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They were created in the nineteenth century because the world needed a unified system to keep track of time. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that sending someone a quick email will save them time, when it may actually end up wasting more of their day. If you need something done urgently or want your co-worker to make a decision ASAP, pick up the phone and talk it out. There’s no need to wait for a conference call or meeting to start talking when you work together from the same office. But when working with a distributed team, communicating takes more effort.
There are many features of the world that I simply cannot wrap my head around, and one of these has always been time zones. When you’re working remotely or in a different location from other team members, you can’t easily turn to them, ask a question, or make https://remotemode.net/ conversation. This can make it hard to communicate and develop a relationship with your colleagues. Timezone messages like the one above can help you be mindful of what to send when to send it, and if your message is urgent enough to send as soon as possible.
Tips for Working With Teams in Different Timezones
Consider hosting live meetups whenever feasible to help your scattered staff connect. To avoid team blockers related to timezones, one thing Susanne Ronnqvist Ahmadi, HubSpot’s Vice President of International Marketing, says you should aim to have a flexible schedule at certain points of the day. To do this on Gmail, create the email as you would draft any other message. Then, when you’re ready to schedule the email, click the arrow on the send icon for the “Schedule message” option. “When you work in different timezones, it’s important to be aware of when you’re sending a message or email,” says Rebecca White, a junior writer for the HubSpot Blog.
Sometimes I’m up early and working, sometimes I’m overseas, and sometimes I work late into the evening. The luxury of being my own #girlboss is that I don’t have to hold to traditional hours. When you schedule a meeting with a client in a different time zone, check and double-check that you’ve done your math correctly. Asynchronous communication necessitates that people produce messages that are brief, full, and unambiguous. Everyone should be equipped with everything they require to begin working on a job or request right away.
Navigating Remote Work Across Time Zones: Best Practices & Essential Tools
Maintaining proper documentation and facilitating information sharing is crucial for successful team collaboration in a remote or hybrid work environment. Of course, there are also share points like Box and Dropbox that can help, too. If you encourage everyone to keep their work in a shared space, you can reduce the instances of someone sending a frantic email in the middle of someone else’s night just to get one document. If you have to maintain certain hours of coverage despite your employees’ locations, split shifts can be an excellent solution. Be very sensitive to cultural differences around work, time off, and holidays.
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. The following best practices will help SMB employers navigate these challenges and reap all the benefits of remote work. Of course, for organizations working across time zones, this type of effort would involve coming up with creative ways to have everyone on board and involved in the conversation. It takes really getting to know your team members and tapping into their shared interests to get the casual conversation going.
Working Across Time Zones: Best Practices and Tools
Crafting the master time zone reference requires meticulous attention to detail. You can create a comprehensive document or a digital dashboard where you record each team member’s location, corresponding time zone, and any relevant daylight-saving time adjustments. Still, it can be effectively managed with the right strategies and best practices. Here are the best practices you can adopt to ease the flow of your remote work across different time zones.
This includes defining the scope, goals, and deadlines of your projects, as well as the preferred modes, frequency, and timing of communication. You should also respect the working hours and availability of your team members, and avoid sending urgent or non-essential messages outside of their normal working remotely in a different time zone hours. Additionally, you should communicate your own working hours and availability, and set boundaries for your personal time and space. With all of the applications and tools available, time zone differences may cause a lot of confusion among individuals who operate across time zones.
