The recently updated Slack Workflow builder promises companies an effective way to improve employee productivity and efficiency without the need for complex coding.
Designed to help organizations automate routine tasks and processes, this convenient toolkit has become extremely popular in recent years. According to Slack, nearly 1 million people have used the solution to build workflows without code. Companies are designing simple workflows for everything from HR onboarding to creating status reports.
But how exactly does the Slack Workflow Builder work, what can it do, and how can you leverage it to empower your teams? Here’s everything you need to know to get started.
What is Slack Workflow Builder? An Introduction
Slack Workflow Builder is a comprehensive toolkit within Slack that allows users to build automated processes using drag-and-drop tools. There’s no need for coding, ensuring every organization can unlock the power of automation with minimal effort.
Slack recently updated its Workflow Builder to feature more advanced tools, such as the option to implement generative AI prompts into processes. The solution also comes equipped with a variety of plug-and-play connectors. This means companies can easily link their Slack workflows with Asana, Google Sheets, and countless other tools.
It’s even possible to bring automation into your workflows in various ways. For instance, you can implement automation into a “Canvas” on Slack, add automation to a channel’s bookmarks, and more. Plus, if you have developers in-house, you can use the next-gen developer platform to build custom apps and solutions with unique functions.
What Can Users Do with the Slack Workflow Builder?
With Slack Workflow Builder, users can develop multi-part automation flows driven by specific actions and triggers. For instance, when a new member joins a Slack channel, you can use the builder to automatically send them a message describing what the channel is used for.
Part of what makes Slack’s Workflow Builder so impressive is that it comes with pre-built templates for common use cases. There are templates for everything from creating Salesforce leads in Slack Connect to managing time-off requests and sending information to Google Sheets.
Slack notes one of the most popular ways to use the solution is to keep conversations and tools in sync. With the latest built-in Slack steps and connectors from tools like Salesforce and Google Workspace, you can automate everything from creating a new project channel to inviting the right people to that channel and using Asana to track milestones.
Slack Workflow Builder Examples
If you need a little inspiration to help you get started with your automation strategies, here are just some of the ways companies are already using Slack Workflow Builder:
Welcoming Teammates to Channels
Getting new employees, freelancers, and team members up-to-date with your Slack channels quickly is crucial to unlocking higher productivity levels. In the past, ensuring users had all the insights and guidance required a manual onboarding process. However, with Slack workflow builder, you can automate this process.
When a person joins a channel, you can automatically send them the resources they need, step-by-step guidance on how to use the system, and more. You can even prompt them to complete specific tasks, like filling out a form with bio information or signing up for tools connected to Slack. There’s a built-in template for onboarding available in the Slack Workflow Builder already.
Answer Employee Questions Seamlessly
Keeping employees updated with the correct information and insights can be time-consuming in today’s digital world. While companies can host all-hands meetings and Q&A sessions, ensuring everyone can access the right information can be difficult.
Companies can use the Slack Workflow Builder to collect questions from employees automatically, with a “shortcut” trigger. Once clicked, this will give the user the option to enter a question and submit it to another employee. You can also automatically publish answered questions to a public channel, allowing users to review them whenever necessary.
Streamline Legal Reviews
In most industries, work needs to be “signed off” or approved by various staff members before a project is completed. For instance, Slack likes having its legal team review content to identify issues before a blog post goes live proactively.
With the Slack Workflow Builder, legal teams can create a straightforward review process that collects and standardizes requests. The same tools can also send reminders to critical team members to speed up the approval process. Requesters can receive notifications about the progress of their project, as well as step-by-step guidance on what they need to do next, such as adding a disclaimer to a post.
Route Queries to Subject Matter Experts
Customer-facing teams may need to use Slack to seek guidance and insights from subject matter experts before devising a solution to a consumer problem. Accessing insights from experts quickly is crucial to delivering a phenomenal customer experience. With Slack Workflow Builder, you can create workflows that re-route requests to specific employees.
For instance, if a customer support agent is addressing an issue that requires technical guidance, they can access a workflow that allows them to send information directly to a specific specialist team. When a team member “claims” the issue, the customer support agent receives a message telling them who is looking into it.
