The age of globalization, especially after the push of the pandemic, has transformed how many companies conduct their operations, especially when it comes to their workforce. Today you can comfortably manage your administrative business from Asia while having remote employees working in Europe or the US.
Dealing with a remote team working across multiple time zones is now a possibility thanks to internet connectivity and other supporting technology, but it’s, nonetheless, not your usual 9-5 gig. Being part of a virtual team can pose several challenges, both for managers and teams.
While there are almost always myriad challenges within any team or organization, there is no denying that a geographically dispersed group of people face a unique set of obstacles that you should address early on to ensure a smooth and successful work environment. For that reason, we have listed some of the most pertinent challenges – and solutions – of teams working across different time zones.
Setting And Conducting Meetings
When working from the same office – and, therefore, city – you don’t need to give a second thought to meeting times. When your colleagues are working across different time zones, however, scheduling meetings is usually a challenge.
Setting meetings when your colleagues are in a different time zone will require more consideration so that no one essential is left out. If you’re having trouble keeping track of the differing time zones, using a timezone API is one of the most efficient ways to access this information quickly and conveniently at any time.
Situations will likely arise when not everyone is available – or needed – in specific meetings, so to ensure that members are not bending their schedules, especially outside of working hours, you should consider prioritizing the attendees. If working times differ significantly, you might want to consider scheduling regular meetings that fit in everyone’s working hours or making recordings so employees can listen to them at a later time.
Communication
When you’re dealing with diverse schedules, communication is more than an obvious challenge, so there are certain factors to consider when mapping out your communication strategy.
Traditional ways of communicating will no longer be effective due to the unique working environment, so leaders should establish new forms of communication that reflect the organization’s structure and allow for effective information sharing across teams. Since response times may be slower, you should practice laying out all the important information, ask for availability, or refrain from over-communicating when the other person is not available.
In general, when communicating and especially asking for feedback from your coworkers in different time zones, you should have the following framework in mind:
- Is this urgent enough to interrupt their work?
- Do I need an answer right away?
- Does my coworker need the information at this moment?
Flexibility And Fairness
Working across different time zones requires mindfulness when it comes to other people’s time. While it is completely understandable that everyone can be very busy at times and will want to optimize their time in the most efficient way, remote working will demand more flexibility and fairness when it comes to coworking.
If you are working on a pressing task or simply want to take something off of your to-do list you might want to reach out to your coworker immediately to deal with the matter. Working in different time zones means that people won’t always be available at the same time as you. Although this can indeed happen even if you’re working in the same office, you should be mindful of the different time zones when reaching out at a particular time of day.
Awareness And Availability
If you work in an international team where some of your colleagues live in different countries, your cultures and practices will differ. Cultural diversity will likely impact the communication and collaboration dynamic, so leaders should raise enough awareness in the team to ensure that everyone is mindful of other people’s time, culture, and customs.
Another factor that should not be neglected is differing national or religious holidays when employees might be “out of office”. The most efficient solution to this challenge is to have a shared calendar that is kept up-to-date by the team to increase transparency and simplify communication.
Final Words
Working with a remote team that is dispersed across time zones requires adjustments that make collaboration possible – and efficient. Essentially, it all boils down to managing virtual relationships well so you can properly address the following challenges:
- Setting and conducting meetings
- Communication
- Flexibility and fairness
- Awareness and availability
As a leader, you don’t have to stay up all night trying to manage your virtual team. All you need is a suitable and realistic plan that will keep everyone happy and productive – including you.
