Asking your team, peers, and managers for feedback is a great way to make sure you’re on the right track in every scenario, including this one. That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a lot to learn about working collectively and supporting each other in a hybrid world, though. Take it from HubSpot Engineering Lead Jakub Derda, who has years of experience leading distributed teams. Running a small business means you have a lot on your plate – especially when you’re trying to figure out the best way to hire a dispersed workforce and work across time zones. Handing the headache over to a professional employer organization (PEO), like ExtensisHR, can help.
This strategy makes your projects asynchronous, which remote developer Mutahhir Ali Hayat suggests is the best way to make remote development work out. It makes scheduling meetings difficult, but we can also hand off work to keep the wheels turning 24/7. Jon Russell, a Bangkok-based reporter for TechCrunch, says remote work is what enables their site to run a 24-hour newsroom.
When to Start a Voice Call Instead of Jumping on a Video Meeting
The person on the other end of the Teams or Zoom call is having their last call of the day and you are just getting started with the highest possible energy level or vice versa. Asynchronous communication is important to be inclusive across time zones and schedules, https://remotemode.net/ to make sure we hear from introverts, too, and to make sure everyone gets time to focus. It’s nearly hard to arrange everyone to meet at the same time without inconveniencing someone if you don’t have team members working in overlapping time zones.
- If colleagues are close by, try asking them to work together at one desk so they can easily collaborate on projects as necessary.
- The benefits of remote work are clear but it doesn’t come without challenges.
- If you travel the world frequently, knowing which a time zone you’re in relative to GMT is crucial—and it’s also important if you’re working with a distributed team.
- While this may not be possible, it is the mindset you need to adopt to organize your time and responsibilities.
- Asynchronous communication should be the norm for remote teams working across time zones, especially those with personnel in multiple time zones.
“When it comes to online publishing, being in different places isn’t so strange,” says Russell. It’s possible to hire people around the globe and still have your whole team working 9-to-5 at your office’s time zone—after all, plenty of people work night shifts—but it’s not optimal. Use this article as your guide to overcome these challenges and you’ll be well on your way to building strong relationships across time zones. working remotely in a different time zone Asynchronous communication (“async”) is when information is sent at separate times with a delay in between. For example, writing an email, sending a Loom video, or leaving a voice message for someone so they can respond to it whenever works best with their schedule (and yours). It will help if you switch meeting times weekly and make them more convenient for people worldwide to prevent burnout in one employee.
Con: It can be complicated and costly to manage global teams
Additionally, during a time when the workforce is prone to burnout, an emphasis should be put on caring about each other’s mental wellbeing. And with 94% of employees reporting that they’d stay longer at a company if it invested in their careers, providing virtual mentoring opportunities can also be beneficial. During onboarding, managers should confirm new hires’ working hours and understand exactly when they’ll be available. If the new hire is in a different time zone than the manager, it’s critical for the manager to clearly lay out all applicable goals, expectations, and priorities. The benefits of remote work are clear but it doesn’t come without challenges. Without the right strategy in place, a dispersed workforce can result in reduced collaboration, employee burnout, increased compliance risk, and more.
Trivial mistakes make you look awful in front of your team member while working locally, but the same mistakes cause a 2-day delay when working overseas. By doing all of that, you are setting the ground for a clear communication flow, which will leave no room for speculation. To do it efficiently, you must pick and set up the proper communication channel like MS Teams or Slack and identify what type of information should be disclosed and when. Furthermore, it will help if you make meeting rules that say what format should be used. Bringing your team together for a weekly, monthly, or even annual meet-up can be a productive and enlightening experience.