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“When you only work in a single time zone, that limits your potential employees to people who also live in that region (or are willing to work during those hours, if they live elsewhere),” Erhard said. Check out the Collaboration Superpowers podcast for the latest stories of remote teams doing great things. And if you want to learn more about how you can work from anywhere, visit collaborationsuperpowers.com, a website full of tips and best practices for the practical remote worker. However, with the right tools and resources, you can streamline the process and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
“Setting the stage with all stakeholders at the beginning of a project and setting expectations on response times can keep everyone on track,” Hoffbauer said. My fourth tip comes from the creating a team agreement process that I take people through. If you want to learn more about team agreements, then go back to episode number 42. One of the items in the team agreement is to always talk in one time zone.
Instead of communicating, send an email
“They worked the night shift while my team in Redmond worked days,” Berkun says. “If I planned well, we’d find magic in going to bed frustrated by a missing puzzle piece, and waking to find it in our inbox. It was like having a friend in the future.” 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. Many Heads of Remote will spend time in both worlds, improving the internal experience while advocating for remote-first beyond the organization.
I also put in a few hours each afternoon writing and scheduling client appointments (for after my vacation). What would normally cause late nights and a lot of unwanted stress, worked beautifully because I was overseas and eight hours ahead of the rest of the team. Now I’ll be frank, I don’t like editing on a deadline because there’s only so much editing a girl can do.
When to start a voice call instead of jumping on a video meeting
People are working absolutely borderless and from wherever they like. No longer does their country, place of birth or time zone have anything to do with it. Loic is a freelance Productivity writer at MakeUseOf and a lifelong learner. He has been writing about technology since 2016 after leaving his job as a Social Media Consultant. Since then, he has written about everything from productivity tips to social media strategies and essential life hacks. When he’s not writing or testing out new technology, Loic enjoys playing video games and exploring new places.
If you really do need to have everyone there, try to pick a time that works for most people and then ask the remaining few if they can attend. Then the next time you organize a meeting, share the burden and make it easy for them and harder for everyone else. Without holding real-time meetings, you may send fast messages, explain new methods, and clarify https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ complex topics with your team. Everyone can look through these at their leisure, take notes, and return to your instructions or ask questions afterward. Teams exchange messages with one other without expecting a response right away. Employees can give each response the time and attention it deserves when they take a break to check their messages.
More diverse and inclusive workplace
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. The key to successfully working across multiple time zones is good communication and setting clear expectations is the first step. With teams expanding to numerous locations, there is a greater need to understand how to build relationships specific to a distributed team structure. Workplaceless is committed to helping multi-time zone teams through learning and facilitation. Team building might be easily overlooked or pushed to the side when working across time zones.
To work more efficiently with distributed teams, you need to treat your team like they are all working together in one office building. While this may not be possible, it is the mindset you need to adopt to organize your time and responsibilities. To work effectively with a remote team, you’ll need to put in the effort and build strong relationships across time zones.
As a hardworking employee located farther away from your company’s office, you might find feel pressure to say yes to every meeting you’re invited to. Additionally, you might also find it hard to say no to meetings — or suggest other times — for meetings scheduled outside of your regular working hours. As someone who’s managed marketing initiatives at companies with remote employees and offices around the world, I’ve seen what successful and unsuccessful international collaboration looks like first hand. There are more time zone tools at TimeandDate.com, too, so be sure to check it out if you want to find local times around the world for your event, convert times for any location, and more.
- “For us to speak at the same time, someone would have to be miserable.”
- Set out that expectation early and work hard to ensure that early mornings and late nights are distributed equally between 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.
- After all, there are only so many things that can be communicated online.
- Be clear which meetings are mandatory and work-related and which are more social or cultural appointments.