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Best practices for communciations & messaging

Messaging​

WORKSTYLE COMMUNICATION

Use Slack​

WeSalute hosts helpful tools to keep important information public, updated and accessible. Our daily resources of transparent communications is in Slack. It is organized in channels to allow Team Members to chat at anytime to various team groups.

Slack can be private. If you are not careful, you can create information silos within Slack based on conversations you have directed to specific Team Members. Slack is not an instant messaging system. Please rely heavily on public channels so our team can best track updates and information.

YES: We want to use Slack to communicate effectively and have fun as a team.

NO: We do not want Team Members to constantly monitor Slack after work hours or get pinged at any hour.

Use Slack for:

  • Interesting links, articles, chit-chat and social conversations
  • Requests and questions that need a quick or same-day response
  • Real time conversations with Team Members in your time zone and async conversations with those outside your time zone
  • Sharing quick praise, feedback, WeSalute love, gratitude, and achievements
  • Passing along non-urgent need-to-knows
  • Slack calls to quickly unblock you

Don't use Slack for:

  • High-level discussions
  • Making big decisions
  • Giving in-depth or sensitive feedback
  • Emotional based conversations (Google Meet in real time is effective to communicate miscommunication or misunderstanding.)
  • Big decision making (Google Meet can unblock team decisions)

Slack Messaging​

COMMUNICATION WORKSTYLE

When in doubt, always post in the correct Slack channel to keep everyone update appropriately. Please consider what information is confidential or needs to be conveyed via real time.

Use Slack Status to Communicate​

Make sure to update your Slack status to let Team Members know when you are on vacation, sick, or you are in focus mode.

Slack provides features that help us manage our global Team Members time zones or typical sign-on and off options. Please update your Slack status so teammates understand how to best communicate with you. Also, be attentive to your teammates Slack status so you can communicate accordingly.

Communicate Proactively​

WeSalute wants to set you up for success when communicating asynchronously with Team Members via Slack. When you message a Team Member, please notify them of all the context they will need in order to respond with accurate and helpful feedback. You will find it helpful to include detailed and structured information so your teammate can understand how to respond precisely. This method of corresponding will enable you to not waste time in communicating between time zones. You will also find it is appropriate to include: links, documents, and a set deadline to your response.

Communicating Constantly​

Don't feel obligated to read unread messages in Slack. It is okay to respond to Slack messages when you have available time. Be sure to update your status in Slack to notify Team Members

Slack Read-Receipts Acknowledgment​

Please avoid ghost-reading, by not interacting with messages, Team Members Slack messages and leaving them empty-handed. Be respectful to acknowledge Team Members slacks messages, especially if the message is urgent. Consider acknowledging a Team Members Slack by responding via an emoji reaction. For instance, a “thumbs up” emoji will give your Team Member simple feedback to move forward. Or "eyes" if you've seen it. You don't have to respond at that exact second but acknowledging when the message was read makes a huge difference in a remote workspace.

tip

Not using read-receipts or acknowledging communication is harmful to our remote workspace. This can result in Team Members feeling like they are sharing but not receiving. Simple interactions between teammates is key in collaborating towards shared goals.

Slack Guidelines​

COMMUNICATION WORKSTYLE

Use Threads​

It is extremely crucial to use threads when communicating in Slack. It keeps our messaging system structured, organized and clean. Practicing communicating via thread will help all Team Members understand who is pitching in to help, what ideas have been shared, and how the problem is resolved. Responding to threads will help Team Members clarify ideas, opinions, and information to not get lost. Using threads will ultimately provide organized communication to reflect on for future reference.

A great example of threading is found in Facebook, which makes communicating between others effective and fun!

Away and Do Not Disturb Mode​

Don't be afraid to mute your Slack notifications. When muting your notifications it does not mean quitting the application. In Slack you have options to set your status as: away, activate, do not disturb, or focus mode (zero interruptions).

Notification Settings​

WeSalute's recommendation is to keep Slack's notification settings using only direct messages, @you, and highlight words. These settings eliminate confusion about missing important messages without your Slack notifications alarming consistently.

Offline Settings​

It's important that Team Members communicate via Slack when the recipient is not present. If we are responsible for our downtime (i.e. setting up when you're offline, not working, or in-the-zone; controlling notifications via Slack is important so Team Members know your updated availability status. However, please be responsible in corresponding via Slack during working hours.

Slackbot​

If you need to reach a specific teammate after working hours or their Slack status is in Do Not Disturb mode; then you can click on the option "send notification" in the chat screen that Slackbot provides. Your message will then send a push notification to that teammate regardless.

Slack Emergencies​

COMMUNICATION WORKSTYLE

Urgent Communication​

How fast should you respond to a teammates question or request via Slack?

You can expect a response by the end of your teammates working hours; however, consider the following when Slacking a request or response.

  • You've reached out to the teammate specifically by @-ing them (or sending them a DM if the content is sensitive)

  • You didn't share a specific deadline (always do this when you can!)

  • They're working a regular day (their Slack status and the #people-availability channel are good ways to determine this)

  • If an announcement is urgent, please consider an **@channel message. This will send push and email notifications to all Team Members in a given channel and @everyone **will notify everyone on the team including those who have mute notifications. Please be sure that it is an emergency if you use @everyone.

If you have an urgent question or request, please capitalized URGENT or BLOCKER at the beginning of your Slack message.

Urgent Slack Channel Notifications​

  • When you Slack @everyone it will push notifications to everyone offline or on vacation.

  • When you Slack @channel in a message it will notify all Team Members that are in that chat room.

  • When you Slack @hereyou will only notify Team Members that are online at that time. If it is a non-urgent announcements, @here is the best option.