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Guidelines on the use of the main internal communication channels

Google Calendar:

We all have a Google Calendar, visible to other employees, so anyone can reserve space for personal work time as well as easily set up call and meetings with others.

Few tips to use the calendar correctly:

  • Always reply to invitations, for those who still don't know, 'Maybe' option is available;

  • Always set "Out of Office" in case of holidays lasting one or more days;

  • Use " Tasks" if you need to commit time to certain activities that do not involve calls or meetings with others. This feature also allows you to mark each individual task as completed and tasks can also be created directly from Gmail;

  • Use “Focus“ if you need a moment of focus. A bit more generic than Activities.

  • From settings pane, it is also possible to set times and places of work;

  • It could be convenient to integrate Google Calendar with other tools used, such as Slack, to quickly find out if a person is in a meeting.

Mail:

Some best practices:

  • Only include in CC those who really need to be aware of the message;

  • Always include a summary of the content as subject;

  • Reply promptly and within 2 days anyway, and if you cannot address the issue please notify it to the sender;

  • In case of vacation lasting several days set “out-of-office” automatic reply

  • Unless urgent, leave the other person the time to reply to your message (approx. 2 days) before forwarding the email or spreading the same request to others;

  • Use employees@unguess.io for internal communications to all employees

Slack:

Do you Need to communicate with your colleagues, resolve doubts or simply share your favourite music?

Do it onSlack! Our internal communication tool for individual or group conversations, public or private.

Here are some relevant public channels:

  • 01- Official : this channel is dedicated to communications and announcements at the workspace level.

  • 02- General : for less formal company shares, such as greetings, like requests or Linkedin shares, Brum's odg etc.

  • Random : a place for chatter, nonsense, gibberish or non-work related chatter that you prefer to keep out of the more work-focused channels.

  • Support-center : Reporting bugs within our platforms, requesting help when you don't know how to perform an operation (service-related), requesting IT support for hardware and software problems.

We've recently noticed an increase in HR-related inquiries being sent via private chat messages

We understand that you might be looking for a quick answer, and we appreciate you reaching out!

However, to ensure that you receive the fastest, most accurate, and confidential support, as well as allowing us to better manage requests, we kindly ask you to use the official HR Support Channel #support-hr for all HR-related questions and requests.

Some other things you can and should do with Slack:

  • integrate it with other tools such as Google Calendar, Google Drive, Hubspot, Koan, Jira, Zapier;

  • use it not only as a chat but also for calls, video calls and screen shares, send audio notes, create polls, create reminders and share attachments;

  • Update your status, especially when you are off (it happens automatically if Google Calendar integration is active and you set you are ‘Out of office’ there).

  • Turn off notifications if you need to focus, so that others are aware you are not going to reply promptly beacuse you are busy or whatever;

  • In case you are sick, update your status accordingly;

Slack has many features and goals, but above all it allows us to keep updated even if we are not all physically in the same place or even in the same time zone, so putting some effort into responding quickly is very important.

Even when we have other things to deal with, it would be good to acknowledge the sender we read the message (a reaction might be enough) or that the issue is already being managed, so as not to leave anything unattended and reply within 2 days.