Body
Environment
umichWORKS, Slack, faculty, staff (umichWORKS is not open to students, alumni, or retirees)
Issue
How do I find out more about umichWORKS?
Resolution
umichWORKS is a U-M Slack workspace intended to connect current faculty and staff across the University of Michigan. (It is the successor to Facebook Workplace, which was decommissioned in 2021/22.) A working group comprised of colleagues from ITS, the Vice President's Office of Global Communication, U-M Human Resources, LSA, and others prepared and launched it.
This is a description from the default #about-work channel in the umichWORKS workspace:
Welcome to umichWORKS! This is the official faculty & staff Workspace in U-M Slack. It is your unified hub for collaboration and communication about all things related to working across the University of Michigan:
- Network with colleagues across campuses
- Connect with others with similar interests
- Learn about amazing events
- Find new opportunities to learn skills and grow your career
- Experience live exercise and relaxation classes with MHealthy
- Share what you love about working at U-M
- Buy, sell, or trade with other U-M faculty and staff
Check out this quick overview provided by Slack: https://youtu.be/RRxQQxiM7AA
Eligibility
- Any current U-M faculty or staff who has a U-M Slack account is eligible.
- umichWORKS is not open to students, alumni, or retirees.
How do I join?
Any current U-M faculty or staff member with a U-M Slack account can join the umichWORKS Slack workspace by invitation.
- Invitations are automatically sent each day between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. to any U-M faculty or staff member who has:
- Joined U-M Slack and created their account for the first time AND
- Logged in to any U-M Slack workspace within the past 24 hours.
- Invitations are sent to invitees via direct message by a bot named U-M ITS Slack Attendant.
- The initial invitation will not be sent as an email to the invitee, only as a direct message in Slack.
- However, Slack sends email reminders to users when they haven't checked their direct messages in a while (if that setting is checked in the user's preferences). So, an invitee may receive an email from Slack (notification@slack-mail.com) stating they have an unread message from U-M ITS Slack Attendant. (Example subject line: "U-M ITS Slack Attendant sent you a message on Slack").
- The invitations will appear in the lower-left corner of the Slack interface, as a message from the bot under Direct messages. See example below:
Hello! 
We're inviting you to join umichWORKS! This is the official U-M faculty and staff Slack workspace designed to be a unified hub for collaboration and communication for work at the University of Michigan. Thousands of faculty and staff are using this platform to:
• Network with colleagues in other units and across campuses
• Connect with others with similar interests
• Learn about events and opportunities to get the most out of working at the university
If you'd like to participate, click the button below to join umichWORKS. You can leave at any time.
[JOIN UMICHWORKS] <== (This is a button the user can click to join.)
There are rare cases where an invite won't send:
- The faculty/staff member previously created their U-M Slack account when they held a different role/affiliation at the university that didn't grant them access to umichWORKS (e.g., student). They then later gained an eligible affiliation (faculty or staff) under that same account/uniqname.
- The faculty/staff member joined umichWORKS previously but left the workspace.
In these cases, you should reach out to the umichWORKS admins by emailing umichworks@umich.edu. ITS does not manage the umichWORKS Slack workspace or its content and cannot assist with reinviting you to the workspace.
Additional Information
PLEASE NOTE: ITS does not manage the umichWORKS Slack workspace or its content. If you need help with the umichWORKS workspace, please contact the umichWORKS administrators by emailing umichworks@umich.edu.
Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.