Rephrase: A Slackbot Experiment Driving a More Inclusive Workspace
When it comes to fostering an inclusive culture, purposeful programmes can be easily undermined by thoughtless, off-the-cuff remarks. That’s why R/GA has created a new internal tool to help people to be more considerate in their interactions on Slack. Zoha Zoya explains how Rephrase came to be and the impact that it has had.
In one sentence explain what ‘Rephrase’ is?
Zoha> Rephrase is a helpful alternate word suggestion tool that lives within Slack and encourages more inclusive language at work.
How did this idea come about?
Zoha> Language is one of the most powerful tools we have that makes us uniquely human. Yet, it can either connect or isolate us from each other, depending on how it's used. ‘Guys’, is one of the phrases we got accustomed to with time because of English’s language limitation to represent a gender inclusive word for ‘you’. We heard it so many times but we kept it friendly because we were all together in the same room.
During COVID, Slack became one of the main channels for expressing ourselves and supporting each other during work. But the challenge became how to bring a more inclusive language with a more human tone of voice when communicating with each other.
What was the problem you were trying to solve? Why was this important to be solved?
Zoha> We wanted to create a more human and inclusive space for communication while we are working remotely. We all have implicit bias that affects the words we use and despite our best efforts, sometimes our word choice may send the wrong message. Yet, we all have a responsibility to use more inclusive language as part of creating positive workplace cultures.
How did you approach this problem? Why is it unique?
Zoha> We wanted to bring awareness and education towards specific biased words we use and bring empathy towards other people who find them potentially upsetting.
Rephrase notifications are gentle reminders that we must treat everyone equally. And it's far from perfect, but we believe it's little steps – an iterative process – in the right direction that can lead people to being more open and accepting of each other. By telling a story about the word's history and recommending better neutral language that can be used in daily conversations, we are hoping to shift teams' impulsive use of these words.
How does it work?
Zoha> We build Rephrase within Slack as ultimately it has been our most commonly used tool in recent years to communicate. So essentially we build a bot within Slack. The ‘slackbot’ is able to scan public group slack messages and detect unbiased words and send an automated message with friendly reminders to use alternative words. The automated message includes a link to our hub pages with further information about the word story and a related video. In the hub, there is educational content and a quick way to add feedback for additional words.
Who did you partner with to validate the work?
Zoha> We partnered with Global Equality Collective, to handpick a list of top noninclusive words commonly used within workspace. We worked together to ensure our content is written in the most inclusive and accessible way possible. We created short format videos together to hear from people who actually were impacted by these words. These videos helped in creating empathy and compassion which helped in shifting people’s behavior to rethinking the words they use.
What was the impact of launching Rephrase?
Zoha> Rephrase has been launched globally through R/GA slackbot across all 5 regions we operate in, reaching over a thousand employees. So as an internal ‘test’, we’ve successfully rolled it out to the entire agency.
And within the last 6 months, there has been a decrease in the use of these specific words by more than 25%.
What was the feedback from R/GA Employees?
Zoha> We got loads of positive feedback and as well some great insights on how we can update the slackbot words according to employees feedback. For example, we learned that non native English speakers found it hard to be corrected so we iterated the language to make it more simple and supportive. As well, we noticed people editing their words after seeing the slackbot messages to use the recommended words from the slackbot.
What is your ambition for Rephrase?
Zoha> Rephrase is just the MVP approach to our vision. We want to scale the slackbot content to become an opensource tool utilized in different industries including Advertising, Journalism and HR.
What’s the shape of the team who worked on this?
Zoha> We had a diverse multidisciplinary team varying from Creative Directors - Copywriters, D&I experts, Visual Designers, Experience Designers, Talent team & HR. This initiative has been baked in as part of R/GA’s global Make / Change, which is our Strategy for Racial Equity.
