Working Across Different Time Zones: Best Practices & Tools
Content
- Limited opportunities for employee effort recognition
- Tips for How to Work with Clients in Different Time Zones
- Con: It takes more effort to stay in sync
- Tips for Hosting a Virtual Brainstorm, According to HubSpot Marketing Managers
- The key to managing across time zones
- Dealing with Cybercriminals in Remote Work
- Tech tips for working with people in different time zones
This makes it simple for distant team members to determine and adjust their time. 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. 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.
- Google Calendar settings will also ask if you want to “Ask to update my primary time zone to current location,” and you can choose to check this box, or not.
- Even though we’ve tried to reinvent time zones, we still can’t agree on a universal system.
- Furthermore, 19% work in teams that span six to 10 time zones and only 2% responded that their entire company works in a single time zone.
With this awesome tool, you can just video-record yourself and your screen and go through presentations, audits, implementations, walk-throughs, or anything you want to share with your team or colleagues. Then, you just need to share a link with them, and they will be able to view the video when and as many times as they want. And you will even be notified any time that anyone sees your link! This is a true gem for digital nomads wanting to be more productive and avoid endless (and sometimes useless) meetings. Also remember that remote workers may feel invisible and alone if their working hours differ greatly from their colleagues. Regular team meetings can be a great way to bring remote workers together and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Limited opportunities for employee effort recognition
Sometimes, scheduling a meeting at a time that works for all timezones is easier said than done. For example, if you’re based in the U.S. and have teams in Asia and California, finding a time that fits into everyone’s schedules and usual work hours can be tricky. This may not always be possible, but being mindful of international schedules ensures that all employees feel included and that their time is respected.
Rescue time assists people who work on their own with the time management and task prioritization. Asynchronous collaboration doesn’t just happen through communication. Passing along information, completing tasks, and monitoring performance are part of the smooth running of any team. Some tools can take over those tasks for remote teams and make them just as simple as in a physical office, minus the distractions. Making people take a 3am call might be less worthwhile (no one’s at their productive best at 3am, anyway) than turning to an asynchronous means of communication. Tools like Google Docs, Trello, and Hackpad allow teammates to collaborate on a project at their own pace.
Tips for How to Work with Clients in Different Time Zones
Companies employing diverse teams spanning multiple time zones enjoy complete time zone coverage. However, other departments and industries can benefit from the approach as well. Okay, my next tip is to get in the habit of double-checking your times. If you’re going to work with global teams, it just happens even to the best of us. Even though I double-check and I’m constantly aware of it and I’m supposedly a pro, even I get time zones wrong every once in a while. That’s a very simple time zone check that you can do with yourself in just one other time.
How do you manage customers in different time zones?
- Use Your Phone. Sometimes the most useful features of your phone are tucked away and easy to forget about.
- Establish Time Zone Rules.
- Be Time Considerate.
- Keep Constant Communication.
- 24-Hour Work Day.
- Outsource to Where Your Customers Are.
- Have Boundaries.
Alternatively, try giving colleagues three days per week on their home time zone’s schedule and two per week on another team’s schedule. This may work better for colleagues who want a more regular schedule to fit in with family commitments. If your schedule and the balance of your week are important to you, remember to set boundaries as a freelancer and politely turn down meetings that fall outside your working hours. Whether you’re a freelancer working with one client in another time zone, or with five clients, teammates and other professional contacts all over the world, World Time Buddy will be your friend. If Slack seems awfully quiet, it might be because your colleagues in another country are celebrating a holiday.
Con: It takes more effort to stay in sync
I’m certainly guilty of spending way too long scrolling through feeds and panging with wanderlust, but it’s time to put that phone to a better use. I recommend filling up the world clock function with locations you typically reference, whether it’s Miami, Dallas and San Francisco, or Moscow, Mumbai and Melbourne. When aiming to plan a productive meeting, make sure to get everyone’s input before moving forward with a meeting time. He is highly involved in supporting area non-profit organizations. Sam brought his passion to CIA Insurance and Risk Management which has created an annual Charity Car Show. Each year, the employees select a non-profit to be the benefactor for this event that draws over 300 participants and spectators from the community.
So when you do have meetings or things that the team needs to know about, that everybody inputs that time into a shared calendar, then the time zone conversions are automatically done. And that just helps minimize some of the mistakes that we can make when we’re scheduling time. There are more time zone tools at TimeandDate.com, too, so be sure to check it out if you want to find local times around the world for your event, convert times for any location, and more.
The days of having three different clocks hanging on your wall are over. Now, you can have them displayed on Google Calendar whenever you’re planning your week. Simply look up the current time zone of the city or country with which you’re attempting to synchronise. Likewise, when tasks are uploaded to asynchronous communication channels, https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ set clear expectations on working autonomously. Check out our remote jobs, leverage our remote company database, or sign up and create your free company profile. One of the best things about Help Scout is that they publish how they work and their post on how to build a globally remote team that really works is a great example.
You can add as many as you want, and the app will show you a list of your chosen cities, the time it is there, and how many hours ahead or behind they are relative to your location. For even easier access, add the clock widget to one of your phone’s home screens. Tiffanie joined CIA in June of 2016 as the Employee Benefits Client Account Manager. Having been in the industry for 10 years, Tiffanie has been in both sales and service to ensure her clients receive optimal service. She enjoys employee benefits because she has the opportunity to help clients understand their benefits better and how to make their benefits work for them.
The key to managing across time zones
You can even host clubs around specific interests and encourage team members to join. Working in a global team spread across time zones means embracing a remote-first, not a remote-friendly, culture. You can’t just be aware of time zones, you need to construct a company where time zones are at the core of every internal operation. Even the most introverted remote workers need social interaction, humans just aren’t designed for solitude. While it can be challenging to manage a distributed team, fully remote companies have many benefits.