Collecting Insights and Information
Collecting employee feedback and insights isn’t just a great way to keep team members engaged. It’s also essential to ensure businesses can benefit from the voice of the employee. Rather than hosting meetings where employees are encouraged to share customer stories, product insights, and other information, you can automate the data collection process with Slack.
The Slack Workflow Builder allows users to create a channel or environment where employees can submit customer stories, product requests, and other information whenever they choose. This information can then be automatically delivered to the appropriate member of staff. Users can even access connected tools to assign tasks to team members based on those insights.
How to Use Slack Workflow Builder
As mentioned above, one of the things that makes Slack Workflow Builder so appealing to companies investing in workflow automation is its simplicity. The solution is only available to users with paid Slack subscriptions. However, all team members should have access to the builder by default.
Owners and admins can choose to restrict access to the Workflow Builder, if necessary, too. To get started, all users need to do is click on their workspace name in the Slack sidebar.
Scroll to “Tools & Settings” and select “Workflow Builder”. The app will launch the drag-and-drop builder in a pop-up window. If you’re using the builder for the first time, you’ll see a blank page and a prompt to “create your workflow.”
You can click on the “Templates” tab to access ready-to-use workflow templates or create something from scratch.
Creating Your Slack Workflow
Once you choose a template or create a new one, you’ll see an interface asking you how you want to “start” the workflow. There are five options available currently:
- Shortcut: This adds a little lightning bolt icon to the buttons in the Slack message composer. Once you click the button, you’ll see a menu item for your workflow.
- New channel member: Whenever someone joins a channel, you can use this action as a trigger to send them a message or ask them to fill out a form.
- Emoji reaction: When someone uses a specific emoji reaction in a channel, this can launch a workflow.
- Scheduled date and time: You can use workflows to send specific messages or information to everyone in a channel at a particular time or on a specific date.
- Webhook: This is the more advanced option for workflow building, which requires some programming. When an app or service sends a web request from another server, this can launch a specific workflow.
No matter what you use your workflow for, it must include two main components: a trigger (the thing that starts the workflow) and steps (the actions the workflow should take).
Slack will prompt you to enter specific details as you move through the process. For instance, if you choose “new channel member” as a trigger to message someone who joins your channel, you’ll need to decide which channel the workflow will be for. Next, you can simply click the “add steps” button to implement steps built by Slack or that you make yourself.
After you add all your steps, click the “Publish” button to add your workflow to your Slack app.
Finding Your Workflows
If your team members have already created workflows for your Slack instance, or you’ve designed some yourself, there are a few ways to find them. The first option is to use the Workflow Gallery. From your desktop Slack application, hover over “More” and click “Automation.”
Select the “All Workflows” option to browse workflows available for your Enterprise Grid organization or workspace. You can also use the search bar (with the “workflows) filter to look for workflows with a specific name or title.
Alternatively, you can click the “/” icon and start typing the name of a workflow to pull it from the Slack menu.
Building Custom Apps in Slack
The Slack Workflow Builder is a powerful way for companies to automate specific processes and conversations. However, it does have some limitations if you don’t have any programming knowledge. Complex multi-step workflows will still require a little expertise.
Fortunately, if you have some tech knowledge, you can use Slack to develop more advanced workflows and unique apps. For instance, Nutanix used the Slack workflow builder to transform their IT ticketing desk into an automated system, resulting in 34% faster issue resolution.
If you need more advanced features, the Slack next-gen developer platform is a great solution. It features samples and templates, functions, triggers, and workflow options. Plus, the apps you create with the toolkit are hosted within Slack. This means you can focus on writing code rather than managing app infrastructure.
The custom apps on Slack are also modular, and you can extend custom functions from them to your Workflow builder. Slack says one custom function can potentially power unlimited automation.
Mastering the Slack Workflow Builder
The Slack Workflow Builder is a convenient and easy-to-use tool that has become more effective recently. If you’re using a paid version of Slack, you can start building with the system immediately, creating as many workflows and custom apps as you choose.
Just keep in mind that workflows with more than two connector steps or custom functions have usage-based pricing to consider. These costs will kick in when you exceed a specific number of “workflow runs” included in your Slack subscription.
If you need more help getting started, you can find API documentation on the Slack next-gen developer platform here. Alternatively, you can use the Workflow Builder resource hub for insights and inspirations on what you can automate in Slack.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/VA2aXuZ
0 Comments