Dive Brief:
- Slack Technologies Inc. has been among a small group of fast-rising corporate texting/chat platforms for the past couple of years, mainly popular among younger workers and smaller, tech-based employers.
- Now, new independent consulting firms are offering their services to help less tech-savvy employers master Slack's capabilities. These firms help their workers, usually older, get up to speed, so to speak, according to Bloomberg.
- Bloomberg reports that many larger employers with aging Gen X and baby boomer workers need that help. There are the challenging complexities to consider when deploying a platform like Slack within large workforces, with hundreds, even thousands of workers spread across the world in many cases.
Dive Insight:
The Bloomberg article notes that Slack has already made an impact on large companies, and there also may be an "enterprise" option emerging later in 2016. But the need for these independent contractors is clear, Bloomberg says, because introducing a completely new communications platform within large workforces is difficult, at best.
These Slack consultants offer training both across the company and within teams as well. They also offer customized services, including special bots inside of Slack that can help employees get their basic work done as well as encourage brainstorming discussions within Slack, among other possibilities.
One complaint about Slack and its ilk is chat overload, where there is too much to information to process and manage. Alex Godin, of the Slash-Hyphen consulting firm, says people don't have to sign up for every room, so they can decide their personal level of connection. But David Markovich, of competitor ChatOverload, takes a different view, encouraging people to "get extreme." He told Bloomberg that managers should avoid e-mail for internal communications for two days. "You don't have a fork; you have chopsticks," he said. "You learn."
