In an era where remote work and satellite offices are becoming more common, marketers are realizing that global teams can be beneficial to the culture of a company and its ability to recruit talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Having diversity at work breeds new and innovative ideas. It allows us to look at campaigns from different perspectives, and benefits companies . Gartner predicts that 75% of businesses with diverse decision-makers will outperform their targets by 2022.
It's a no-brainer that having a diverse global workforce offers many benefits. Yet, companies still struggle to avail this opportunity owing to timezone collaboration issues.
Here’s a closer look at what working across time zones involves. How can you adapt your strategies to overcoming timezone collaboration issues?
This article covers:
- Benefits of Streamlining Operations Across Multiple Timezones
- Global Talent Pool Access
- Boost in Profitability
- Less Distractions for Individuals
- An Uninterrupted Remote Workflow
- What are Timezone Collaboration Issues?
- Inconsistent Collaboration and Communication
- Passive Knowledge Sharing Diminishes
- No Physical Access Compromises Team Work
- 5 Tips to Overcome Time Zone Challenges
- Ensure Effective Communication
- Introduce Asynchronous Collaboration
- Setup Official Mutually Agreed Timezone
- Use Cloud-Based Tools to Manage Timezone Issue
- Allow Flexible Working Hours
- Conclusion
Let’s delve into them;
Benefits of Streamlining Operations Across Multiple Timezones
Overcoming timezone collaboration issues offers many benefits. For example, you can video chat with colleagues, hear their opinions, and gain insight into life in other countries.
By utilizing these benefits, you can improve the working relationship between your team members. You can also make them feel more involved.
A growing number of companies are onboarding remote workers globally. To gain a deeper understanding of this trend, let's break down all the benefits of working across time zones.
Global Talent Pool Access
Access to a wider talent pool is the impetus behind global recruitment. You get to select the best talent regardless of timezone collaboration issues.
Boost in Profitability
Business targets are positively affected by diversity and inclusion in remote companies. The echo-chamber effect and conformity are often escaped by companies employing diverse staff. Especially in higher management positions. According to a McKinsey study, diverse companies outperform their less diverse competitors by 36%.
Statista study shows 73% of respondents feel more efficient outside the office. Reduced commute time and comfort at home, result in significant productivity boost. These factors lead to a lack of distractions.
Less Distractions for Individuals
Communication and real-time collaboration are important. But there is also a strong case for asynchronous, distraction-free work.
An Uninterrupted Remote Workflow
Working across time zones implies round-the-clock workflow. Multi-time zone companies enjoy complete day coverage.
What are Timezone Collaboration Issues?
It is possible to experience frustration, misalignment, and a sense of disconnection between colleagues when international collaboration is done poorly. Employee retention and company culture are affected by these negatives. Some of the timezone collaboration issues you need to watch out for are listed below.
Inconsistent Collaboration and Communication
The actual time difference hinders effective communication between distributed teams. Moreover, a lack of team communication can lead to delays, missed messages, and an overall drop in productivity. Since effective collaboration is directly related to team communication.
For instance, an American employer delivers an urgent meeting message to an employee living in Asia. There are wide chances of messages being missed at the other end because there’s a roughly 10 to 12 hours gap between these two time zones.
Passive Knowledge Sharing Diminishes
The shared physical space facilitates informal information sharing and open communication lines. Remote work generally threatens these practices. Often, sharing kitchen experiences during lunch or overhearing customer conversations can reveal a new approach or inspire ideas.
No Physical Access Compromises Team Work
When remote workers don't have a physical presence on the team, it's easier for them to lose touch. This can be especially challenging, if your team is distributed across multiple time zones.
5 Tips to Overcome Time Zone Challenges
If you are struggling to become a good remote leader in 2024, here are a few tips to help you get started.
- Ensure Effective Communication
Let’s suppose that you are a multinational firm and your employees reside farther away from your company. You don’t have mutually agreed time zones so now your team might feel pressured to say yes to every meeting. Even a recent study by Owl labs found out that remote workers on average receive more meetings per week.
Prioritizing communication is the first step to developing global teams. Multi-time zone teams cannot understand each other's messages despite synchronized conversations, facial expressions, and nonverbal signals. As a result, misconceptions may occur, negatively affecting operational operations.
To curtail remote meetings, try adopting catchphrases like “No meetings without agendas,” “No unnecessary meetings,” or, an old favorite, “Could this meeting have been an email?”
- Introduce Asynchronous Collaboration
Internationally distributed teams typically prefer asynchronous collaboration to maximize their processes and culture. In light of the adaptability of asynchronous collaboration, this is not surprising. For maximum operational efficiency, geographically dispersed teams should implement a full-blown asynchronous strategy. This includes a comprehensive set of structures and processes.
Asynchronous communication has proven to be a valuable tool for enterprises with multiple time zones. Furthermore, the asynchronous technique ensures that communication records remain available while removing the time limit of the previous synchronous approach.
- Setup Official Mutually Agreed Timezone
Your dispersed team should be able to discuss your working hours and boundaries. Regardless of whether you work in-office, remotely, or in a global office. To become familiar with the issues your teammates encounter, discuss their work hours and boundaries.
- Use Cloud-Based Tools to Manage Timezone Issue
Chat applications and collaboration technologies may simplify communication across internationally scattered teams. They provide file sharing, limitless chat history, seamless search, and file browsers. Pins can also help keep critical documents top of mind and readily accessible in such team chat applications.
To achieve seamless asynchronous collaboration, a set of functional tools is needed. Streamlining diverse conversations and collaborative projects with a single tool like Waybook can increase overall productivity . Asynchronous teams require a specific set of functionalities tailored to their needs.
When evaluating team chat and collaboration apps you have to look for practical features. Check for features such as flexibility, autonomy, seamless collaboration, and transparent availability status.
- Allow Flexible Working Hours
Discuss with your manager the possibility of doing a half-day in the office and then working remotely. You can also do one or more nights per week if half of your team is in another country. Split shifts are critical when you work for a chunk of the day in your timezone and another chunk in another team's timezone.
Your hourly schedule can be scaled based on your international team's time zones. So that you can attend meetings or communicate with them without neglecting your office colleagues. Additionally, you’ll be available to your international department without staying up all night.
Conclusion
In more standard work structures, working across time zones presents distinct challenges. Overcoming time zones can be successful if you streamline operations by following the best team practices. Your remote team can achieve continuous success by combining flexibility, asynchronous work, and an inclusive mentality. In this regard, Waybook works wonders.
Isn't it time to get started? Take advantage of Waybook now to stay ahead of the competition. You can also train your employees successfully, and streamline operations across multiple time zones
