How Slack Emojis Help Remote Work [Updated 2024]

Slack emojis, also known as reacjis, are a fun way to spice up your normal business communication. You can utilize them for everything from celebrations to polls to getting actual work done.

For example, when someone writes in your team channel with consumer feedback, it's great to discuss it in real-time to get more context, but the conversation ultimately moves on to other issues.

Because that's where the work gets done, all feedback and issues must eventually end up in your project management system.

Communication becomes more difficult when you're not seated next to the folks you're working with. So, how does our team interact with messages to keep work flowing even though we're half a world apart? Continue reading to know all the details about Slack emojis!

The most challenging aspect of remote collaboration

Your remote employees would be spread out over several continents and time zones. This gives us a lot of flexibility and strength as a team, but it also comes with a few drawbacks:

When your team members go from being co-located with us to being on the other side of the world, you can no longer explain things by turning our chairs around!
Since not everyone on your team speaks the same native language, written communication must be clear.

You need to continuously search for ways to improve the operations as a remote-friendly team so that you can collaborate more effectively. While you might have already established similar communication norms (for example, which Slack channels to utilize for various topics), you should consider the requirements of each team. For short messages and rapid work requests (e.g., editing/proofreading requests), Slack is a good option.

Due to a lack of clarity, employees from different departments can get obstructed, slowing you down. The best way to address this is to improve our textual communication. Using a set of standardized Slack emojis can be one of the quickest but most effective ways to improve your Slack communication.

Now, let me show you how to use emojis for seamless communication within your team.

How to utilize Slack emojis to make work easier

It may seem impersonal at first to respond with Slack emojis rather than a chorus of "thank yous,". However, consider this: Slack emoji is another type of communication that you can use to your advantage—not just for signaling but also for automating mundane chores like to-do list management.

Reduce the number of notifications you receive

One of the most significant advantages of Slack emojis is that you can respond to and acknowledge a message without sending a second message. It may sound insignificant, but when you're dealing with hundreds of these minor disruptions every day, repeating "ok, thanks!" or "no issue" only adds to the noise!

Notifications from apps are already out of hand. In addition to altering your notification settings, emojis are a different technique for reducing noise. Thank you, no issue, yes, no, thumbs up, eyes (looking at this now), to do, or checkmark are some useful Slack reaction emojis.

You can use Slack emojis in a variety of ways, including:

Recognizing a message

Simply responding with a teamwork emoji confirms that you've received a message and will respond to a coworker at some point. You must understand your target audience, but a simple "to do" or "thank you" communicates that the message has been received and will respond when they have the opportunity.

Even in a crowded Slack, it's easy to see who has responded to a message. To see reactions to messages you've been mentioned in or have posted, go to Mentions & Reactions on the left-hand menu. It's ingeniously hidden, so you don't get pings all the time.

Bring a message to the attention of someone

You'll see alerts in the mentions sidebar whenever your username or certain keywords are referenced in Slack. However, if you have an urgent matter that demands rapid attention, you can utilize Slack emojis to activate a Zap that will send a direct message to a specific individual. For example, to call your manager, you can employ a unique reacji.

Personalize Slack message

Have you ever asked a question on Slack and received (fictional) crickets in response? When you need an answer immediately, it can be aggravating, but instead of bombarding a coworker with private messages, you can use an emoji system.

If an employee is stuck on a solution, your support team, for example, can use the Slack emojis procedure to answer queries concerning customer support tickets. A yellow support question emoji accompany every ticket query to ensure that everyone sees it. You can use the shifty eyes emoji to show that someone is thinking about the subject. A green check mark indicates that a question has been answered. When a support team member becomes stuck, this system allows them to assist one another better.

Get vital information out of Slack

Slack is a firehose if you work for a large organization. It's easy to misplace crucial messages or lose track of which channel they were sent to, and the search tool is only as good as your memory. It will be easier to focus on the task at hand if you write down items that need to be addressed later rather than now. Some of the coworkers go even further, disabling Slack for a portion of the day to help them get more work done.

Make your to-do list automatically

Email, project spreadsheets, and, yes, even Slack are all sources of tasks. If you don't have everything organized in one area, it's difficult to keep on top of your work. While you can't prevent someone from assigning you a last-minute task in Slack, you can make sure it's in a location where you won't lose it.

Whether you maintain your tasks in a calendar software, spreadsheet, or task management, you can use a Zap to organize Slack messages with specific Slack emojis to your to-do list.

Record bugs in your issue tracker

If you have several employees helping you in triaging feedback or bug reports, you might create expectations that the feedback has been recorded.

A Jira logo emoji reply can be added to a Slack message. You can even get fancy and create a workflow to create the issue and then send a link back to Slack to automate the bug tracking process completely.

Capture input in a less fleeting location

You'll acquire other important tidbits over Slack that you'll want to save for later. If you get positive feedback from coworkers, you should preserve it for when it's time for your performance evaluation.

You can use a shared Zap from your coworker that can add Slack messages to a Google Doc with specific reaction emoji.

This isn't just about performance appraisals. You can also use Slack emoji reactions in a Zap to measure your productivity by capturing good ideas or tasks you performed.

Work together with your teammates

Team coordination and collaboration are constant issues in the workplace, particularly if your team works remotely or asynchronously across time zones. If you're unsure who will answer that customer query or if you're waiting for your sales team to ask you to a client meeting, it may take longer to reach a consensus and move forward.

In Slack, claiming an assignment or task request is as simple as using an emoji. However, Zapier may be used to automate processes that start when you use a specific emoji reaction.

Slack emojis can help you in completing tasks more quickly

While some may consider best Slack emojis to be only a fun feature, automation allows you to ensure that essential messages are captured outside of Slack and sent to the apps you use the most.

In the next section, let me quickly walk you through the disadvantages of using Slack emojis in your workplace.

Workplace consequences of using Slack emojis

Misinterpretation - There is no clear consensus on what emojis mean. Therefore, you have no idea how the other person will react. Even your skin tone may be interpreted as ethnic appropriation.
Competency - Using emojis in work interactions is widely regarded as unprofessional. Emojis make you appear less knowledgeable if your recipient is in a professional situation.

It's time to wrap it up!

Conclusion

Slack emojis can help organizations collaborate seamlessly, especially for remote teams. You can use them to recognize a message, bring a message to the attention of someone, and bring in personalization in a Slack message. The main advantages of using emojis include reducing the number of notifications you receive, getting vital information out of Slack, making your to-do list automatically, recording bugs in your issue tracker, capturing input in a less fleeting location, working together with your teammates, and completing tasks more quickly. The workplace consequences of Slack emojis are misinterpretation and competency. Use them wisely and in place to drive the productivity and growth of your remote team.