7 Best Practices for Working Across Time Zones

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. With the many collaboration tools we are listing below, you should be able to drastically cut down on the number of calls that are required to get the work done. Just make sure to be thoughtful and rotate the timeslots as much as possible.

On-the-fly collaboration tends to occur less frequently when working across time zones, but the right tools can change that. For example, implementing a virtual project management platform can help teams coordinate assignments, track individuals’ progress on tasks, and boost overall efficiency. Splitting your hourly schedule around your team’s timezones allows you to be more available for meetings or quick communication with your international colleagues without ignoring the colleagues in your office. It will also ensure that you’re available to your international department without needing to stay up all hours of the day. The world is a changin’ and working across time zones is becoming more and more common for different industries.

Ensure Collaborative Tools are Being Used

Technology has continued to shape and develop the way we do just about everything in our daily lives. Using technology, teams are https://remotemode.net/ smoothly and it’s opening all kinds of doors for businesses. If you have found yourself part of a global team or even just one spread across the United States recently, we’ve got some ideas to help you work more effectively and be a great team player. 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.

As previously said, this can lead to misconceptions, which can substantially disrupt operational operations and cause unnecessary delays. 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. If you are working with people in many regions and time zones, you can record sessions for employees to view later.

UTC Time

These are also useful when your teammates don’t all speak the same language. The security features are also highly rated with Cisco and WebEx, so you can make sure everything is encrypted and that you won’t have unwelcome guests. WebEx does offer an option to remove attendees working remotely in a different time zone if that’s necessary. Cisco WebEx is another video conferencing software platform that is popular. With HD videoconferencing available, it offers high-quality pictures. The software can follow the speaker to make it easier to follow along with a conversation.

Nonetheless, although it may be relatively easy for a software business to adapt its processes to function across time zones, this strategy is just not sustainable for other sectors and teams. Let’s take a closer look at the sorts of teams that are leading the way in cross-time zone collaboration with proper time zone management. Maintaining culture is a vital component of every company’s business success, but it is especially critical for totally remote teams. Understanding the distinctions between creating and maintaining a dynamic culture in a remote work setting vs an office-based environment is of utmost importance and companies can not ignore it.

Remote Work Has Become More Common During the Pandemic

This will only get more difficult over time if you aren’t willing to make some changes to attract and retain millennial employees. People are looking for employers with a strong and healthy company culture and a leadership effort to combat burnout and value work-life balance for the entire team. WTB was born out of frustration with existing world clock apps, online meeting and time conversion tools. Most of them have given up on providing quality business tools and on delighting their users.

You will know what the local time is if you’re trying to video chat with your coworker in Bali or Paris. Switch it up so each personality type has a chance to participate and have some fun. Plus you can play trivia games, host movie-watching parties, and take a virtual cooking class or cocktail mixing class together.

Tips for Hosting a Virtual Brainstorm, According to HubSpot Marketing Managers

“Be ready to jump on a call/video-call without having to schedule a time for it,” Ronnqvist Ahmadi advises. “Let your team know you’re available over Slack (or whichever tool you use), and build in ‘air-time’ in your agenda for check-ins or quick chats.” 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. I had to learn with these clients that the due date they requested was the day before in my time zone.

• The best way to keep things going well is to be occupied and busy only 80-90% of your working hours so that you have enough time to plan, think, organize and breathe.
• But today, for many fully distributed teams and companies that have employees based in a hodgepodge of places worldwide, working across multiple time zones has become a daily reality.
• WebEx does offer an option to remove attendees if that’s necessary.
• When working across time zones, it’s likely that you’ll be on meetings at strange times of the day.
• Typically, we try to be mindful of what time it is for others when we use synchronous communication like video or Slack.