9 Tips for Working With Teams in Different Timezones

Engineering teams, in particular, requiredifferent types of meetings along various stages. At the same time, whenever you’re in a meeting you’re technically not getting anyfocusedwork done. Be mindful of international employees when scheduling meetings. Aside from specifically discussing timezone-related needs and boundaries as needed, you can also mark your standard work hours on a team calendar — while encouraging colleagues to do the same. Check out the Collaboration Superpowers podcast for the latest stories of remote teams doing great things.

Teams can use Slack for better communication, which will also assist you overcome the disadvantages of a remote working team. In your remote developer job, you can use the tools and practices that are the best fit and make working remotely a pleasurable experience for everybody.

VIRTUAL TEAM ICEBREAKERS

Alternatively, Kelly says you could also consider picking a few days per week where you’ll work on another international team’s schedule entirely. «If you’re working two timezones that don’t overlap much, why not split your shift into two instead of doing the same number of hours consecutively?» asks Kelly. «If you’re clear about why you can’t work every hour of the day across all timezones, teammates will understand that. Just make sure you propose alternatives,» says Nataly Kelly, HubSpot’s VP of Localization. In today’s workplace, diversity breeds new and unique ideas, allows us to look at our campaigns from different points of view, and benefits companies financially. In fact, by 2022, Gartner predicts that 75% of businesses with diverse frontline decision-makers will exceed their financial targets.

Harvest is another important time management app that is extremely beneficial and can help immensely with the productivity of the team members in a remote environment. This app essentially harvests time developers spend on over 70 apps and services, including Slack, Github, Zendesk, and Teambook. This tool tracks time for any specific project task or a specific client. So when you have to manage a team of remote developers, this application is the perfect fit for tracking and managing the working hours of developers from around the world. Teams and solo programmers can use this app to track their working hours and boost the productivity of enterprise-based functions. For long-term projects, asynchronous updates on project management keep the entire team updated regarding the developments and help in streamlining the tasks. Several asynchronous communication and project management tools include Asana, Trello, Jira, Basecamp, and Hive.

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MAKE IT FAIR.When working with teams that are separated by oceans, e.g. Vietnam and San Francisco, don’t stick one person with the late night or early morning shift. Everyone should feel and share the pain of time zones when you’re working on a team. It’s not all 9-5 anymore with remote teams, with some works preferring to wake up in the early morning to get a head start before the day begins, and others starting late but working in the evening. When you meet frequently with the same people, take time to understand when they work remotely. The hardest part of scheduling meetings in different time zones is still the actual scheduling. Choosing a time when everyone is available (or at least awake!).

When employees have a break to check their messages, they can give each response the time and attention it deserves. But what if your remote colleague is going to see your message hours later and you’ll be out of your office by then? If they run into trouble with access, they’ll have to wait another day until they can do the work (or you’ll be receiving a late-night phone call!). This loss of productivity — and increase in frustration — can add up quickly.

How to ask your boss to work remotely

You’ll probably have a mix of remote team members working from home and digital nomads who travel to a new locale working across time zones every three months. Teams can collaborate to meet deadlines without the need for overtime or late-night shifts.

Companies employing diverse teams spanning multiple time zones enjoy complete time zone coverage. Having all shifts and time zones covered is especially convenient for support and customer service as people don’t need to work past the conventional work hours in their countries, in the case of an emergency. However, other departments and industries can benefit from the approach as well. An asynchronous-first team communication style can be very beneficial for remote teams working on projects across different time zones. This communication method can make everyone take a step back before pinging their co-workers, and also put extra thought into their written communication to account for the gap between responses. Now this leads me into my next tip, which is really start thinking in multiple time zones. If you’re working with a global team, it’s good to heighten your awareness of what time it is for people in different parts of the world that you’re working with.

While creating processes that allow employees to work in different timezones is logistically beneficial, on a deeper level, it also makes it easier for diverse global talent to join your team. When you have a successful game plan, you’re regularly able to video chat with colleagues, hear their thoughts, and gain insight into what the workplace is like on the other side of the world. These benefits allow your team to work better together and can lead your international teammates to feel more included in your team’s day-to-day work. My fourth tip comes from the creating a team agreement process that I take people through. If you want to learn more about team agreements, then go back to episode number 42.