In today’s labor market, companies can recruit skilled workers from almost anywhere in the world. Building a diverse and distributed workforce can help you access unique perspectives and skill sets that can help your company grow.
Having a team working at different times can yield significant productivity gains – a 2015 study found that individuals working from home were 13% more productive – but companies may find the logistics of managing remote teams somewhat challenging. There are several barriers that can make it more difficult to build a cohesive team, including cultural barriers and different hours of work.
It’s important to make sure you respect the preferences and availability of your remote team members. Setting realistic and attainable goals to build a more inclusive work culture is vital for effectively managing a fully distributed team. This guide will tell you what you need to know about distributed team management and working across time zones.
Understanding Time Zones
Hiring internationally can help your business access new markets and identify growth opportunities. You can also improve productivity by having employees working around the clock to ensure the company achieves its long or short-term goals.
Time zones exist because of the Earth’s rotation and vary based on a country’s location. There are currently 24 time zones in the world, and the time within each specific time zone is called the local time. This helps maintain a logical order and can regulate the working hours in the country you want to hire from. It’s important to know a country’s standard hours of operation in order to remain compliant with local labor laws.
For example, if your company is based in Toronto and it’s 11 AM, it will be 8 AM in Los Angeles, 4 PM in London, and 12 AM in Tokyo. Knowing these time zones can help you effectively manage distributed teams and work across time zones.
Benefits of Having a Distributed Workforce
Since the pandemic, the rising popularity of flexible working arrangements has made it significantly easier to hire from around the world. Hiring internationally can help you fill important skills gaps, which can benefit your business in several important ways.
Access to a Wider Talent Pool
Companies that have distributed and remote teams can gain access to a much wider talent pool when hiring. This can help organizations recruit skilled workers from almost anywhere in the world and benefit from a much broader range of perspectives when making important business decisions. Hiring individuals from different countries ensures that your company is adding the best possible talent to your workforce.
Being able to pick from a wider range of cultures may also help your company become more diverse. This means your company can develop a more inclusive and equitable workplace culture, which is becoming an increasingly valued characteristic among international employees.
Cost Savings
Another key benefit of having a distributed team is the potential cost savings when hiring employees. Working across time zones and attracting international workers can help a company save money because you can add top-tier talent from countries that may have significantly lower living and hiring costs than where your organization is based.
For example, a country like Vietnam generally has lower costs of living than many Western markets, which will impact salary negotiations and benefits packages. Engaging an employer of record (EOR) like Borderless can help you understand the rules and regulations to remain compliant when managing distributed teams.
Additionally, having team members work remotely from different countries can help you save on overhead costs such as rent for office space, office supplies, travel expenses, and more.
Challenges of Working Across Timezones
While hiring internationally can offer an organization several key benefits, several challenges will also need to be considered. Understanding what you need to do to effectively manage a distributed team is essential for long-term success and remaining compliant at each step. Additionally, companies will need to stay up-to-date with important local labor laws to meet certain regulations in response to rapid changes in the labor market.
Potential Security Issues
One of the major issues a company may face when managing distributed teams is the increased risk of security threats. Companies that have employees using employer-issued tools like computers can regulate all security requirements and standardize policies to protect information.
With a dispersed team, employees will likely use personal devices and cloud-based servers for work, which may have significantly fewer cybersecurity protections. For example, companies that implement more flexible working arrangements tend to use transaction-based security with algorithms to analyze potentially suspicious behavior, instead of staffing a dedicated IT team.
Less Efficient Communication
Problems with communication can be another challenge that companies face when working across time zones. Workers who are scattered across the world will likely have different hours of work, which can make it difficult to schedule meetings or other check-ins.
The lack of in-person communication can also contribute to miscommunications because it can be difficult to pick up on social cues virtually. In fact, communication issues are among the most common problems for remote workers as of 2019. Ultimately, fewer face-to-face interactions among employees can contribute to increased employee isolation, less opportunity for relationship building, and greater difficulty in building a cohesive workplace culture for distributed teams.
Managing a distributed team also means your company will be hiring from different regions. It’s important to keep cultural differences and other global employment standards in mind to effectively work across time zones.
Strategies to Successfully Manage a Distributed Workforce
Hiring remote employees can help your company grow, improve productivity, and gain valuable insights into different markets. Managing your remote team isn’t always easy, but developing effective strategies for your global team can help you set clear goals and achieve long-term success. Determining SMART goals, which are clear and measurable objectives, can also help you monitor progress over time.
Set Clear Expectations
If you want to successfully manage teams that work across time zones, you will need to clearly define expectations during the remote onboarding process. This includes providing information on acceptable forms of communication during standard hours of work, how to communicate with other team members, expected response times, and creating comprehensive remote work policies.
Outlining well-defined expectations for each team member can also help encourage employees to set boundaries and provide regular feedback. This can give companies key insights into what their employees expectations are and how to improve policies, which can lead to higher employee satisfaction and retention rates.
