According to a survey by McKinsey, nine in 10 organisations have plans to combine remote and on-site working for their staff. While there are several reasons for this, including lower real estate costs on account of smaller offices, one of the most important is that it has been found that productivity and customer and employee satisfaction improve with a hybrid workforce.
Employees in Singapore are looking for flexibility and an environment that fosters collaboration. In a recent Slack survey, more than half (54 percent) of Singapore desk workers said that flexible working schedules are one of the best ways to support productivity. The majority (82 percent) of desk workers in Singapore also said that having the right technology to collaborate from anywhere (share knowledge, drive projects forward, etc.) would improve their productivity.
Most organisations have traditionally used legacy messaging systems and internal emails to allow employees to communicate with each other and share information. However, in the modern digitised and hybrid workforce environment, businesses need to have a modern unified productivity platform that helps to enhance efficiency irrespective of where employees are located.
While the nature of the workforce may have changed, what remains a top priority is the emphasis on collaboration and productivity at a time when there are so many more elements involved in workplace communication than simple face-to-face interactions.
Slack understands and addresses these challenges by enhancing efficiency, improving collaboration, offering flexibility, and supporting scalability. This is crucial in today’s increasingly digital and distributed work environments.
Slack is a more efficient and organised alternative to email for team communication. It offers a platform where all communication is centralised, making it easier for teams to collaborate. It uses channels as the core of its system, providing organised spaces for different teams, departments, projects, or even external collaborations. Unlike email, where knowledge is locked within individual mailboxes, channels allow knowledge to be catalogued and searchable for wider benefit.
This helps in connecting people across various locations and time zones more effectively.
Slack not only allows its users to connect and engage with everyone but also helps to accelerate work through automation. Through its various features, it enables businesses with complex processes to streamline their work through no-code workflows, custom apps, and integrations.
Digital office
A good example of how Slack enhances productivity in digital-first companies is the global employment platform Multiplier, which helps companies hire and on-board employees in any country around the world, with just a few mouse clicks. It also helps companies to navigate the relevant tax, compliance, and legal requirements that typically slow down international employment.
The company uses Slack as its digital office, and is used by more than 350 Multiplier employees who work remotely in 20 countries across 10 time zones.
In a fully remote and asynchronous environment, Slack helps Multiplier deliver multifaceted projects. Often, 20 employees are involved in a single project. With Slack channels, employees can share information and updates to drive the project forward, without the need for daily meetings.
Every week, Slackbot prompts employees for an update and summarises messages, to save time for the entire project team. Outside the organisation, Multiplier also uses Slack Connect to offer white-glove, dedicated support to its customers. By moving conversations with customers into Slack, Multiplier can offer customers a 60-second response time, which is at least three to four times faster compared to those who go through a channel outside Slack.
Valuable data
The Slack platform also acts as a repository of valuable data, especially in large organisations.
A good example of how Slack enables retrieval and monetisation of data is Cebu Pacific Air, Asia’s oldest low-cost airline, headquartered in the Philippines. The airline uses the platform as its real-time knowledge hub and intelligent productivity platform.
The airline previously had seven legacy systems that did not integrate with other systems. This was in addition to the manual and on-paper processes that added another layer of complexity.
To address this issue, Cebu Pacific uses Slack’s API functionality and now streams updates from its legacy systems right into Slack. This ensures that the airline’s employees have access to the information they need in real-time – from checking passengers, crew schedules, weather reports and more.
Using Slack, the company has created dedicated channels for each department that are utilised as a virtual, flexible space where collaboration among employees is made possible.
A Slack channel is also automatically generated for every flight at least three hours before the scheduled departure time. These channels provide the cabin crew with basic flight information, fuel quantities, maintenance and security statuses, names of personnel and the plane’s gate details before they’ve even reported for duty.
Network control managers, using Slack, have access to relevant weather information by dispatch, which they will then use to determine if a flight needs to be cancelled. Their decision can be quickly disseminated to other departments through the Slack channel that allows them to alert 50-100 people at once.
New functionalities
Amidst the AI revolution, Slack is now focused on incorporating even more AI capabilities to enhance user productivity and knowledge management. Known as Slack AI, the new functionalities aim to break down traditional knowledge silos and make collective knowledge more accessible and actionable.
Some of the key features planned:
- Channel recaps: This feature will enable users to generate key highlights from any channel, allowing for a quick catch-up on important information. It’s particularly useful for staying updated on conversations missed during absences or for getting up to speed on a new project channel.
- Thread summaries: Slack AI will offer the ability to quickly understand the gist of a conversation thread. This will be helpful for subject matter experts who are added to ongoing discussions, enabling them to onboard rapidly and contribute effectively.
- Intelligent search results: This feature will allow users to ask questions and receive clear, concise answers based on relevant Slack messages. It’s designed to enhance the process of learning about new projects or finding specific information, by presenting search results in a visually distinct and easily digestible format.
Slack is committed to ensuring that all AI capabilities are secure, that data is protected within Slack’s ecosystem, and that data will not be used for third-party model training or shared with other customers.
Slack is a powerful productivity platform for both small and large organisations, suitable for a range of initiatives from simple projects to comprehensive digital transformation. It is designed to securely scale up, supporting collaboration in large enterprises. This scalability is a significant advantage for organisations of all sizes.