How We Slack at Ambient Constructions

We saw the work FiftyThree and Normative have already done in sharing how they use Slack and so we thought we’d throw our hat in the ring. We’re a little different though. We don’t make software, we make houses! But three’s a company right?

Here at Ambient, we’ve been using Slack for almost four months now. It’s effect has been felt across the business, significantly reducing our internal email and transforming how we monitor each of our job sites.

Being a construction company, we have different needs to a lot of the companies who are using Slack. Our staff can be distributed across up to 20 different construction projects running at the same time.

Along with the usual #general and #random channels, we’ve created a channel for each job site. That little four-digit number you can see is what we use to identify each site.

Unsure which door hinge to order? Post it on Slack.

Need some advice on which way to hang a door? Post it on Slack.

Need a labourer on site? Post it on Slack.

Need next week’s schedule to order materials? Post it on Slack.

White ants infesting a wall? Post the video of the little buggers on Slack.

Want to show off a day’s work? Post a photo on Slack.

Additionally we use a few other channels to chat about key business areas:

• #accounts — pay us the money.
• #lead-quote — discussion on new business opportunities.
• #newoffice — we’re working on a new office to move into!
• #monthly-meeting — discussions about our all staff meeting we hold once a month.

This kind of channel organisation has vastly improved our clarity and decision-making day-to-day. Communication about one job is now all sorted into its own channel — no longer do we need to scan through hundreds of individual email conversations to find what we need. Staff on site are able to upload photos from the site instantly. We’re now using bots to remind those on site when to provide regular updates throughout the week.

With 20 staff out on site and six in the office, we have purposely taken a slow adoption approach. Technology is often met with mistrust within the building industry and it can take a while for the benefits to be realised. Firstly, we introduced it to office staff — some took longer than others to break the email curse. One-by-one, we are now bringing on-site staff on board, with very little resistance.

It’s all go here!

Slack makes it easier for us. How could it help you be more efficient?