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. There are a number of software tools and solutions that make managing a remote team easier. Whenever you discuss a date or time, use the actual date rather than just the day of the week (especially if you have an international team).

Switch it up so each personality type has a chance to participate and have some fun. Plus you can play trivia games, host movie-watching parties, and take a virtual cooking class or cocktail mixing class together. These meetings should be an efficient and good use of time, so if you feel they aren’t productive, try scheduling them further apart.

Managing a Team Across 5 Time Zones

For asynchronous collaboration to work, teams need clear processes and guidelines on hand at all times to get a clear direction and understanding of priorities, boundaries, and goals. With the limited opportunities for verbal communication and even virtual meetings across https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ time zones, distributed teams need to rely on written and video records to obtain all the information. Additionally, team members can create a shared document with their work schedules highlighting no-contact hours to ensure clear boundaries are being set and respected.

Nonetheless, although it may be relatively easy for a software business to adapt its processes to function across time zones, this strategy is just not sustainable for other sectors and teams. Let’s take a closer look at the sorts of teams that are leading the way in cross-time zone collaboration with proper time zone management. We have a few standing methods of making sure these types of communication happen often, including the daily pair call and weekly or biweekly mastermind chats. These chats are normally only 2-3 people maximum, so more often than not it’s possible to find a time that works for everyone across multiple time zones.

UTC Time

If a phone call or video conference is necessary, try rotating the schedules so everyone gets a turn to take calls late-night or off-hours. Some people might have to be available for an 11 PM call once a month, but it’s way easier to be onboard for that if they know that everyone will take a turn with the weird hours. With the many collaboration tools we are listing below, you should be able to drastically cut down on the number of calls that are required to get the work done. Just make sure to be thoughtful and rotate the timeslots as much as possible. Maintaining culture is a vital component of every company’s business success, but it is especially critical for totally remote teams. Understanding the distinctions between creating and maintaining a dynamic culture in a remote work setting vs an office-based environment is of utmost importance and companies can not ignore it.

If you really do need to have everyone there, try to pick a time that works for most people and then ask the remaining few if they can attend. Then the next time you organize a meeting, share the burden and make it easy for them and harder for everyone else. Remote collaboration is difficult and productivity can halt if digital tools fail. Read our guide on remote collaboration to learn how to overcome these challenges. By embracing different time zones, you can build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.