There are obviously occasions where a DM is most appropriate, but try to create a culture where posting to a channel is the default and DMs are the exception.
9. Keep Channel Membership to the Minimum
This point goes two ways. First, encourage your team members to only join the channels they must be a part of. There will be some that every employee needs to be on, like the #general channel and their team channels. But there’s no need for every person to join every single channel.
Secondly, only add people to new channels who really need to be there. Before you add them, send a direct message explaining why you’ve included them and what the channel is for. Then people can assess whether they need to be a part of this channel or not.
You should also encourage employees to regularly go through their channels and leave any they no longer need. This includes social channels as well as work ones.
10. Avoid Out-of-Hours Slacking
With the increase in home working, it is more difficult than ever to keep work and home life separate. Tempting though it might be to fire off a quick message in the evening or at the weekend, try to avoid doing this except in absolute emergencies.
Your team members need some time off to relax and recharge. But if they consistently get Slack messages from managers and co-workers outside of work hours, they’ll begin to feel like they need to be available at all times of the day.
Create a culture where messages are kept to working hours by modeling this behavior yourself. This helps to protect your staff’s downtime and means they won’t feel so overwhelmed.
Part 2: Slack Features
Once your team is on the same page about when and how to use Slack to communicate, there are plenty of handy features that you can use to make the platform work more effectively for you.
As with Slack etiquette, these features are only useful when everyone knows about them and understands how to use them properly. Don’t assume that people will be aware of all the tricks, even if they are long-term Slack users.
Regular training can help keep everyone’s skills up to date. Of course, Slack training will also be a vital part of onboarding new employees. Even if they’ve used Slack in previous roles, they’ll need to become familiar with how your company uses the tool.
Consider dedicating one of your Slack channels to Slack best practice. Users can share tips and tricks as they become more familiar with the platform, creating a searchable knowledge base that is personalized to your company.
These tips should help you and your team get the most out of Slack.
1. Create Channel Descriptions and Topics
Most companies end up with loads of different Slack channels and it isn’t always clear what each one is used for. You can avoid confusion by making sure each channel has a crystal-clear description that explains exactly what it is and how it should be used.
It is worth noting that the channel description is less obvious when you use the browser version of Slack instead of the desktop version. If most of your team use Slack in their browser, you might want a pinned post that sets out the objectives and purpose of the channel instead.
You can also set Slack topics, which are usually more time-sensitive information such as current deadlines or what team members are working on.
2. Customize Notifications
We talked earlier about notification overload, something that is more noticeable the more channels you add to your Slack workspace.
As well as encouraging people to only join the channels they really need, you can train staff in how to customize their notification settings, so they are only interrupted when something important comes up.
Social channels should be muted all the time, so people only drop in when they have some time to spare. Most people will want to set their email notifications so that they are only pinged when they have a DM, a mention, or someone uses one of their keywords.
Teams might want to agree on some keywords that they only use when something needs an urgent response. Then staff can turn off other notifications, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be alerted if they are needed.
Everyone should also set their notification schedule, which mutes notifications for messages sent outside their working hours. This is especially vital for staff members who are working at home or teams who are spread across different time zones.
Finally, encourage team members to pause notifications when they need time to focus on a task by setting themselves to do not disturb (DND). This puts the DND icon beside their profile picture, so colleagues can see that they are unavailable. It also pauses notifications and mentions, although direct messages can be sent if urgent enough.
3. Set Reminders to Manage Tasks
Slack is far more than just a messaging service. It also offers productivity tools, including the option to get the SlackBot to send reminders about upcoming tasks. It is a quick and easy way for teams to manage their to-do lists and schedule tasks.
You can set reminders for yourself, for another individual, or for an entire channel. Simply go to Direct Messages and find the SlackBot. Then type /remind [@someone or #channel] “[what]” [when]. For example, if you want to remind yourself about a deadline, you might type something like: /remind me “report due” 20 January. You can set recurring reminders for yourself or for a channel too, such as /remind #sales-team “update sales stats” every Monday.
This can be very helpful to remind yourself to follow up with team members or check in on statuses. Often it’s easy to forget to do leadership “maintenance” check-ups in the midst of everything else. For example, setting a quick reminder to follow-up with a particular employee about their child’s school play goes a long way to build trust and feelings of support.
When you want to see a list of your reminders, go to SlackBot and type /remind list.
4. Use Message Reminders
As well as setting task reminders, you can ask Slack to remind you about important messages. This helps prevent the communication ball from being dropped. If there’s something that doesn’t need an immediate response, or you are too busy to reply straight away, this handy feature makes sure you won’t forget to come back to it later.
Set reminders for messages by clicking on the three dots and selecting ‘remind me about this’.
Encourage team members to use this feature so that they can manage their time well. If they are quickly working through their notifications at the start of the working day, using the reminder function means they can easily return to anything that needs a lengthier response after they’ve dealt with anything quick or urgent. This also helps prevent responding too quickly and missing key info when you don’t have much time – which could result in critical miscommunications.
