Online Optimism’s Favorite Slack Features

Here at Online Optimism, we use Slack every day. Given that Slack has over 10 million active users, we’re certainly not alone. It’s our primary method of communication within the company, and we use multiple integrations, apps, and features to make Slack as useful as possible.

workflow Builder

Slack’s Workflow Builder allows users to automate processes within the workspace. Whether it’s sending automatic reminders about meetings or requesting help on a project, the Workflow Builder makes it easy. Here’s just a few ways we use workflows in our workspace: 

• We have channels for specific categories of assignments. If you need someone to design something, you go to the #assign-design channel. If you need someone to edit something you’ve written, you go to the #assign-content channel, etc. There, you can submit a request for help. The request lists out what’s needed, the due date, the type of work, the priority, and any other details needed to complete the task. 
• If you have a recurring meeting for a department, you can create a workflow that automatically sends a meeting reminder along with a link to the department’s designated channel. 
• We send automatic check-ins every day. The check-in will ask what everyone is working on, how they are feeling, or what they’re excited to complete that week. It’s an easy way to stay up to date even if you’re working in another city or at home.

The workflow builder is an incredibly flexible tool that can be used to customize the platform to fit your business needs.

Google Calendar

The Google Calendar integration makes sure we never miss a meeting. When you grant Google Calendar access to Slack, you will get notifications whenever a meeting or event is about to start. Instead of having to open your Google Calendar separately, you can look through past and upcoming events and even join meetings from within Slack.

Status Updates

Since we’re located in three different cities and have a flexible work from home policy, we find it helpful to utilize the status feature in Slack. We have Online Optimism specific statuses that our Optimists use. We have statuses for lunch, meetings, walking a barketer, and “Done for the Day.” Using the statuses and keeping them up to date makes it easy to know when to expect a response from a coworker.

Disco

Disco is officially called “a culture platform for remote teams”. It’s absolutely true! The Disco app allows you to easily recognize the contributions of your fellow employees. We recognize Optimists and Specialists in accordance with our company values. The keywords we use are “trust,” “helpful,” “innovative,” “handshakes,” “optimize,” “community,” “hustle,” “work,” and “youthful.” Any Optimist or Specialist can recognize a coworker in the #appreciation channel using one of the keywords and a short summary of why they deserve the recognition.

At the end of a period, we translate the number of shoutouts given and received into a monetary amount that is then donated to a non-profit organization of the Optimist’s choice.

Disco also lets us send anonymous compliments to our coworkers every day. It’s a great motivational tool and helps team cohesion.

We’ve customized Slack to best serve our company and keep us efficient and organized across three cities. This way, we’re poised to never miss a beat.