8 Best Features of Slack that streamline Work Communication

Communication is the foundation of an organization. If there is effective communication between the team members, then it becomes easy for everyone to achieve their goals smoothly. A lot of change has been observed in the working structure of the organizations, especially after the covid-19 pandemic.   

Today, remote work is becoming more complex but even more demanding. Therefore, as everyone works from home, engaging employees in an organization is becoming more difficult than ever.

As per the research, it is found that employees who feel disconnected from the organization are more likely to jump ship. 

Are you also facing challenges in keeping your team aligned and productive? Then, you should surely utilize the communication tool named Slack. 

We at webdew believe that “Communication is the lynchpin of a successful team”. That's why we never compromise on the quality of communication. To have transparent, informative discussions within an organization, we are leveraging the most of Slack– One platform for your team and your work.

Slack is a communication tool also considered a messaging app (Desktop, mobile, and web app). It is used to send and receive messages, share files, call, etc., within and outside the organization. 

If you're going through this blog, you might be planning to use slack for your organization but still pondering over how.

Well! I have jotted down some ways to use Slack in an organization to take you out of the hassle. These features of Slack will help you understand why you should use Slack in your organization. 

8 Best features of Slack for better communication

Let's begin… 

1. Makes Remote Work Easier 

In this current pandemic, everyone is working from home, due to which it challenging to share the information with each other officially. But Slack makes it really easy for the entire team to share the message, get updates and take the next step without wasting any time.

The best part about this tool is that you can create different channels and add people within and on the other side of the company. Whatever information you share in the channel can be viewed by every member added to it. Slack channels are only for limited access.

So, if you want to share confidential information without worrying about security concerns and organize work conversations more effectively, then Slack can help you connect better. 

2. Know Team Availability

While mandating the usage of Slack in an organization, anyone in the team can know whether the person is available for his/her work or not. Now, you might be thinking about how exactly it is possible. 

Well! Just viewing the dot shown on that person's profile picture will help you understand whether the person is working or not.

Say if it shows green in colour, it indicates that the respective person is available, but if the colour is red, you need to cross-check their online status, as shown below.

Moreover, if the Slack of your team member is integrated with their Gmail account, then anyone in the team can also know whether the respective person is out of the office, In a meeting, or on vacation.

3. Set Reminders

Slack also offers the feature of setting reminders. We usually forget to attend important meetings or key points that further affect the quality of the work. But all thanks to Slack. In Slack, we can set reminders to get notifications on any message from any channel (Client or in-house) or for any direct message.

4. Get Notified

Another feature that helps in streamlining work communication is notifications. Slack allows you to get instant notifications when someone in a channel or individually tags you. Many times, there are common channels that are just created for entertainment.

Getting regular notifications from those channels becomes irritating, especially when working on complicated or urgent tasks. 

By understanding this side of users, Slack allows us to set the preferences. We can decide which channels and types we can receive the notifications, like direct messages, mentioned messages, etc. 

5. Voice and Video Call 

Many of us are working from home, due to which it is difficult to collaborate with everyone. But all thanks to the Slack VoIP calling feature. If you are stuck somewhere in a project or need urgent updates from other team members, then this voice and video calling feature works best.

Through Slack, you can make calls to your work buddies or clients (if they are on Slack) from anywhere at any time. Just with a single click, you can get your work done efficiently by sharing your ideas and screen, too.

6. Apps and Integrations 

Apps and integration are other features that help us streamline work effortlessly. The Slack tool lets you connect your team with other services like Office 365. ClickUp, Google, HubSpot, Zoho, Outlook calendar, Asana, Trello, Jira, Todoist, etc. 

Integrating different tools with Slack not only keeps the team updated but also avoids context-switching. Once you integrate tools with the respective channels, the entire team will get notified about the task or activity which is being done on that respective tool. 

Isn't it secured and unified? Of Course, yes. The best part, you don't need to spend any additional cost in connecting or integrating different tools with Slack. 

7. Privatization of Channels

Many times, we are in a situation where we don't want everyone in the team to read the messages. If you want to share some confidential information with a client or want to discuss the project details that you don't want to share with the team members, then Slack offers the feature of creating a private channel. 

In this particular channel, you can invite the team members with whom you want to share confidential information about a specific project or client. 

8. Channel Details 

To make the communication more transparent and clear, you can also set the topic to each channel so that whenever a new member gets added to the channel, they will get an idea about what this channel is all about.

Moreover, you can also add a description for each channel to clarify its purpose to the members. 

Creating channels according to objectives or campaigns will help you streamline the work communication more effectively. 

The Final Say

Well! The features of Slack are endless. Besides all the above features, you can pin the messages, message yourself important things, slack bot, etc. You can leverage its benefits in the way your organization works.

Keeping everything aligned, especially when there is zero availability for everyone simultaneously, becomes a real challenge.

But hopefully, the features shared above will surely make you believe that using Slack in an organization can help you bring value to your business by improving workplace communication.

Thus, ensure you effectively use Slack in your organization and do not repeat the actions that cause a waste of resources and time. 

                                                                                                                                  Editor-Divya Verma

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