Workflow Steps: Slack
A Slack step in Ashby People Workflows sends an automated message to a specified recipient or channel at a defined point in your workflow, enabling real-time notifications without manual outreach. Recipients can include the new hire, their manager, a buddy, a specified internal stakeholder, or any Slack channel relevant to the workflow.
This article covers how to add and configure a Slack step. For guidance on setting the step's delay, filters, and dependencies, see Configure your Workflow StepsConfigure your Workflow Step.
Ashby's People Ops module is currently available through restricted early access. The following documentation is provided for design partners participating in that program.
Permissions and access
To add a Slack step, you need view and edit access to the workflow. Your permission set grants this access to either all workflows or specific workflows.
To send Slack messages, the Slack integration must be configured in Ashby Recruiting. See SlackSlack for more information.
Learn more about Ashby's People Ops permission sets: Configure Permission SetsConfigure permission sets.
Adding a Slack step
- Open the workflow, select Edit Workflow Template, then select Add Step in the appropriate section.
- Select Slack from the step type dropdown.
- Configure the sender, recipient, and message template as described below.
- Set the step's delay, filter, and dependencies. See Configure your Workflow StepsConfigure your Workflow Step for details.
- Publish your changes. See Publishing Workflow UpdatesPublishing Workflow Updates for details.
Configuring the Slack step
Sender
Ashby sends every Slack message from Ashby's Slack app, configured in Ashby Recruiting, regardless of which sender you select on the step. Selecting a sender does control sender tokens. Any token referencing the sender resolves to the user you select, so a message that opens with {{Sender First Name}} reads as though it came from that person even though it arrives from the Ashby Slack app.
Recipient
Unlike a task or survey step, a Slack step has no assignee; the recipient receives a message, not a task to complete. You can send a Slack message to:
- The employee: the person enrolled in the workflow.
- A workflow role: for example, the hiring manager, IT, or People Ops. Ashby resolves the role to whoever holds it for that enrollee when the step triggers, so the message routes correctly even if the role is reassigned mid-workflow.
- A specific user: a named Ashby user who receives the message on every enrollee running through the workflow.
- A Slack channel: public or private.
Send to a Slack channel
Select the channel in the Recipient dropdown:
- Public channels are available as soon as the Slack integration is connected and will show up as you type. Results are based on a partial match and are not case-sensitive.
- To send to a private channel, add the Ashby app to that channel first.
- Open the private channel in Slack.
- Type @Ashby in the message box, as though you were posting to the channel.
- Select the option to add the Ashby app to the channel.
- Return to the workflow step and type the exact channel name in the Recipient dropdown.
When a recipient has no Slack account
Ashby matches recipients to Slack accounts by email address. If the recipient has no matching Slack account (a new hire before their work account exists, for example), the message doesn't deliver and will return an error.
Message body
A Slack step has a message body only; Slack messages don't have a subject line. Write the body using your organization's tokens to personalize the message, for example, pulling in the workflow enrollee's name or answers from an earlier survey step.
Add substitution tokens
Substitution tokens allow you to pull information about the workflow enrollee into the message you send out from Ashby. To add substitution tokens, click the T icon in the toolbar under the body of the Slack message. From here, you can search for the specific token you need.
FAQs
Can one step send both an email and a Slack message?
No. A single step delivers through one channel. To reach someone both ways, add a Slack step alongside your email step with the same delay, filter, and dependencies.
Do I need to add the Ashby app to a channel?
Only for private channels. Public channels are available as soon as the Slack integration is connected. For more on connecting Slack, see Slack.