Working Across Different Time Zones: Best Practices & Tools

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. Of course, there’s the argument that the vast majority of meetings may not be necessary, and flexibility is pretty much a part of the remote job description. Still, some form of meetings is vital for organizations looking to keep the connection and interaction across distributed teams.

Of course, for companies that work across time zones, this sort of endeavor would include devising clever ways to get everyone on board and participate in the dialogue. To start a casual discussion, you must first get to know your team members and tap into their common interests. Working out the technicalities of creating the ideal meeting schedule that coincides with your team’s work hours is sometimes impossible.

Test out split shifts or workdays that cater to different timezones.

Still, it can be effectively managed with the right strategies and best practices. Here are the best practices you can adopt to ease the flow of your remote work across different time zones. Team-building activities are so important to building up a team’s morale and helping them work better together. You can mix in work meetings and training sessions with some fun activities that just focus on team bonding. If you have the option, turn it on and at last save yourself from accidentally scheduling a meeting during an inconvenient time.

Time zone conversion tools allow you to stay in sync with the global clock, ensuring accurate time zone conversions at a glance. With a simple search or a click of a button, you can convert meeting times, deadlines, and important events to align seamlessly with team members across various time zones. However, one significant challenge remote workers face is effectively collaborating across different time zones. The diversity of time zones creates a complex web of scheduling conflicts, communication delays, and potential work disruptions. A key to communicating with colleagues is knowing precisely what time it is—for everyone involved. Even for remote employees who have worked remotely for years, knowing the time difference between CEST, PDT, and other time zones may still be challenging.

Schedule Regular Virtual Meetings for the Team

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. Check out our remote jobs, leverage our remote company database, or sign up and create your free company profile. Getting used to higher autonomy and async communication can be challenging, but there are more and more companies doing it–and doing it well.

It can get overwhelming trying to set up a time that works for the entire team. While operating with time zone differences has its benefits, it’s also challenging. Particularly if you don’t introduce new processes to manage a truly global team. Running a small https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ business means you have a lot on your plate – especially when you’re trying to figure out the best way to hire a dispersed workforce and work across time zones. Handing the headache over to a professional employer organization (PEO), like ExtensisHR, can help.

Greenwich Mean Time

For one, it threatens to disrupt the trust between team members, as there’s not sufficient information and knowledge sharing going around. Of course, differences in locations and backgrounds can also add another layer to the misunderstanding and distrust. If left unattended, this malpractice can take root and degenerate further into team silos. 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.

We’re constantly sharing what’s going on with our lives and schedules, whether we’re popping out to grab some tacos at lunch or spending the next 4 months in Costa Rica. The tool shown above is one that our awesome developer Dan made just for Buffer, and it helps us all a ton to know what’s going on with any teammate at a glance. (If you’re a developer yourself and want something similar, he’s made the code available on Github). Maximize your workplace performance with this free guide and set of four templates.

Common Mistakes When Working With a Dispersed Team

When working within different time zones, it is very important to be mindful of your teammates’ time zone. You should avoid scheduling meetings during the times that you know everyone will not be awake, but this isn’t always possible if you work with people https://remotemode.net/ across multiple continents. If you do need to schedule something during off-hours, check first to make sure it is okay. Some of the best practice examples suggest encouraging employees to craft their own shared experiences in company team chat apps.

You can use an online tool like TimeAndDate.com to determine the time zone your colleague is in. You can also try asking them what times they are available during, and when their day starts/ends so you know how much overlap there will be with yours. There’s no need to wait for a conference call or meeting to start talking when you work together from the same office. Teams can help enable distributed employees by providing a discretionary budget for tech like noise-canceling headphones, microphones, high-quality laptops with cameras, and high-speed Internet access. Having the right kind of gear empowers remote employees to actively participate in the conversation—to literally be seen and heard.