To build a successful team that operates autonomously, companies should consider setting clear employee expectations regarding personality traits and soft skills best suited for this work model. These can be used as a reference point throughout the hiring process and as additional coaching with established teams. Similarly, the rest of the team should be comfortable working autonomously with minimum instruction and interference to ensure maximum productivity. 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.
Team leaders should establish clear processes and spell out each person’s roles and responsibilities so everyone is on the same page and no task is unaccounted for. As part of this process, your company might working remotely in a different time zone want to put together an org chart that shows both employees’ roles and locations. During onboarding, make sure your communication policies and collaboration tools are properly defined and communicated.
Best practices for working remotely in a different time zone
Here is a list of potential obstacles that one could experience when working as a remote software engineer, as well as suggestions for how to overcome them. “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. Dig deeper into https://remotemode.net/ the advantages of implementing the follow the sun model in your organization. Tell us the skills you need and we’ll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks. One of the first mistakes you may make when working remotely from home is to allow all of your favorite (or least favorite) items in the house to distract you.
It’s a good practice to schedule the meetings only for the exchange of information that can’t be communicated over a team chat app, a document, an email, or a memo. Sure, a team brainstorming session is most effective over a video conference, however, a general weekly update doesn’t necessarily require a 5 a.m. It’s tough to keep the collaboration and team spirit high with one team leaving the virtual office just as another is starting their workday.
The Best Way to Work with a Global Team
Simultaneously, it’s beneficial to establish several points of contact across time zones. Aside from an organized process and appropriate technological tools, the last link in the chain to managing a team working across time zones is the human aspect. Making people take a 3am call might be less worthwhile (no one’s at their productive best at 3am, anyway) than turning to an asynchronous means of communication. Tools like Google Docs, Trello, and Hackpad allow teammates to collaborate on a project at their own pace.
- Even though your whole team may be in different major cities or different countries, with geographic and time zone differences separating you—with effective async communication, none of that matters.
- It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that sending someone a quick email will save them time, when it may actually end up wasting more of their day.
- The lack of physical presence makes it easier for remote workers to lose connection with their team.
- In developed nations such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, individuals from emerging countries such as India have a deep urge to settle.
- It’s not easy to admit, but time zone discrepancies will affect work repartition and scheduling.
Read on for advice on how to take advantage of time zone differences, establish crystal clear communication, and keep everyone working from the same page, wherever they are. Founded in 2011, Help Scout has been a fully remote company from day 1 and is powering 12,000+ teams in 140+ countries. GitLab might be the world’s largest fully distributed company with 1,400+ remote workers in 65+ countries.
Advantages of working across time zones
Building relationships is vital for any thriving business, even for teams in multiple different time zones. A sound organization is necessary to a dispersed team working like a well-oiled machine. Nothing can be perfect at all times, so it’s important to have a contingency plan, and to make room for bumps in the road. Dropbox lets teammates store and share documents with each other, and toggle privacy setting for better organization and compartmentalisation. Asana allows managers to assign and comment tasks for individual team members in a clear and legible dashboard.
Additionally, having a shared understanding of these processes can help build trust and transparency within the team, creating a stronger remote working culture. Utilizing a document of the team’s typical hours of availability and an actively updated and openly accessible calendar eliminates the need for several back and forth messages asking “what time works best for you? This shared document can live in a project management tool or document storage location for the whole team to reference as needed. Teams that thrive working across time zones have clearly defined roles that fit the model of asynchronous work.
Managers and decision-makers are the ones facing the harshest challenges when working with teams who operate across time zones. 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. 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.
For example, teams can create shared calendars showing their availability across different hours in a day to ensure no time zone boundaries are crossed. 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. With the ever-increasing demand for a workforce that can work across time zones, a lot of pressure has also emanated from the failure to maintain a work-life balance. This is because the majority of the time, there isn’t any separation of the two. Some employees have to work during midnight hours in order to accommodate others and hence one’s sleeping pattern changes and if not managed, demotivation, brain drain can arise.