This means people who were offline can dive into documentation to catch up, rather than having to wait for answers. Working across time zones is tricky, but the benefits outweigh the costs if you have the right culture, processes, and follow best practices. So usually, on most teams, there are going to be one or two hours of overlap that you can have and really prioritize that time together. And one suggestion that I’ll make is in that overlap time, try to spend time on video together. Let’s outline all the key steps companies can take to better manage working across time zones within the asynchronous collaboration framework.

• Google Calendar settings will also ask if you want to “Ask to update my primary time zone to current location,” and you can choose to check this box, or not.
• It brings all communication into one shared workspace that can be accessed from a computer, a phone, or a tablet.
• The actual time difference between co-workers is a significant barrier to effective real-time communication.
• Of course, if you can’t afford to fly your entire team to a location very often, you can turn to virtual team-building events to keep up the team spirit in the meantime.
• 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.

Your employees’ communication styles, collaboration methods, and work schedules are largely impacted by their cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. Consider making a record of all culture-specific holidays to make sure no meetings or group work sessions are scheduled around those dates. Another key feature of such team chat apps is the pin option as it helps keep the important documents top of mind and easily accessible. 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. This is especially true for creative work that requires maximum focus.

Top 10 Must-Have Remote Work Skills

While it might seem obvious, it is incredibly important to know and be mindful of your team’s schedules and time zones. Many project management software programs keep this information up to date in real time, so you can always check where your team is working before attempting to schedule across time zones. 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. https://remotemode.net/ 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. 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. Some people might have to be available for an 11 PM call once a month, but it’s way easier to be onboard for that if they know that everyone will take a turn with the weird hours.

“That means that the remote person has a lot of autonomy and any problems that arise can be solved by either leaving messages on Slack/email or syncing up for a couple of hours one day.” Aside from the few weeks every year when we’re all together at our company retreats, there’s always someone at Zapier awake and working. Time zone coverage is just something that’s automatically possible with distributed teams. The best job for you might not be in your hometown, and you might work better when you aren’t shackled to a 9-to-5 workday.

Language and culture barriers.

For workers this looks like having time to take care of loved ones or taking time for personal errands. Operating with a team that is spread across the world requires effort and intentionality, but the benefits are more significant than the challenges. Let’s examine how companies can benefit from a globally distributed workforce.

Therefore, as the project manager, it’s your job to come up with an easy way to track progress and monitor performance. Be aware of regional slang or terms that people who don’t share your native language might not understand. You should also avoid using buzzwords and instead say exactly what you mean, as precisely as you can. Though you presumably all share a common language that enables you to work together, people on your team are likely to have different native languages. That means you should make an additional effort to communicate in a clear and straightforward manner so that everyone can participate equally.

Follow this meeting protocol when working remotely

However, it becomes more complicated when working with a global workforce (people who work on opposite sides of the world). For example, if someone works in Australia while another is located in the United States, it may be difficult to attend a meeting at the same time unless the Aussie gets up pretty early in the morning. Sometimes, scheduling a meeting at a time that works for all timezones is easier said than done. For example, if you’re based in the U.S. and have teams in Asia and California, finding a time that fits into everyone’s schedules and usual work hours can be tricky.

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. Hence, you should try to separate the place where you work from a relatively quiet place in your home. A value-based culture can be seen in the actions and implementation of the business. It outlines the core vision, guiding principles, beliefs, and priorities of the organization as the essential driving force. More significantly, it defines who a firm is and where it wants to go in the future. Everyone will have everything they need to get up and running as soon as they sign in for the day, regardless of what time it is.

Follow Up on a Communication Platform

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. We created this blog to share some of the knowledge and experience that we have around travel, remote work, photography and beyond! One thing that I tried out in order to help with the time zone conundrum of a time zone converter was the Google Calendar second time zone option.

Failure to define your projected time owing to time zone differences might lead to confusion regarding submission deadlines, conference meeting times, and even your entire approach. Join us as we go through common challenges of managing remote team members across time zones and five practical tips to overcome them. When working across time zones, it is important to set fair meeting times. Of course, if you can’t afford to fly your entire team https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ to a location very often, you can turn to virtual team-building events to keep up the team spirit in the meantime. You can invite your team members to join a private group or a public channel in the team chat app you use — for example, you can name the channel #group-activities, #team_fun_times, or simply, #team-building. There, you can suggest interesting team activities and play fun team-building games designed for virtual team settings.