Any conversation about work in 2022 needs to include Slack. Slack’s customizable channels, roles, and workspaces make it an effective communication platform that allows teams to collaborate smoothly. However, Slack is much more than just a communication platform.

One of the largest reasons why Slack is becoming so popular is the ever-growing number of integrations available in Slacks’s app directory. Slack enables companies to install apps from the directory into their workspaces to carry out different operations from within Slack. This allows efficient teams to centralize workflows and reduce the friction that comes from switching between different apps.

Since there are so many different tasks that can be either be carried out or completed from within Slack, we decided to make a list of 5 common operations that companies can optimize by installing Slack apps. We’ve also included examples of apps that fall into these categories.

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1. Project and task management

Centralizing your project management into Slack is a great way to enable your agile teams to create, respond to, and track tasks in a centralized hub. These teams are already communicating in Slack, and project management integrations bring relevant information to where collaboration is already happening. Many project and task management tools already have Slack apps available on the marketplace, so it usually makes sense to install integration for the app that your team is already using. Linear is our personal favorite, but Jira Cloud is the most popular offering:

Linear’s Slack integration automatically notifies users whenever a project status changes or if there are any new sub-issues. Project managers can create new issues from within Slack, assign them to employees, and comment on in-progress tasks. We use Linear on a daily basis at Haekka and even have a dedicated Slack channel for our Linear feed!

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2. Daily Standups and other meetings

One of the greatest advantages of Slack is how it reduces the need for frequent, often unnecessary meetings. Everyone has inevitably sat in a daily stand-up that took way too long and hurt productivity. However, daily standups are a great way to check in on a team and ensure everyone is on the same page. Slack bots can automate daily meetings to reduce manual workloads for agile teams. Many daily standups can be reduced to a few Slack messages, so why not install an app that does that for you?

Dailybot is a great Slack app that automatically asks employees for their daily updates each morning. Dailybot also supports giving teammates kudos, mood tracking, polls/surveys, and has a watercooler feature to replicate the office. We use Dailybot every day at Haekka!

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3. Managing vacation time and PTO

Handling vacations is a common task that seems super simple until it's actually time to deal with a team with lots of PTO requests. Many companies manually handle time-off requests. Having employees email their boss, making their manager approve/deny PTO, and then balancing a team's time off can be extremely time consuming. It’s also frustrating for employees to receive work messages when they are out of office. Slack apps for vacation time solve all of these problems and makes PTO requests more simple for employees and management.

Timebot is a great vacation management tool for companies with more rigid PTO structures. Employees can request time off and management can approve/deny requests all from within Slack. Managers can also view a dashboard to see who’s requested time off and who’s already off in order to ensure no critical operations are disrupted. Timebot also updates people’s status in Slack to reflect when they are on vacation and allows employees to schedule messages for the future.

4. More efficient file sharing

Almost every company today uses cloud-based workplace tools that enable employees to work together on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and much more. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Box, Confluence, and other similar apps are becoming integral parts of modern workflows. However, things like commenting on docs and allowing access to shared drives require users to use a third-party app. Slack integrations allow employees to share files and other common actions from a central hub. This allows teams to operate more efficiently and reduces app switching.

Google Drive for Slack allows users to share, create, and import Google Doc files from within Slack. It automatically notifies employees when files are shared with them and enable teams to collaborate faster. It also makes compliance easier since actions in shared drives can impact private data security. We use Google Workspace, so having the Google Drive app in our Slack is a no-brainer!

5. Employee training and onboarding

Getting new employees ready for work is another everyday activity that can be optimized with Slack. New employees have to be trained on company policies and procedures in order to do their jobs. Many times they also have to undergo specific training for various types of regulatory compliance such as HIPAA. If a company is planning on undergoing an audit, it must generate and present evidence of training to its auditor. Most companies use a third-party LMS, but those platforms require switching around apps and often ship with outdated training. Not many people know that employee training and onboarding within Slack is possible, but Haekka has made that a reality!

‍Haekka is the world's first Slack app that allows employees to gain and maintain knowledge from within Slack. Haekka’s Slack platform allows admins to create, assign, and track mandatory training. It ships with a large training library including security awareness, PCI, Diversity Inclusion Equity and Justice, and much more! Haekka’s Slack integration puts training on autopilot and increases employee engagement. It also the audit process smoother by automatically generating evidence that employees have completed training. If you’re interested in learning more about integrating learning and development with Slack, schedule a demo with one of our founders today!