Slack has improved the way employees communicate at work. It allows people to connect in ways they couldn't before, allowing workforces to use email less and have a much faster way of messaging colleagues.
However, Slack is not always the best channel for all company comms, especially in larger companies.
An intranet can help fill some of the gaps that Slack is missing.
In fact organisations with effective communication plans, such as an intranet, are 3.5 times more capable of beating their competitors.
In this blog we’ll cover:
Slack is a workplace communication tool for messaging, tools and sharing files. Essentially, Slack is an instant messaging system with lots of add-ins for other workplace tools.
However, the main functionality of the software is all about talking to other people. So the add-ins aren't essential.
Slack now has more than 10 million daily active users around the world.
So what’s so great about it?
When Slack came along, there were no real competitors on the market that combined intuitive UI with both group and person-to-person messaging.
The lack of corporate size was also a benefit. Slack was small enough to be responsive and quick when it came to adding new features.
The rough initial design was created by Slack founder, Stewart Butterfield and his team, and then given to a third party called MetaLab to polish. Andrew Wilkinson from MetaLab explained:
“To get attention in a crowded market, we had to find a way to get people’s attention. Most enterprise software looks like a cheap 70’s prom suit—muted blues and greys everywhere—so, starting with the logo, we made Slack look like a confetti cannon had gone off. Electric blue, yellows, purples, and greens all over. We gave it the color scheme of a video game, not an enterprise collaboration product…vibrant colors, a curvy sans-serif typeface, friendly icons, and smiling faces and emojis everywhere.”
There’s no doubt that many enterprises use Slack, so let’s run through some of the biggest selling points of the software:
One of Slack’s most popular selling points is that private channels and direct messages couldn't be read by Slack administrators without either the open consent of the members. Or a message being sent to all users saying that export of messages had happened. This gives users a sense of privacy and security.
Another selling point is that Slack can scale to a business. No matter how big or small, Slack slaves with a limitless number of channels or workspaces.
With Slack’s main functionality being ‘messaging software’, its main job is to keep everyone connected. In fact, 91% feel that their ability to work remotely has improved and 84% feel more connected to their teams.
Slack and intranets exist for quite different reasons.
There’s no denying that Slack allows people to connect in ways they couldn't before and it does provide many benefits for companies.
However, Slack can’t be used as a company intranet replacement. It’s not holistic or comprehensive enough for everything that needs to be communicated. And, especially as organisations grow, users will need an intranet to fill in important gaps and bring cohesion to a company.
There are in fact many drawbacks of using Slack as your intranet, here are a few for starters:
With Slack essentially being just an instant messaging platform, it falls short of other vital tools and their capabilities. This is where an intranet comes in handy.
Intranets function as a digital workplace for your company. They excel at organisation information, engaging your workforce, connecting teams and more. They cover more areas and have a more detailed approach than instant messaging alone.
Oak Engage is the all-in-one intranet software for the workforce of today.
Designed to keep workforces connected, productive and engaged, brands worldwide trust us to provide innovative digital workplace solutions.
Our core features help companies to distribute company information efficiently, manage content effectively and keep everything in one place for ease. Something that Slack is lacking.
We also ensure to keep social elements in there, without reducing productivity between employees.
So, let’s dive into some of our core features:
From the remote worker to the deskless worker - our intranet mobile app gives you the power to allow employees to access their intranet solution at any time, from anywhere. No employee emails are required.
Having an intranet mobile app means no more employees missing vital company information. Especially with mobile broadcasts and push notifications for company wide or departmental. You can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Even though Slack has a mobile app, users only use it for instant messaging. The difference between a mobile intranet like Oak and Slack is that a mobile intranet app allows employees to access everything they need in one place, such as company documents, messages, timelines and hubs to name a few.
With social features integrated throughout, you can give your workforce an intranet they love and remove traditional workplace barriers with Oak.
Our social timeline lets workforces stay connected, engaged and aligned with the wider company vision. Uniting teams and promoting solidarity within your organisation.
Designed to improve employee engagement and workplace productivity, users can also send instant messages to one specific person or a whole group. Perfect for department communication, remote workers and general social interaction between employees.
Slack has helped people make social connections at work. It helped break down the silos of information that used to exist only in emails for many companies. But connections built on an instant messaging platform bring new challenges.
One of the barriers your team faces when Slack is your company’s primary internal communication platform may be simply knowing who to reach out to when you need to coordinate with another department.
Having an intranet allows you to connect with the right people. With employee profiles, employees can easily see who they need to message without running the risk of connecting to the wrong person.
You can gather feedback and understand your employee's requirements with Pulse Surveys and Polls. These tools are designed to increase employee engagement, productivity and efficiency.
Companies no longer have to gather information by email, but can start a poll on their intranet. It may be used to get an understanding of what your people want, involve more employees in conversations or inspiring content. By targeting specific employees, polls can generate data or content that could be reused.
Since Slack is just used for messaging, it lacks feedback tools such as pulse surveys to gather vital information from employees.
With an intranet having a place for teams to give feedback, employee wellbeing is improved and engagement rates will be higher.
Transform how you work with clients, partners and suppliers with our secure cloud based extranet software.
You can collaborate and communicate with external parties via Oak’s dedicated extranet feature. From partners to third party staff, our extranet allows you to work safely and securely within one central location.
With Slack, there is no room to share information safely with external parties. The platform limits you to what you can do which may have negative impacts for many companies who are using Slack as their ‘intranet’.
With Oak, setting up an extranet couldn't be easier. Start working smarter and more smoothly.
If you’d like to find out more about Oak, contact us today.
It's important to remember that an intranet and Slack both have different purposes.
Don’t confuse the two.
Leave the instant messaging to Slack and use a company intranet like Oak to engage and connect your people in the right way.
Want to know more? Read more about our features.
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