Best team practices when working across time zones

Real-time collaborating sometimes isn’t as productive as we like to think it is. So before you ask people to rearrange their schedule, make sure what you plan to discuss really warrants everyone being present. Tools like World Time Buddy and Time and Date make planning meetings easier. Just plug in your team’s current locations, and these calculators will find cross-over hours to meet . These moments will help tie your team together, making it easier to collaborate productively when remote. With one simple emoji, messages are clear and easy to understand at a glance.

Furthermore, it reduces barriers to asking questions, getting help, and taking risks. Provide these tools to your employees so they can use them effectively. As a result, you’ll be able to close any cultural communication gaps, which will lead to a more respectful and productive work environment. Suppose you work in one country but half your team is located in another.

– Building Blocks of Hybrid Collaboration

Along with aligning operations, other risks could seriously disrupt major processes, if left unchecked. Let’s get a better insight into the challenges of globally distributed teams to get a clearer idea of what to look out for and how to prevent any larger issues. Now this leads me into my next tip, which is really start thinking in multiple time zones. If you’re working with a global team, it’s good to heighten your awareness of what time it is for people in different parts of the world that you’re working with. For instance, I work with Gretchen every single day and I start the work with her at 6 p.m. These are the kinds of things that it’s just good to keep in mind with your teammates.

That could mean starting work early in the morning or late at night so that their day aligns with their local time zone. It’s also helpful to let your team members know your work hours and when you are available for check-ins and brief chats. At Culture Amp, we have offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, with our headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, and remote employees worldwide. On Fridays in the US, the Melbourne team is already gone for the weekend, and on Mondays in Australia, our US folks are still wrapping up their Sunday dinners.

Tips for Working with Teammates in Different timezones

Of course, before you see the silver lining, you have to weather the storm cloud. In this case, as the rate of cross-time zone hiring continues to rise, so too do those reporting it as a major barrier to remote work. Our best bet for combating this is to establish a single communication hub for a distributed working across time zones team. When working in an office, employees are always clocking in at the same time, so everyone has a built-in expectation for when they might respond to something. The technology available to us now makes it possible for people to work remotely at any time of day, with little need for constant interaction.

When teams work in different time zones, someone can always be ready to tackle issues or make progress, meaning less downtime. As the idiom goes, «Make hay while the sun shines,» and in this case, the sun is always shining somewhere. Planning meetings across time zones might sound so painful that you’d rather just never have meetings—but don’t do that either. It makes scheduling meetings difficult, but we can also hand off work to keep the wheels turning 24/7. Jon Russell, a Bangkok-based reporter for TechCrunch, says remote work is what enables their site to run a 24-hour newsroom. «When it comes to online publishing, being in different places isn’t so strange,» says Russell.

Schedule any meetings during the times everyone can attend

This is not surprising, given that the flexibility of asynchronous collaboration represents the ideal response to the challenges of working across time zones. As much as it’s important to keep a strong bond between remote coworkers through continual communication and real-time collaboration, there’s also a strong case for the asynchronous, no-distraction work. This is especially true for creative work that requires maximum focus.

• After all, there’s only so much that can be conveyed virtually.
• Integrations Connect your favorite tools to work more efficiently.
• Check out our post on 100+ fully remote companies for more examples.
• Waking up to a silent team chat, phone, or online communication tool, or conversely, in the middle of a hectic workday schedule for employees in other countries, can feel unsettling or overwhelming.
• Synchronous communication, or real-time communication between teams, is still necessary for team development, bonding, brainstorming, and celebrating project achievements.

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How to Work Across Time Zones as a Remote Team: Best Practices

«That feeling of inclusion can make such a difference to employee retention, happiness, and performance — so the little things actually matter quite a lot,» McGinty said. «Alternatively, you can also block the time at the end of the day with a private reminder that says, “Go home now, you’ve been here since 6 am,» Kelly adds. One of the first mistakes you may make when working remotely from home is to allow all of your favorite items in the house to distract you.

• Be aware of other remote employees’ work situations, time zones, and physical settings.
• Flexible workers hours have been proven to reduce burnout, stress levels, and psychological distress while increasing job satisfaction.
• In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits and challenges of working across time zones, as well as the best practices you need to follow.
• When communicating with a team member who lives in a different time zone, always ask yourself if they have enough information, clarity, and access to do their work.
• Next, use these suggestions to help your team communicate more effectively while working remotely.
• Some of us do our best work late at night, while others prefer to get up early and spend the late afternoons away from the desk.

But once your team’s workload increases, ask your HR department or supervisor to get a permanent employee. If you frequently change schedules for time-sensitive yet repetitive tasks, consider offloading them to AI instead. Automated systems can handle tedious matters like appointment scheduling, time recording, email sorting, and project tracking. We find a consultative process is most effective for companies with 50 or more employees and a rapid process is more impactful for companies with fewer than 50 employees.