Message reminders are better than marking messages as unread since you can continue to look at and respond to other messages on the channel without losing track of the message that still needs a response.
5. Keep Statuses Up to Date
Statuses are a way for team members to easily let others know when they are away from Slack, or present but might not respond quickly.
Although many companies like to use acronyms like BRB (be right back) or MTG (in a meeting), Slack also offers a wide library of emojis, which give an instant visual clue to colleagues to let them know whether you are available. This is particularly helpful when working remotely – as it’s hard to know when someone is busy, open for conversation, or out on a quick break.
The status emoji appears along with your profile picture, helping to manage colleagues’ expectations for how quickly you’ll respond.
Encourage your team to keep their status up-to-date and to respect the statuses of others. If someone is set to ‘in a meeting’ for example, non-urgent messages can wait, so no one should be sending DMs unnecessarily.
Statuses can be set to clear after a certain amount of time, so you don’t need to manually update them.
Alongside status updates, there is also the little dot next to your profile picture that shows your availability. This can be set to active, away, or do not disturb. Like statuses, availability helps to manage expectations and ensure colleagues don’t send messages when you are away or concentrating.
6. Use Emoji Reactions
Another great feature in Slack is the option to replace short follow-up messages with emoji reactions, which helps to manage notification overload. It also saves time on typing routine messages and is a helpful way to gather responses from a large number of people at once.
Emoji reactions are a familiar concept from social media, so most people will already have a good idea of which ones to use when. However, it is worth having a company cheat sheet so that everyone is on the same page.
If you are gathering responses, you might want to indicate in the message which emoji reaction people should use to ‘vote’. For example, “Give a :pizza: if you want pizza for lunch or :sandwich: if you want sandwiches.”
You can also use emojis within messages to make them easier to scan. Color codes can help to indicate urgency (such as a red, yellow, or green square), and emojis are always useful to clarify tone and intent, which can often be misread in text.
7. Personalize Sidebars
Even smaller companies can end up with loads of different Slack channels. Wading through the list can be confusing, so teaching staff members how to personalize their sidebars will help them keep things organized and easy to navigate.
Assuming your company is using the Pro version of Slack or above, your employees can add custom sections to their sidebars to help them keep their channels organized.
Just click on the three dots next to Channels in your sidebar to add a new section. You can then click and drag channels and conversations into that section to keep things organized.
Team members can arrange their sidebars in whatever way works best for them. Some options are by category – e.g., team channels, project channels, and social channels – or importance – e.g., high priority, mid priority, and low priority.
You can also use the star feature to indicate your most used channels and most messaged users.
8. Save Important Messages
Some messages you want to return to more than once because they contain vital deadlines, are useful for reference, or have information like contact details or login information.
Slack makes it easy to keep these messages organized and visible by adding them to your ‘Saved Items’ list. This means you can find them again quickly, without having to hunt through lots of different channels or try different search terms.
9. Pin Messages
Pinned messages appear at the top of a channel, meaning they stay visible even after the conversation has moved on. This is a great way to keep important information where everyone can reference it quickly.
For project channels, you might want to pin the project scope, timeline, or client contract. Or you could update it daily or weekly with to-do lists and deadlines.
Team and organizational channels can use pinned messages to highlight important announcements, keep vital documents high up, and draw attention to meeting notes and action points.
10. Use Threads
Another way to avoid notification overload and organize conversations in Slack is to make sure everyone responds to messages as a thread instead of a new message.
Threads keep messages on a single topic together, so they don’t become interspersed with other conversations within the same channel. Users can also set their notification preferences so that they’ll be alerted when there’s a response on a thread they are following, giving them another way to keep up to date without being overwhelmed.
This is especially vital in busy channels, where the conversation often moves quickly, and things can easily become muddled.
11. Learn to @ Appropriately
The most common use of the @ in Slack is to direct your message to an individual. If they have their notifications set to DMs, mentions, and keywords only, they’ll see your message and be able to respond.
This is usually better than messaging the person directly since it means other people who might need the information will also be able to see their response.
However, sometimes you need an urgent response on something and want to notify lots of people at once, so you get a reply as quickly as possible. Slack makes this possible with @here, @channel, and @everyone.
@here notifies everyone who is currently active in the channel, while @channel will notify everyone in the channel, regardless of whether they are online. @everyone can be used in the #general channel to notify everyone in the company (and should therefore be used very sparingly).
These are valuable tools but should only be used when necessary. In most cases, @here is the most appropriate since it will only reach colleagues who are currently active. However, even @here will interrupt people’s existing conversations and other work, so consider whether you need people to see it immediately or can settle for sending a normal message.
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Slack can be a fantastic tool for keeping teams connected and collaborating when working remotely. However, you need to be mindful of how you use it to prevent notification overload and rising stress levels. Remember, the goal is to make your team work together better, not make them slaves to Slack notifications.
These tips and suggestions should help your company formulate a Slack culture that works for both you and your employees.