Working across time zones is tricky, but the benefits outweigh the costs if you have the right culture, processes, and follow best practices.
Time zones are tricky. It’s easy enough to understand time zones where you live, but if you’re working in a remote team spread across the world, it gets harder to remember what time it is for your team members.
Attempts to reinvent time zones to make them easier for everyone have failed, we just can’t come to a universal agreement.
However, it’s becoming increasingly hard to argue against the benefits of re-mote work Yes, there are challenges but the benefits ultimately outweigh the hassle.
In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits and challenges of working across time zones, as well as the best practices you need to follow.
Benefits of Working Across Time Zones
- Global Talent Acquisition
Collaborating across time zones provides access to skilled professionals worldwide. This facilitates the sharing of niche expertise that may be available elsewhere. Access to global talent also aids faster hiring and retention of top performers.
2. 24/7 Business Operations
Cross-time zone teams allow uninterrupted workflow, passing tasks between time zones to achieve round-the-clock operations. This results in improved productivity, quicker turnaround times, and the ability to provide 24/7 services.
3. Diverse Workforce and Innovation
With representation across regions, infusion of varied cultural viewpoints fosters creativity. Solutions developed through global brainstorming are more innovative as they merge diverse perspectives.
4. Flexibility and Autonomy
Working across time zones gives employees flexibility in managing schedules. With the ability to work from anywhere, staff can better balance personal and professional commitments. The added autonomy also nurtures trust within teams.
Challenges of Working Across Time Zones
Despite the advantages, working across time zones comes with challenges like communication and management that require planning to overcome.
1. Communication Barriers
Collaborating with remote team members can face delays due to asynchronous working hours. This could impact seamless discussions and quick decision-making. Refrain from language barriers and cultural differences may also cause miscommunication.
2. Scheduling Conflicts
Finding mutually suitable times for meetings and calls can be difficult with cross-regional teams. There could be unavoidable meetings at odd hours. Respecting personal time to prevent employee burnout is also crucial.
3. Team Cohesion and Morale
Lack of in-person interactions in cross-time zone teams can adversely impact employee bonding. Some staff may feel isolated or disconnected. Building camaraderie remotely requires concerted efforts.
4. Risk of Burnout
Managing projects across different time zones could lead to extended work hours. The need for coordination during multiple overlapping office hours can feel taxing. This can increase fatigue unless personal health and work-life balance are prioritized.
5. Effective Management and Oversight
Monitoring team productivity and work quality across time zones requires more effort for managers. Development cycles may be longer due to lag in communication and feedback. Standardizing project management disciplines is essential.
Here some best practices
- Adopt digital tools – Tools like goggle workspace can help the team work together irrespective of the different time zones they’re working from.
- Make it fair to all – When working with teams that come from different parts of the world and have different time zones, be fair, don’t stick to one person with the late night or early morning shift. Everyone should feel and share the pain of time zones when you’re working as a team.
- Organize the team – Instead of going from east to west, try organizing your teams from north to south. Even though there’s a great distance between each other, the time zones are generally closer.
- Prioritize overwrap time – On most teams there will be one or two hours of overlap, this is a good time to spend together as a team on video together, this helps form that unique bond between co workers. During this time, team meetings should be scheduled.
- Team agreement – Make a team agreement that favours all team members like when and how to do virtual meetings amongst others.
- Establish clear communication tools – Use appropriate channels like video chats, emails, schedule virtual meetings. This ensures team productivity and cordination.
- Team calendar – This will help minimize some of the mistakes that we can make when we’re scheduling time. If there are meetings or things that the team needs to know about, this is where everybody inputs that time into a shared calendar and time zone conversions are automatically sorted.
