The ability to hand off work is a productivity benefit, but it’s also motivator since you know you must accomplish tasks so you can hand them off to co-workers at day’s end. https://remotemode.net/ « It puts a little pressure on you to get your work done, » says TechCrunch’s Russell. Use this guide to make you convey your message clearly with remote communication.

While it may seem overkill to hire a person solely dedicated to this, it’s a mistake to think that you can simply take what was working in the office. Or in overlapping time zones, and copy and paste it onto a truly distributed team. Teams that work across multiple time zones can’t rely on real-time communication.

Be very explicit about deadlines and meeting times

Many remote teams schedule their annual get together around a conference. Managing teams across multiple time zones seems to be one of the most common frustrations for many of the remote and hybrid employees that I’ve worked with. When push comes to shove, however, it comes down to creating guidelines for your business to help get everyone on the same page and to work together in the best way possible. Using project management tools can help offer higher team accountability and enable a smooth flow of information to the extent that the time zone and physical differences become irrelevant. Determine which meetings are work-related and mandatory and which are more cultural or social.

We’re Himalayas, a remote job board, that is focused on providing the best experience for remote job seekers and employers. Many Heads of Remote will spend time in both worlds, improving the internal experience while advocating for remote-first beyond the organization. Start by culling synchronous communication like daily stand-ups and instead move toward written status updates. You’ll be amazed by how much can be replaced by a written memo or message. But the biggest benefit might be how much it cuts off onboarding new employees who can simply read the archives and get up to speed on key decisions, culture, and work styles. Fewer interruptions leads to more deep work, which can dramatically increase productivity.

Remote Work Loneliness: How to Protect Your Mental Health When Working Remotely

Likewise, employees should inform their manager and teammates about the best way to reach them outside of working hours if an emergency arises. For teams struggling to make heads or tails of time zones, you can add working hours for each person so it’s clear what times overlap for meetings and phone calls to be scheduled. This wouldn’t need to be a daily task, but maybe just pick one day and everyone enter it so there is a visual the whole team can use until they get the hang of it. To learn more about key aspects of working with international or remote teams, check out these blog posts on hosting virtual meetings, working with global teammates, and international communication tips. When working within different time zones, it is very important to be mindful of your teammates’ time zone.

There are benefits to both modes of communication and I like to have both for clients that I work with long-term. It’s nice to have periodic check-in meetings over the phone or video call, but I like to schedule them ahead of time and keep them to 15 minutes. If I’m in a creative mode and a client calls me, I’m all confuzzled and have a hard time answering their questions. SMB leaders should be mindful about choosing the communication methods that work best for their company overall, and managers should do the same when it comes to how best to communicate with their individual teams. Many business leaders are re-calibrating and tailoring their operations to best support a dispersed workforce. Here we’ll explore several tips for SMB leaders and managers to accommodate employees working across time zones.

Best Practices for Working Across Time Zones

His solution was to have a coding partner, someone he’d bounce ideas off of and check in with about project progress. Work together, even if there is a time gap, and you’ll find that the old adage « two are better than one » is still true. Sometimes you need someone to hold you accountable or just to work alongside you. Jeff Atwood found that when he started Stack Overflow programming on his own turned into a lonely job.

• That could be fostered through social meetings thanks to video chat and conference calls.
• And companies can leverage the benefits of having workers across the nation—and the world.
• Although having a global team can boost productivity in a company, there are quite a few challenges especially when it comes to management as everyone works across different time zones.

With our platform of pre-configured talent acquisition and talent management solutions, maximize the potential of your company’s greatest asset—your people. It’s easy to think of only the problems that can come about from coworkers trying to collaborate from different locales without having the same start and stop to their workday. But this asynchronous setup confers some advantages alongside the drawbacks. Whether it’s just a team check-in or something more collaborative, meetings will always be a thing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s get a more detailed look at what types of teams are leading the way in working remotely in a different time zone. We have a few standing methods of making sure these types of communication happen often, including the daily pair call and weekly or biweekly mastermind chats. These chats are normally only 2-3 people maximum, so more often than not it’s possible to find a time that works for everyone across multiple time zones.