Working Across Different Time Zones: Best Practices & Tools

During onboarding, make sure your communication policies and collaboration tools are properly defined and communicated. These rules can be reviewed and referred to by employees, so they know what to do and what is expected of them. Each version control system has its own features, workflows, and benefits. Developers and teams should choose a version control system based on their specific needs, project requirements, and collaboration preferences. With cloud storage, you can bid farewell to the limitations of physical storage devices and embrace the flexibility of accessing documents from anywhere at any time. This eliminates the need to worry about time zone constraints or file compatibility issues, enabling smooth collaboration and efficient document sharing.

As mentioned earlier, this can cause misunderstandings that can seriously affect operational processes and cause unnecessary delays. Speaking of connection among teammates, working across time zones makes it almost impossible to keep the team spirit and social engagement up. Almost by definition, remote work tends to facilitate isolation among team members, and the matter only gets worse once we add the time zone dimension to the equation. Companies employing smaller internationally distributed teams are more likely to have staff members experience feelings of isolation and being left out from the company culture and general social interactions.

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To help your distributed workforce connect, consider facilitating live meetups when possible. The logistics of working out the perfect meeting schedule that aligns with your team’s work hours can often be outright impossible. A common drawback to managing a team that operates across time zones is the lack of space for sharing insight about work progress. The already limited communication opportunities leave no room for staff to share what they’re working on, talk about ideas, or future plans. This can leave employees feeling their work is being overlooked, and potentially affect their career advancement as it doesn’t allow enough insight into their effort and contribution.

The key to successfully working across multiple time zones is good communication and setting clear expectations is the first step. 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. Now that we’ve covered the shift to more remote work, let’s look at some of the ways that you can help your remote team members and yourself effectively work across various time zones and locations.

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Employees may work independently, uninterrupted, and more productively as a result of this. A popular communication tool like Slack will help you with its features like emojis and others. When working with teams in different time zones, the most important thing to remember is to be mindful, empathic, and courteous. You can break down the distance barriers with video conferencing tools that bring face-to-face interactions to the virtual world. In a remote workplace, where virtual landscapes have replaced traditional physical offices, centralizing documents and resources provide a solid foundation for seamless collaboration. Ultimately, when managing a team across time zones, be ready to be flexible.

• In a remote workplace, team members are typically located in various regions, resulting in time zone differences.
• They will help you craft your perfect blend of flexibility, asynchronous work, and inclusive mindset to push your distributed team towards perpetual success.
• And the vast majority of the studies came to the same conclusion – flexibility and freedom offered within the approach largely impact productivity in the virtual workplace.

Routinely chatting (with the camera on) can help managers maintain awareness of their team’s mental health and workload. For example, if a manager detects an employee’s tone and body language have shifted negatively, they can politely and privately ask if the worker is okay and if there’s anything they can do to help. 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.

The Key to timezone Etiquette

Unless there’s an urgent situation, employees should avoid contacting colleagues when they’re outside of their working hours. While it may be the middle of the day for one worker, it may be midnight for another, and frequently sending work messages at an inconvenient hour can result in burnout and stress. Likewise, employees should inform their manager and teammates about the best way to reach them outside of working hours if an emergency arises. For one, organizations should consider setting and respecting their team’s time zone boundaries.

This means people who were offline can dive into documentation to catch up, rather than having to wait for answers. It’s easy enough to understand time zones where you live, but if you’re working in a remote team spread across the world, it gets harder to remember what time it is for your team members. Slack is a great asynchronous communication tool used by many companies of all sizes. You can set up a collection of channels for different groups of people and topics of conversation. Settings include public and private channels so you can have some fun open group conversations and more project-specific channels.

Options could include one or more days per week on which employees work a half-day in the office, then remotely at night or early in the morning. This means their time is equally distributed between their own office’s time zone and another team’s time zone. Being part of a global team comes with a host of advantages—from learning from each other’s culture to numerous cross-learning opportunities. However, having colleagues in all time zones makes it difficult to keep track of the time and create boundaries. In this blog, I will talk about a few ways in which you can manage communications with colleagues in different parts of the world, making working across multiple time zones easier. Certain etiquette should also be followed in terms of communication while working across time zones.

• For synchronous, everyone-at-the-same-time communication, we use Slack for written chats and Zoom for video chats.
• Cloud-based tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Asana can be used for file sharing, document editing, and project management, allowing your team to access and update work in real time.
• If a phone call or video conference is necessary, try rotating the schedules so everyone gets a turn to take calls late-night or off-hours.
• Our job listing template includes everything you need to know about the role, including key responsibilities, minimum and preferred qualifications, and benefits of working for our company.
• Companies have the luxury of leaning into shared experiences and physical venues when developing a culture in an office-based workplace.
• It’s tempting to believe that sending someone a fast email will save them time, while in reality, it may end up wasting more of their day.

Therefore, any amount of time difference can be used as an advantage for distributed teams, considering it gives employees time to work undistracted. With all of the applications and tools available, time zone differences may cause a lot of confusion among individuals who operate across time zones. For example, businesses should consider establishing https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ and adhering to time zone management for their teams. Teams, for example, can build shared calendars that reflect their availability throughout the day to ensure no time zone borders are crossed. With all the apps and tools available, the time zone difference can create plenty of confusion among employees working across time zones.

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To learn more about tools and software that can help global and remote teams, check out this helpful list. So, those are some of the best practices for working across multiple time zones that can hopefully help you and your team. Working and collaborating with a team with different locations and time zones can pose its own challenges compared to the traditional way that we all know. Remember that to make this way of working successful, you will need a healthy mix of flexibility, understanding, and an agile approach. As the world is moving toward a fully distributed work model, there’s still plenty of value in in-person team meetups. While the digital workspace can perfectly support all the work processes, the social component takes the biggest hit in organizations promoting a remote-first work culture.

• That way, the time zone for each recipient get’s adjusted automatically according to their time zone.
• Handing the headache over to a professional employer organization (PEO), like ExtensisHR, can help.
• In your remote developer job, you can use the tools and practices that are the best fit and make working remotely a pleasurable experience for everybody.
• We’re here to help you learn how to navigate the various time zones and cultural differences that you’ll encounter as a digital nomad, remote worker or entrepreneur.
• Remind remote team members that social interaction doesn’t have to come from co-workers or consider offering a co-working space stipend as a remote employee benefit.
• A general lack of distractions, in addition to reduced commute time and the overall comfort of the home or other chosen work environment, have made the significant productivity boost possible.

Outline specific responsibilities and qualifications, and learn about best practices for attracting the right candidates for the role. Check out our remote jobs, leverage our remote company database, or sign up and create your free company profile. If you’ve made it this far, there’s a good chance you’re either looking to find a remote job, already working remotely, or looking to hire remote employees. They’re proudly a remote-first company and took full advantage of remote collaboration long before coronavirus.