Whether it’s just a team check-in or something more collaborative, meetings will always be a thing. After years of working remotely—for companies in India, Canada, Australia, and the U.S.—I’ve learned a lot. Here’s a sneak peek, but keep reading for tips on how to make the most of the pros and overcome the cons working remotely in a different time zone that crop up when the world is your office. Being able to select the best talent regardless of the location is one of the main factors that impacted the entire movement in the first place. There are many features of the world that I simply cannot wrap my head around, and one of these has always been time zones.

Different perspectives and broad ideas can move the company’s vision forward and scale up the business by a considerable margin. There are certain disadvantages or challenges that come with having a team across time zones. 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.

Remote Productivity Hacks for Engineers

Time differences can be a significant challenge when working in disparate locations. As such, it’s essential to understand the time differences and do what you https://remotemode.net/ can to accommodate them. Focus on scheduling meetings at times convenient for all team members or permitting them to work at times most comfortable for them.

“I’d quite happily sacrifice staying a little later or getting up a little earlier to avoid the stresses of a morning commute in rush hour traffic.” When she is not researching the most productive collaboration techniques, she can usually be found trying out the latest team chat and collaboration tools and apps. Moreover, companies should rethink the overall effectiveness of each meeting.

Implement a mindful approach, when Booking Meetings Across Time Zones

They know what they’re doing and write great guides on how to get the most out of remote work. While it may seem strange to let people work at all times of the day, you’re already going to be doing that indirectly by working across time zones. Even the most introverted remote workers need social interaction, humans just aren’t designed for solitude. The only way it can work is if you keep team meetings to a minimum, record them for those that can’t attend, and make attendance optional.

• The social disconnect can breed various productivity and personal obstacles that could wreak havoc on your organization over time.
• “Not only do we not have to be in the same spot to work together, we also don’t have to work at the same time to work together.”
• Moreover, many employees have felt more productive, happier, and less stressed working remotely.
• When team members in a single time zone are working while others are sleeping, collaboration tools help everyone stay on top of what has been done and what tasks remain.
• When working to establish functional global teams, organizations need to primarily focus on optimizing their communication.
• “We have a bi-monthly full company meeting to make sure we all know we still exist,” writes designer Ben Hanna.

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. Let’s outline all the key steps companies can take to better manage working across time zones within the asynchronous collaboration framework. If teams don’t experience any overlap in work hours, there’s bound to be some time wasted as one team is waiting for the instructions or the input from another one, working at a later time.

Greenwich Mean Time

The asynchronous technique, in addition to removing the time limitation of the previous synchronous approach, ideally assures communication records stay available. As more businesses go remote, a new wave of businesses is focusing on honing the art of working as a globally distributed workforce. If you’re already working remotely, why not tap into the vast global talent pool to locate the top candidates? Some people’s answer is that they don’t know how to work across many time zones in spite of having a time zone manager.

Odds are, a great teammate will get back to you when they begin working the next day. As remote work and satellite offices become more common, marketers are discovering that global teams can be incredibly beneficial to a company’s culture and ability to hire diverse talent. Between different time zones, dentist appointments, and vacations, people within your team will need to play catch up using your instant messaging platform every day, making it an important tool to use wisely. Once everyone’s set and communicated their working hours, make sure you’re respecting them!