It’s undeniable that the American workforce has seen a massive shift since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. For many people, working remotely was put into practice due to a global health crisis, but has become the norm. In fact, UpWork has estimated that 25% of the workforce will be remote by 2025. The rapid rise in remote workers comes with higher demand for streamlined communication software, and Slack appears to be ready to answer the call.
Slack is among one of the most popular team communication systems available to companies and they’re rolling out a new feature in 2023, called Canvas. Canvas will allow users to create, edit, and share project-specific documents live, within your Slack chat window. Canvases will allow your shared documents to have a permanent home within the Slack interface, automatically embedding content from links and documents into your chat.
According to ReWorked, the average worker spends about 4.5 hours per week searching for information needed to complete a task. With Canvas, users will be encouraged to house documents within Slack, which will reduce search time and increase productivity. This means that tedious tasks such as onboarding new staff members and reviewing current projects will become streamlined and easily accessible, all within one platform.
This is a massive improvement to Slack’s pin and bookmark features, where it often becomes overwhelming to find the information you need quickly. For example, rather than pinning each individual document needed for onboarding a new hire, Slack hopes users will create a single Canvas to house all necessary forms, handbooks, and documents.
Users may also build channels to request access to company-owned devices and paid time off. Canvas will also encourage real-time collaboration with teammates, helping users enhance their overall experience on the platform while focusing on clear communication. Users may also leave notes on documents, which may be used to request revisions or provide approval. They can create a clear channel of tasks and communications so that all necessary information is housed in one place.
Another useful feature coming with the launch of Canvas is the ability to automatically pull data from systems such as Salesforce Customer 360, so that information may be analyzed, revised, and reviewed all within one user-friendly system. Users will have the ability to reference and share relevant data to help them analyze sales, manage current projects, and curate statistic-driven marketing goals. Canvas promises an organized and user-friendly interface to input and store sales data.
It appears that Slack may be taking steps to compete with Google Docs and Notion, or at least to serve as an avenue to find your content faster. With over 2,500 Canvas-compatible apps at launch, we can almost certainly expect Slack Canvas to become an important tool for remote workers. What other productivity features would you like to see on Slack in the future?
