“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. However, it is well worth taking the time to have fun as well as https://remotemode.net/ talk about work. In order to create a cohesive team, it is important to demonstrate an understanding of cultural differences. Sync and async communication are important to understand when working with a distributed team.
Sometimes you need someone to hold you accountable or just to work alongside you. Jeff Atwood found that when he started Stack Overflow programming on his own turned into a lonely job. Every employee is also assigned a random “pair partner” each week— that means we’ll jump on a call with one of our colleagues just see how things are going, and perhaps work together on a cross-team project. And that’s nice—we all need human interaction, and it’s great that you can still get that without being in the same room. “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.”
Challenges of working across time zones
Alongside the benefits of working across time zones, there are some challenges to consider as well. It’s not only employees who can potentially benefit from working across time zones—this arrangement also allows distributed groups to be more responsive and available when customers need help. Working across time zones can yield benefits for both employees and employers, from improving work-life balance to widening the talent pool for new hires.
- 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.
- Founded in 2011, Help Scout has been a fully remote company from day 1 and is powering 12,000+ teams in 140+ countries.
- This is why study after study after study has shown remote workers to be more productive than their in-office colleagues.
- Flexible workers hours have been proven to reduce burnout, stress levels, and psychological distress while increasing job satisfaction.
- The best way to work remotely is by trying to replicate most of the things you’d do in an office job.
- If you’re using Google to manage your calendar, here’s a time zone trick.
“I’ll take phone calls late in the evening from folks that don’t realize I’m on the east coast and consider that part of the job for someone working remotely in a different time zone,” Furbish says. The actual time difference between co-workers is a significant barrier to effective real-time communication. If remote employees don’t have overlap in work hours, there can be a lag between a question being asked and answered. These digital solutions help you convert time zones before scheduling conference calls, video chats, or other vital communications.
How To Be An Effective Team Manager In 2021
If so, then you know the challenges in staying on the same page that come with working remotely. At Zapier, we’ve formalized communications about what we’re working on with a Friday update post that lists our top priority for the week and what progress we made on it. Each of those live in Async—an in-house tool that gives everyone working remotely in a different time zone a set place to write anything they need to share with the entire team and forces us to “work in public.” David Fullerton had to overcome the communication hurdle when he was growing the Stack Exchange team. “When there were 4 people, everyone knew everything. When there are 75 people, that no longer scales,” he says.
It will help if you switch meeting times weekly and make them more convenient for people worldwide to prevent burnout in one employee. Perhaps you can have two different meetings on one day at two different times so everybody can get a chance to participate. For example, if some of your meetings have meant that your team members in France have had to attend at 1 am local time, try to arrange your next meeting so that they can attend during their usual work hours. Not only do you have more distributed access between teams, but you also benefit from the diversity of different voices. Digital nomads often have jobs or businesses that can be conducted entirely over the internet, such as freelance writing, web development, graphic design, digital marketing, online teaching, and more. They rely on a combination of laptops, smartphones, and internet connectivity to stay connected with clients or employers, complete tasks, and earn themselves a living.
Why do time zones exist?
After all, having employees working in different time zones is the equivalent of offering your organization a 24-hour workplace — with the top talent on the planet. Without the need for overtime or late-night shifts, teams can collaborate to fulfill deadlines. Employees in the one-time zone can hand over half-finished projects to peers in another time zone to finish.
The future of work is remote, which means negotiating different time zones is an inescapable reality. Read on for 10+ strategies on making your communication inclusive and seamless. They also come with features like commenting to facilitate collaboration and ensure everyone is on the same page. During onboarding, make sure your communication policies and collaboration tools are properly defined and communicated. These rules can be reviewed and referred to by employees, so they know what to do and what is expected of them. When working with teams in different time zones, the most important thing to remember is to be mindful, empathic, and courteous.
With all the apps and tools available, the time zone difference can create plenty of confusion among employees working across time zones. Asynchronous collaboration is the default workflow globally distributed teams turn to to optimize their processes and overall culture. This is not surprising, given that the flexibility of asynchronous collaboration represents the ideal response to the challenges of working across time zones. Similarly, working across time zones is beneficial to companies on a larger, operational level. Having distributed teams working across time zones essentially implies round-the-clock workflow. Companies employing diverse teams spanning multiple time zones enjoy complete time zone coverage.