In the sudden shift to fully remote work, ActiveCampaign's hiring only increased. A whopping one-third of ActiveCampaign's current employees started in a remote environment between 2020 and 2021. This growth included 186 employees in Ireland, Brazil, and Australia.

Our workspaces and team communications had to adapt to the presence of these diverse new hires that would start remotely and long-term employees who were accustomed to their ways of finding and sharing information.

Slack is our primary tool for messaging, with emails used sparingly for time-sensitive and critical announcements. Our Slack channels are our new virtual 'office space,' but we had not taken the time to recognize the tool for the critical role it played and adjustments were sorely needed. ActiveCampaign has been using Slack since 2014. That's seven years of fast-paced growth and many reorganizations to serve our ever-evolving needs with outdated Slack channels.

Our channels needed to mirror our newly scaled organization. For example, although they were fun, Slack channels with nicknames like #team-xd were impossible to find for new hires. It was common to see folks direct messaging teammates or posting in other channels in search of the team/group they were looking for.

With AC's switch to a virtual office space, a recurring question has arisen: "How can we promote the use of channels for both work and social engagement?" Essentially, how can we allow folks to still have fun and even encourage it but be more welcoming to new hires?