How to Effectively Collaborating Across Time zones- Remote Team

Remote work has gained momentum with the outbreak of Covid-19. Meetings can be set up according to each manager’s personal time zone, leaving everyone scrambling to come up with their own time zone. Having an official time zone means everyone will set and communicate deadlines and meetings using the same time zone, regardless of their working remotely in a different time zone location. By doing this, employees can quickly determine the time difference between their location and their office. Remote workers and companies experience lots of benefits—cost savings, less distractions, and increased productivity, to name a few. However, some challenges can present themselves in a remote work environment.

Everyone should be invited to voluntarily join the meeting room at a time that works for them. This sort of impromptu, off-the-cuff discussion can resemble “watercooler chat” and enables colleagues to brainstorm various topics and connect on a more personal level. During onboarding, managers should confirm new hires’ working hours and understand exactly when https://remotemode.net/ they’ll be available. If the new hire is in a different time zone than the manager, it’s critical for the manager to clearly lay out all applicable goals, expectations, and priorities. To combat proximity bias, turn your video on whenever possible in a virtual meeting. Let your colleagues get to know your face, expressions, and personality digitally.

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From communication to deadlines, freelancers working across time zones need solutions that suit both parties in the working relationship. With the proliferation of remote work comes the likelihood of working with colleagues in different time zones. This was a possibility even before many people started working from home—for example, between a home office in New York, New York, and a satellite office in Los Angeles, California. “In order for it to work you have to have a company culture that is open to non-real-time communication,” Kendall said via email. Running a small business means you have a lot on your plate – especially when you’re trying to figure out the best way to hire a dispersed workforce and work across time zones. Handing the headache over to a professional employer organization (PEO), like ExtensisHR, can help.

tips working across time zones

In spite of the challenges, the upsides far outweigh the drawbacks. One advantage is that you can draw on a broader and more diverse pool of talent and skills. When you have a colleague in Portugal and another in India, it’s harder to keep track of time.

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If it’s recurring and unavoidable (and it often will be), try to schedule meeting times so that the burden is shared across the team rather than by the same people each week. Now speaking of meetings, if we work with global teams, not everybody can make every single meeting. But actually, recording your meetings for the people that can be there can be very useful in a number of ways. One is they actually get to see and hear the conversation themselves. And for the person that’s listening, you feel like you’re part of the team, even though you weren’t at the meeting.

tips working across time zones