The pros and cons of working across time zones

If part of your meeting is taking place between people in the same room, those who cannot physically attend can find it more difficult to chime in. With everyone attending the meeting separately on video calls, regardless of their location, everyone is on a level playing field. It makes it easier to track who is speaking and avoids prioritising communication between select groups. Eastern Standard Time (EST) covers the states in the eastern part of North America and runs from Maine to Florida, while Central Standard Time (CST) includes Texas up to Montana. Mountain Standard Time (MST) spans Utah’s Rocky Mountains all the way over to Arizona, and Pacific Standard Time (PST) includes California and Nevada to Washington State.

This helps to develop team cohesion and give everyone an opportunity to bounce ideas off one another. Try and hold a face-to-face meeting with all your employees at least once, if not twice, a year. Especially if employees are based in Europe, it may be possible to travel to see them just for the day, and meeting with them in person will be invaluable to building a better working relationship.

Build a community culture.

When you factor in multiple time zones, things get a little more challenging because any questions or issues that may arise will not be addressed immediately. Encourage team members to assign predetermined time into their usual work schedules for check-ins or quick discussions about issues and concerns. Having a team that works across time zones can be advantageous especially when it comes to providing good customer service. Clients can receive immediate feedback without any language barriers or cultural differences. Since everyone has diverse work experience, the company has the ability to build world class products that can boost productivity and financial metrics according to the research done by Mckinsey. These are some of the inevitable challenges that clients experience when working with companies way outside their time zones.

I grew up in the U.S. state of Colorado as part of a tight-knit community and studied psychology at university with the aim of becoming a clinical psychologist. I always wanted to help people be the best they could be, but after I graduated my career path changed trajectory. As I looked back years later, I realized I’d gone into psychology without even realizing it. My career at WeWork gives me a big focus on people and the human side of a business’s journey — which I wouldn’t necessarily have expected.

Pro: It’s easier to value output over time-in-seat

In short, make sure you take everyone’s time zone into account when setting meeting times. In order to avoid inconveniencing the same people repeatedly, you may want to rotate the start time. A shared team calendar might be helpful as everyone can see each other’s availability. When introducing yourself, let your colleagues know your schedule and preferred communication channels. Give an example of a situation when you’re able to be contacted — even though you’re off-the-clock.

• Depending on how many time zones you’re juggling, it can be a struggle to keep track of who is where and what time it is there.
• Remote engagement may take extra time and effort but is central to effectively managing all employees — and it can be as simple as an email of thanks or sharing success with a broader global team.
• Here is a list of potential obstacles that one could experience when working as a remote software engineer, as well as suggestions for how to overcome them.
• In addition, you need to have a good change management system and code repository.
• Teams in traditional office settings sometimes measure productivity by how long each team member spends at their desk.

Let’s get a more detailed look at what types of teams are leading the way in working across time zones. Having a virtual office can help fulfill some of your needs while working remotely in different time zones. Contact us or check out these features to learn working remotely in a different time zone more about how Davinci Virtual can help you and your business make the most of working in different time zones. Rike has found the biggest challenge of team members working from different time zones is getting everyone on a company meeting at the same time.