Slack is particularly renowned for its channels, and Slack users are encouraged not to be parsimonious when it comes to creating more channels. 

A Slack workspace with just #General and #Random channels tend to be a tad boring. Don’t you agree? 

Whereas the more illustrious workspaces with 10+ relevant channels can prove to be more effective with communication.

So, what are you waiting for? These channels won’t just pep up your workspace, but will also make Slack navigation easier and your teams more productive.

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At Ricotta, we have followed the same principle and been strategic when it comes to creating new channels in our workspace. Here we share a few ideas that we think your workspace should adapt!

Channel Ideas

1. On-boarding

An on-boarding channel is essential for new hires and this channel should have Docs, wikis, FAQs regarding the company policy etc. pinned to the channel. There can also be mentors assigned via this channel to seamlessly onboard new employees, especially in a remote work setting.‍

2. Interests and hobbies‍

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Old platitude aside, this holds true even today. All of us need a little break from the grind of work to get a breather and having an interest and hobby group offers just that. Teammates can also bond over non-work related aspects like football, book club and movie club. This serves as a very good icebreaker, resulting in improved team bonding.‍

3. Appreciation‍

Managers sharing appreciation and recognizing good work when their teams achieve goals goes a long way to boost morale. There are a myriad of Slack integrations that do just this!

For every achievement, you can show appreciation to a teammate which can be and put on a leaderboard.‍

4. Document sharing‍

Even though Slack has a robust search engine meant to discover documents shared using advanced filters, this channel would serve as a common repertoire made public to all. This can include company policies, vision document, project briefs, quarterly reports, and important memos.‍

5. AMA‍

AMA is standard practice on Reddit and Twitter for celebrities, but in a work setting, AMAs help build a transparent workspace. Several companies have a town hall format for AMAs where employees ask Executives pertinent questions. This is a remote-friendly version of the such AMAs.‍

6. Feedback‍

Ideas that flow from the bottom up tend to be robust, novel and sometimes creative. Feedback bolsters this flow. Imagine, a product company which has a channel dedicated to product feedback, the user perspective, suggestions can help PMs build amazing products. This is not just restricted to products, it can apply to company policies, or act as a suggestion box as well.‍

7. Emojis+Humor‍

A Slack channel for Emojis, you say? It might sound a bit vainglorious, but this channel will be a feed of all great emoji, memes and GIFs to add a bit of fun to the workplace. This is a virtual equivalent of a coffee break at work!‍

8. Birthdays & Milestones‍

A lot of us are unable to keep track of all the important milestones and personal achievements of people we work with.

This channel can have a list of birthdays and sharing of any important milestone to add a personal touch to the workspace. There is a list of apps that remind of birthdays and anniversaries with an added option of e-gifting.‍

9. Icebreaker‍

Along the same lines as having a channel for on-boarding and interest groups, an icebreaker channel can serve as a team bonding exercise with apps like Ricotta Trivia and Donut. These apps are helpful to generate icebreaker topics to start conversations and improve employee engagement and serve as a virtual water cooler.‍

10. Integrations/bots‍

There are more than 2000 apps and integrations for Slack and every workspace has tons of them installed. Several apps including Trivia, require a channel to host a contest or run a poll. This channel can serve as a dedicated space for such apps.‍

11. Announcements‍

Company announcements are usually lost in the deluge of messages and threads. This channel should be kept primarily to post just company-wide or project-based announcement.‍

12. Coffee/lunch break‍

This works better in a non-remote workspace for scheduling lunches and coffee breaks. In a remote setting, people can use this to report back to work from a lunch/coffee break.‍

13. Issue tracking‍

This channel should be implemented across all companies, no matter what their core business is. This channel can serve as outbound leads CRM to debugging to customer success management!‍

14. Project‍

Different departments tend to have different channels - HR, Product, Development etc. But what happens when they need to collaborate on a cross-functional project? This channel helps alleviate all the chaos that ensues in such collaborative effort and makes it easier to execute tasks.