Time differences must be taken into account when planning meetings and projects. You can use time converters to make sure every member of the team is available to join a process without hurting their personal schedules. This approach prevents conflicts and misunderstanding.
For example, these services proved to be rather helpful for our team:
It is important to outline hours when the whole team is available for group meetings as well as appropriate tools. For example, Zoom can be used for daily calls, and other project communication can be carried out through email and messengers.
Now the EasyStaff team operates with a 3−6 hour time difference as the team is spread across 5 countries. In my time zone most of the team are available from about lunch time till late, so my day and my meetings begin about 1pm. We don’t have compulsory meetings every day, and a weekly Monday standup is enough. Sometimes we also get on a call on Fridays if there is a need to synchronize and align or brainstorm, but this is rare. So the team is focused on work and they don’t spend their energy and ‘active' time on calls and unnecessary synchronization. If a person is comfortable working from 6pm to midnight their time, it is okay.
However, a time converter and agreements are not enough for effective team work with remote employees. We are human, and everyone has their own life schedules and personal traits. That’s why productive remote team cooperation is achieved through the right vibe in the team.
EasyStaff uses the following lifehacks for effective remote team work:
- Unified Google Calendar with individual work hours. It is important that colleagues don’t annoy each other outside of their working hours. If there is no time boundary, then burnout is inevitable. Thankfully, Google Calendar converts someone else’s time to your local time by default, so you don’t need to do any math.
- Differentiate communication channels. We use Telegram for work chats and WhatsApp for personal communication outside of work. Corporate communication is carried out through emails where top managers are also CC-ed.
- Planning asynchronous communication. A common case for our team is a time lag between us and freelancers we often hire. Freelancers tend to work in the evening, and the team is available during the day time. We follow three simple rules to overcome the time lag and stay effective. First, plan your message so the person is able to respond in full. Second, check messages before sending. Third, specify deadlines for response or task completion.
- No micromanagement. It is the worst enemy of effective remote work. Instead of doubting every step of your freelancer, make sure you provide an accurate task description and be open to discussing the task.
- Documentation. Statistics show that it is remote workers that are most accurate with keeping track of communications and tasks. Yet this is a skill that needs to be learnt. Proper task descriptions with enough detail and background information help performers get to work fast and not lose time waiting for replies or clarifications.