Slack is good for a lot more than sending hilarious Nicolas Cage GIFs to your coworkers.
The employee productivity software is actually an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.” With 9 million weekly active users, it’s quickly living up to its name as the go-to place where work happens.
Here’s something else you probably didn’t know: the Slack app directory has hundreds of different integrations with big-name solutions like Salesforce and Jira and smaller independent developers. Slack integrations are designed to help users get even more benefits out of the already powerful platform. And one of those benefits is enhancing the employee experience.
Here are 7 of our favorite Slack integrations that will make your workforce happier and more productive.
7 Slack Integrations That Enhance The Employee Experience
1. Aloha
Slack is a robust communication tool. But its robustness is also what makes it a bit intimidating to first-time users.
Aloha is an onboarding bot that sends scheduled messages to new employees about how your company uses Slack and how employees can get the most from the application. For example, managers can create an Aloha message about navigating Slack channels:
Aloha messages can also be used as another way to make new hires feel welcome.
In organizations with remote employees, Slack is likely the primary way members of the workforce collaborate with each other, making it the main relationship-building channel. Aloha helps make sure all employees are introduced to a new hire, even if they work in different offices. Most importantly, the Aloha Slack integration shows new hires the best ways to open and maintain those crucial lines of communication in Slack.
2. Disco
A little praise and recognition can go a long way toward improving the employee experience. And Disco makes it easy to give that praise.
The Disco Slack integration allows employees to give shoutouts to colleagues for a job well done and lets supervisors show appreciation for their team members’ hard work.
As an added bonus, managers can use Disco’s dashboards to get valuable insight into the workforce and company culture.
Use the data from Disco’s dashboards to celebrate top-performing employees at all-hands meetings. Or discuss Disco stats with your team during one-on-ones. Disco not only helps employees feel important but it also helps management make sure they continue to feel that way.
3. Donut
Donut is a Slack integration designed to encourage employees across the office or across the country get to know each other.
All Donut requires is a Slack channel dedicated to the app. Then every one to four weeks, Donut will pair channel members with one another and invite them to get together either in-person or via video chat. Donut only matches employees who are in the dedicated channel, which means no one is obligated to participate.
You can also create multiple Donut channels based on specific characteristics, such as interests, location or department. Donut helps build the kind of camaraderie on which productive workplaces thrive.
4. GIPHY
OK, we couldn’t resist mentioning this because no one can resist the power of GIFs. They make just about every conversation more fun.
The GIPHY Slack integration allows employees to insert GIFs directly into their messages. Slack users need only type “/giphy” followed by any search phrase and GIPHY will pull in a random GIF from its enormous database like this one:
What’s especially nifty about the GIPHY Slack integration is that once a user has typed “/giphy [search phrase]” and hit enter, she can shuffle through a few different options to find the perfect GIF before sending it.
GIFs not only add a little flair to standard correspondence between colleagues; they can also be a great icebreaker and a vehicle for helping coworkers connect on a more personal level.
5. GoCo
We all know someone who’s notorious for forgetting to set up their out-of-office autoresponder and updating their calendar when they’re going on vacation. And we can all sympathize with the annoyed colleague who tries to get a hold of this person but can’t and doesn’t know why. GoCo can help.
GoCo is a Slack integration that automatically sends reminders the day before an employee will be out of the office. This prompts the employee’s team members to make sure they have everything they need before she takes off.
GoCo also sends reminders about upcoming company holidays (because showing up to the office when you don’t actually have to work is a really quick way to ruin your day.)
6. Simple Poll
As its name suggests, Simple Poll is easy. It shouldn’t be used to collect important employee feedback, but it’s perfect for surveying your team about smaller events. For example, what team-building activity do your employees want to do? Which email header should be used in this week’s marketing email?
Simple Poll also automatically adds the 1, 2, and 3 icons to the post so employees can quickly respond without having to search through a list of emojis.
The Simple Poll Slack integration eliminates endless back-and-forth arguments on Slack and unnecessarily gigantic email threads that are often the result of trying to resolve minor workplace concerns.
7. iOFFICE Hummingbird
While many of these Slack integrations improve communication with colleagues, the iOFFICE Hummingbird Slack integration is the only one designed to improve the way employees communicate with each other and with their physical workplace.
With user-friendly apps that connect to your organization’s existing software systems, such as your employee directory or integrated workplace management system (IWMS), employees can:
- Find people and places
- Reserve rooms
- Request service
- Receive visitors or mail
They can do all these things from their desktop, smartphone or even a kiosk located within the workplace. Having key functions in one place reduces the number of software systems your organization needs and the number of logins employees need to remember. Additionally, it relays critical information back to your workplace leaders about how employees are using the space so leaders can make adjustments accordingly. If a facilities manager sees one particular meeting room has been used for three big meetings in one afternoon, he or she can focus on cleaning up that area first and making sure it’s re-stocked for the next day.
Hummingbird is one of the many Slack integrations that empower your workforce to be more productive. To learn more about Hummingbird and other workplace technologies, check out our latest resource, How Technology in the Workplace Impacts The Employee Experience.
