A Complete Guide to Creating Effective Slack Workflows

Slack is a popular tool for chatting, but many teams have to spend a lot of working time on routine tasks that are repeated on a regular basis. What if you could use all available Slack features to significantly streamline your workflows and standardize key processes? 

This guide will show you how to create a workflow in Slack, from the basics to advanced automation. If you're looking for ways to get the most from the platform, custom Slack App Development and custom Slack Integration Services can help unlock new levels of efficiency for teams with complex needs. 

Defining a Slack workflow

It's a series of automated actions that run every time a specific event happens in your workspace. To turn a complicated term into an easy description, let's imagine a recipe where you have ingredients and some steps to take. 

A Slack workflow is very similar because you teach it to perform specific actions for you as an "if this, then that" recipe. The "if" is the trigger, and the "then" is the action. For example, a new person joining a channel ("if" trigger) and we're automatically sending them a welcome packet and a list of important links("then that" part).

The Anatomy of a Workflow: Triggers and Steps

Every Slack workflow is built on two simple parts:

• The Trigger. This is what starts the workflow (a user clicking a link in a channel, someone joining a channel for the first time, or a specific time of day).
• The Steps. These are the actions the flow performs after it's triggered (sending a pre-written message to a channel in Slack, displaying a form for a user to fill out, or passing information to an external app).

One of the Slack workflow examples is clicking a "Submit Bug Report" shortcut. The first step would be to display a form to the user. The next step would be to post the form's details into the #dev-team channel.

The Principle of Workflow Automation

Automation simply means letting Slack handle the repetitive parts of your job. The final goal is to design a system where you won't manage routine communications and processes as they will run on their own. You will have a bot or a platform that will handle them all.

You connect triggers to a single or a series of pre-defined actions. This will lead to a structured, event-driven process that can pass data between steps using variables. No more manual intervention.

For example, a manager will no longer have to ask for daily updates as a Slack workflow can send a reminder to the team channel, collect each person's response with a form, and post the results in a neat thread for everyone to see.

Slack Workflow Builder: Overview & Features 

Slack has its default tool, which is called Workflow Builder. Even if you don't have any coding experience, you will manage to build simple custom automation yourself. It has a nice user-friendly interface where you need to select a trigger and the following steps that will be taken afterward. You will have a list of options so that you can create a workflow and test different flows.

Some of the options are sending messages, displaying forms, or even interacting with other services via Asana, Google Sheets, or Zapier. It will take a few minutes to build a simple workflow that will become available in any Slack channel. 

If you decide to build complex workflows that require additional configurations, like webhooks or dynamic variables, you'll need coding experience or some help from developers.

Note: Builder is available on Slack’s paid plans (Standard, Plus, and Enterprise). Free-tier workspaces do not have access to this feature.

Workflow Builder: Practical Applications

The built-in Builder is flexible for handling common business processes:

• New Hire Onboarding. When a new person joins the #onboarding channel, trigger a workflow that sends them a welcome packet, important links, and their first-week checklist.
• Feedback Forms. Create a shortcut that triggers a form to collect feedback on a project. The workflow can then post the response anonymously to a management channel.
• Daily Stand-ups. Schedule a workflow to post in your team's channel at 9 AM every day, prompting everyone to submit their daily goals.
• IT or HR Requests. Build a simple request form for common needs. When a user submits it, the workflow creates a ticket by posting the details to the department's channel.

Scope and Constraints of the Workflow Builder

While Builder is great for simple automation, you'll likely hit a wall when your needs become more complex:

• The Builder can't handle complex if/then/else cases. A workflow is not designed to change its actions depending on what a user enters into a form.
• You can send information to an external app with a webhook. However, you won't be able to pull data back in or create a two-way sync.
• A workflow can't go back and customize a message it has already sent. It can't change a "Pending" status to "Approved" after a manager clicks a button, for example.
• The linear design of the Builder is not a good fit for complex processes that involve multiple teams and require several branching paths.
• Slack sets some limits on how many workflows a workspace can have and how often they can be triggered daily. These limits vary by plan.

Custom Slack Workflows with Fivewalls

Imagine a flow that creates a Jira ticket and automatically updates the original Slack thread with comments and status updates. Or an approval workflow that routes a request to a different manager based on its value, updating the Slack message at every step. 

With Fivewalls, you can:

• Built with complex logic to handle any business rule.
• Integrate seamlessly with any app, internal or external.
• Create dynamic messages that update based on real-world events.
• Get custom functionality built by an expert developer to solve your problem.

A great workflow sends notifications and actively participates in the work. It updates, adapts, and keeps information flowing between Slack and your other critical tools. That's what we build.