Further Apart and More Connected Than Ever

Up until a few years ago, if you heard the word ‘slack’ being used, you were either looking for some leniency or taking your time with a task. Now, much like “I’ll Revolut you” or, closer to home, “Let’s just Hailo” (never forget), “Slack me the info” has found its way into the vernacular of almost everyone who is familiar with the messaging platform. Chances are, if Slack wasn’t a part of your daily working life before March 2020, you’re now wondering how you ever survived without it. Over the last year, we have evolved in terms of how we work and to meet the increased need for digital collaboration and connectivity, Slack has evolved with us. But, how did it come to be?

Slack’s tagline is “Be Less Busy”. While you can argue that its availability across a range of devices makes it almost too easy to check your messages in your downtime, using their app has reduced the number of emails sent by 32% and the number of meetings organised by 27%. However, the 8,000 users who wanted to sign up on the day it publicly launched in 2014 could not have known this. Word of mouth accelerated demand and before the year was out, they had reached unicorn start-up status and what’s more, this was all done without spending a penny on marketing or with the help of a Chief Marketing Officer. When valued in 2015, they were worth $2.8 billion - nearly triple what they were the year previous. By this stage, they had 500,000 daily users across 60,000 teams. 

They were by no means the first online chat tool but their constant development of new features quickly put them ahead of counterparts like Hipchat and Campfire. It was created by Stewart Butterfield out of necessity, as his gaming company Tiny Speck had people working across multiple time zones. They needed to be able to converse quickly and have all the required information for building their video games at their fingertips. When they decided that the messaging tools they were using were no longer a fit for their needs, they took matters into their own hands and created Slack (an acronym for Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge). Their gamble paid off and now, it is used by 77% of the Fortune 100.

While we haven’t quite reached Fortune 100 (or even 500), Slack is an integral part of how we work at FREE NOW. We still use email and have regular video calls but Slack comes to the fore for those questions that you normally would have asked the person sitting across from you. With offices in 10 European countries, it also helps to keep us connected with those in different time zones. I’ll admit that I didn’t know too much about all the different things it can do and so when I heard about Slack Frontiers Europe, I signed up straight away.

Billed as “an immersive event on the future of work”, Frontiers Europe brought together local and global leaders from Slack and other companies to help attendees learn how to build a more connected, inclusive and flexible future of work. There were feature demonstrations and talks with experts who use Slack in a range of different industries. I was there to learn how to better utilise the tool but also to see some of our very own FREE NOW staff represent! Our Chief People and Communications Officer, Eckart Diepenhorst spoke during the opening session about how we as a company have adapted to 100% remote working until the end of the year and he admitted that his hesitation to go 100% wasn’t necessary as it has absolutely worked for us. With colleagues from all over the world, it allowed staff to go home so that they could be with their families. 

He spoke of how Slack has helped us in the following ways:

• We restructured how our channels worked by dividing them into territory (country) and content (department/project), so that communications could flow easier and nothing was lost in a sea of messages in a larger channel.
• We also used it more for cross collaboration and decision making processes. While topics were generally kept in their relevant channel, the ability to easily bring others into a conversation allowed for different points of view that may not have necessarily been included before and therefore, enhanced discussion and outcomes.
• Slackbots and integrations also began to play a bigger part as we started to streamline more of our processes for increased efficiency.
• Most of all, he spoke of the ease of asynchronous work that Slack allows for so that those with childcare or other responsibilities could commit time when needed and come back to Slack later on and still be able to get involved.

Later in the morning, Kevin and Felix who are part of our IT/Engineering teams spoke about two new additions to Slack that have made everyone’s lives that bit easier.

Pal is our people bot. As you can imagine, the last year has been very challenging for our people department and with reduced staff at times, Pal came to save the day! As a knowledge bot, when an employee asks a question in one of our specific people/HR channels, Pal searches for keywords and responds with answers or provides links to internal Confluence pages. Pal has been triggered over 400 times and has a 22% success rate. While it may not seem like a lot, it has massively aided the people team and given them back time to continue on with other tasks.

Steve Probs is our IT bot. Previously the only kind of webinar that we would have experienced was our monthly All Hands broadcast from our HQ in Hamburg. Now, every in-person event has moved online and so the need for webinars has increased. Via Slack, Steve Probs allows staff to request a webinar to be created on Zoom. The request goes to a channel that our AV team monitors and they can either ask for further information or approve the request straight away. 124 webinars have since been created, saving over 30 hours of manual work!

The day closed out with a keynote from Venus Williams. As a 7 time Grand Slam winner, she’s no stranger to working under pressure. Off the court, she is very involved in her two businesses; EleVen, a clothing brand and V Starr Interiors. Over the last year, she has taken the time to really discover who she is when she’s not playing tennis and said that even she is not immune to ‘Imposter Syndrome’ from time to time! She has tried some things that were successful but also others that didn’t work out. However, her priority has been her staff and ensuring that they have been finding a healthy work-life balance since March 2020. Being at home has meant that many people have started to work longer hours as there is no hard stop to the working day and she has encouraged her staff to take holidays (which she loves) so that they can recharge. 

Overall, it was so insightful to hear how she juggles the many facets of her life but the big takeaway was how much she values the people around her because as she said, “your team gets you to the end, you can’t do it by yourself”. We’ve all learned how to lean on those around us in one way or another but hearing her say this showed that at the heart of it, she is another one of many who subscribed to a new way of living over the last year - doing your best with what you’ve got.

P.S. If you were wondering, her favourite emoji to use on Slack is ??!