How to use Slack effectively in construction
I’m starting a series of articles on how to organize construction projects using Slack, how to use built-in apps and features that will help make contractors work more efficient.
For 12 years in construction, I constantly faced problems of inefficient teamwork, slow communications, and decision-making, which were accompanied by mountains of emails, SMS, calls and long meetings. All this is especially amplified when projects are compressed generally at the finish line, several stakeholders need to be involved and required several iterations to agree on decisions.
Therefore, the first experience using messengers such as WhatsApp in construction projects has speeded up many issues. The duration of the meetings was reduced, where only important issues were discussed, the rest went online.
Nevertheless, as the number of participants in the WhatsApp groups and the frequency of use increased, the effectiveness of this solution decreased due to the difficulty of tracking the necessary information and constant distraction, no matter the message concerned you or not.
Below, I’ll give some recommendations on how a tool like Slack can raise the quality of communications in construction to a new level.
1. Organize collaboration on projects.
For large and medium-sized projects, especially if you are a General contractor, create each project as a separate workspace in Slack. This allows you to use the full power of Slack tools and structure your communications. All participants can clearly understand all the messages for each project, easily switching between workspaces.
2. Group your communications by topics — channels.
Although the choice of channels is very dependent on the projects, I would recommend creating channels on the main topics, depending on the composition of participants needed to resolve issues. For example, channel #safety requires the inclusion of personnel responsible for monitoring and complying with safety.
Or channel #rfi will bring together everyone who can create, manage or track RFIs. In the same way, you can create channels for punch lists, tasks, quality, documentation, materials, machines, and mechanisms, etc.
In channels, you can use built-in apps, like Buildout.ai, that allows you to create, track in Procore or Plangrid RFIs and tasks, as well as get notifications and resolve Punch lists items, Observations directly from within Slack.
Thus, all participants in the channels will be purposefully involved only in their areas, without being distracted by unnecessary messages.
3. Group staff by teams.
Although you can easily work in the free version of Slack without forming team groups, it is convenient for large construction companies to attract the attention of several team members at the same time. For example, using @architects, and all architects who are involved in a particular project will receive a notification. Or you can join Subcontractor’s staff in a separate team.
In general, user groups are a paid feature. If you are on a free plan, then you cannot use this feature.
4. Use Discussion Topics — Threads
Threads are a convenient tool to discuss or clarify some items and making decisions together. For example, you can clarify a specific RFI, ask a question and suggest alternative solutions. This doesn’t require tedious emails or project management tools. By the way, the digital assistant Buildout.ai helps you create an RFI in Procore, get a link and quickly clarify the desired solution in the threads, open and view the status of the RFI right from within Slack.
5. Here are some tips that can be useful:
- Set up notifications in Slack to protect project team members from irrelevant messages. It is better to use Mention(@) feature more often, this personalizes the messages without overloading other project members. Don’t forget about the group mentions @channel, @everyone, @here.
- Restrict access using Private channels. This will allow you to collaborate, for example, with external users. Guest accounts and Shared channels that are available in paid plans may also be suitable for subcontractors.
- Using Star (Save) or Pin, you can bookmark and then select the desired messages, which, for example, contain RFI or Task.
- Add Reaction to respond to a message without words, without filling channels with needless messages. For example, add a checkbox to confirm that the Punch list item has been accepted.
- Share images, PDFs, documentation, drawings, and other files and links with project teams. You can quickly search for them and discuss without leaving Slack.
In summary, it should be noted that you can manage communications simply through separate channels for each project, but the flexible functionality of Slack allows you to conveniently organize a single collaborative hub for all construction project stakeholders.
In the following articles, I will write in more detail about several features that can be built into Slack, which will simplify the work of General contractors with field staff and subcontractors.
