Additionally, having a shared understanding of these processes can help build trust and transparency within the team, creating a stronger remote working culture. Ensure you are open to dealing with your work hours and controls with your distributed team, whether you are working remotely, in-office, or in a global office outside your main company headquarters. Likewise, support your colleagues to discuss their work limits and work hours so you are aware of the different time zones in which you are all working. Even if you have had an initial chat, you must speak up if you have difficulty attending online meetings in different time zones. Asynchronous collaboration is the default workflow globally distributed teams turn to to optimize their processes and overall culture. This is not surprising, given that the flexibility of asynchronous collaboration represents the ideal response to the challenges of working across time zones.
It brings all communication into one shared workspace that can be accessed from a computer, a phone, or a tablet. If you are working with people in many regions and time zones, you can record sessions for employees to view later. This is the perfect option if you want to do training or just share recorded messages with larger groups. Just imagine a chatroom with all the features of texting and emailing available today and you’ll have Slack. It’s a great collaboration and communication tool for teams that are all over the place. The other great perk is that you can include people who are not on your internal email servers, like freelancers, contractors, or clients, to be part of certain channels and conversations.
When to Start a Voice Call Instead of Jumping on a Video Meeting
Otherwise, you can always verify the location of the attendees before you send out the planner. Apps like Doodle, allow you to offer multiple times and let people select all that will work for them. Giving people the chance to select times that will work will help give them a little control and improve the meeting’s overall engagement and attendance.
- For example, if someone works in Australia while another is located in the United States, it may be difficult to attend a meeting at the same time unless the Aussie gets up pretty early in the morning.
- If they can’t access the file, they’ll have to wait for you to be online again.
- Outline specific responsibilities and qualifications, and learn about best practices for attracting the right candidates for the role.
- It is likely that a truly great teammate will contact you when they start to work the next day.
- Trivial mistakes make you look awful in front of your team member while working locally, but the same mistakes cause a 2-day delay when working overseas.
- That might mean you can move to a city where it’s easier to start a family, or extend your « vacation » to a few months on the beach each year.
- There are many features of the world that I simply cannot wrap my head around, and one of these has always been time zones.
When you just need a quick answer on what the current time is in a different location, World Time Buddy is a great resource. You can get a quick snapshot around the world and can see the full world clock. You will know what the local time is if you’re trying to video chat with your coworker in Bali or Paris. Once companies open the options for flexible work locations, it’s important to set clear expectations. Are you expecting team members are able to travel to the office multiple times each year? By setting clear expectations, you won’t be faced with unwelcome surprises in the future.
Productivity boost
Whenever possible, it’s important to develop the ability to communicate asynchronously when working remotely. No matter where your whole team is located and what time zone or geography separates you, effective async communication allows you to stay connected effectively. Being part of a global team comes with a host of advantages—from learning from each other’s culture to numerous cross-learning opportunities.
Any team looking to boost remote cooperation while working should invest in one. By being able to see who is working, people can save time not reaching out to those who aren’t available and adding more to inboxes. There are lots of color options, so you can assign each employee or team a certain color on the calendar. During the pandemic, Zoom became one of the most popular tools for companies almost overnight.
Best Team Practices When Working Across Time Zones
Companies employing diverse teams spanning multiple time zones enjoy complete time zone coverage. Having all shifts and time zones covered is especially convenient for support and customer service as people don’t need to work past the conventional work hours in their countries, in the case of an emergency. However, other departments and industries can benefit from the approach as well. Teams are expanding not only in size and demand, but also across geographic areas. Depending on how far apart team members are located, there could be several different time zones to consider when scheduling, planning, and meeting together.
Meetings can be set up according to each manager’s personal time zone, leaving everyone scrambling to come up with their own time zone. Having an official time zone means everyone will set and communicate working remotely in a different time zone deadlines and meetings using the same time zone, regardless of their location. By doing this, employees can quickly determine the time difference between their location and their office.