Effective onboarding processes help new hires understand the job’s requirements quickly. Additionally, onboarding new employees can reduce any potential future workplace issues and minimize confusion under changing circumstances.
Focus on Flexibility
Building a distributed workforce can provide companies with a cost-effective way to improve employee engagement and scale the business. Flexible working arrangements can provide employees with a more optimal work-life balance.
Managing teams across time zones requires employers to offer remote employees greater autonomy. This means that employees are allowed to determine a working arrangement that suits their needs as long as all deliverables and employment expectations are on time and in accordance with company standards.
To minimize any potential challenges with communication, companies may find it beneficial to schedule regular one-on-one meetings with distributed team members. Consistent meetings can also help employees feel supported and build trust with their employers. Additionally, implementing policies like asynchronous work can help your staff use time zone barriers more effectively, which means work is not conducted in real-time.
Communicate Regularly
Working across time zones and dealing with cultural barriers can impact how efficiently you can communicate with your international team members. It can help to have more than one platform for communicating with your distributed team. Using various methods of communicating with your team, such as email, business messaging platforms, or video conferencing services can allow you to communicate across timelines with greater flexibility.
To effectively manage your distributed workforce, you should also have an understanding of your team’s working hours. Knowing your worker’s preferred working hours can help you communicate more efficiently and schedule meetings at an optimal time. Alternatively, companies can schedule meetings on a rotation to accommodate individuals who may live in different time zones.
Build an Inclusive Workplace Culture
Companies that have an inclusive and positive workplace culture can increase employee satisfaction and boost retention rates, regardless of where the employee lives. Failure to encourage socialization among your international staff can lead to greater levels of isolation, which can reduce employee performance and productivity.
Fostering a better workplace culture can also improve your company’s reputation when hiring top talent from other time zones. Attracting top talent can provide your organization with a more diverse range of perspectives and can lead to better business decisions.
An effective management strategy for your distributed team should allow workers to interact with each other and build camaraderie. In fact, there are many ways leadership can help foster a more collaborative and cohesive culture with remote workers. For example, scheduling virtual coffee dates can help you check in with your international staff and build deeper relationships.
Be Mindful of Deadlines
It’s important to be respectful of the boundaries set out by your distributed team after you’ve set your expectations. This also extends to being mindful of deadlines, as your remote staff may not be available for work during your preferred working hours. For example, effective leadership should understand that employees working in significantly different time zones may not be able to submit deliverables on time with their schedule.
This can also include your expectations regarding communication. If you send an unscheduled message, you should be patient as working across time zones means that global employees may not always be available to respond as per your schedule.
Time Zone Etiquette
Good time zone etiquette means executives and managers should be mindful when it comes to language or cultural barriers. It’s important to be aware of your worker’s expectations when it comes to the employment relationship, along with standard business practices in the country they reside in. Certain norms in one culture may be considered offensive or unconventional in another. Creating a list of time zone best practices or a standardized code of conduct can help you communicate and manage your distributed team more effectively.
Promote a Work-Life Balance
One of the most important ways to manage your global staff is to promote a better work-life balance. With remote work becoming more popular, it’s important not to overwork your global staff, as this can lead to burnout. Burnout can have a significant impact on employee morale and is one of the leading causes of voluntary turnover in the modern workplace.
Ensuring your employees have time to relax after work can also keep you compliant with local labor laws. In many countries, such as France, Italy, and Spain, employees are entitled to the right to disconnect. This means that workers cannot be punished for failing to respond to work-related calls or emails outside of regular working hours.
Tools to Help You Manage Your Distributed Team
There are several tools and technological advancements that can make it much easier to work across time zones. For effective management, your company should always be looking for ways to improve processes using virtual techniques.
Slack is a major tool that can help you improve communication with your virtual team. This allows your workers to access important information and be able to reach you whenever necessary.
Video services such as Zoom can help your company efficiently schedule meetings with a distributed team. With Zoom, you can schedule one-on-one meetings at a time that’s convenient for your international workers, or you can use it for larger meetings with your entire staff.
Additionally, many time zone converter apps tools can help you figure out the differences in time zones. Programs such as Outlook or Google Calendar can help you schedule meetings at a time that’s convenient for international team members. Tools like Hubstaff can also help you manage and track your distributed workforce’s time and productivity more efficiently.
How Can an Employer of Record Help?
An employer of record acts as your legal employment entity in the country you wish to hire from. An EOR can help you efficiently build a distributed workforce and handle various employment responsibilities, such as paying your employees on time, onboarding new hires, administering benefits, drafting legal employment contracts, and more.
An employer of record can also keep you compliant with local labor laws in each location. This is particularly useful when building a team that works across time zones. You also won’t need to worry about understanding complicated taxation laws in different countries.
EORs can even give you access to a wider pool of talent, allowing you to find the best and brightest candidates to work for you. This can help you streamline the hiring process and help you achieve your long-term goals.
Why Borderless?
Borderless is an employer of record that can help you hire staff from around the world. We have a comprehensive platform that makes it recruit talented workers and run payroll for all employees or contractors. Speak with our team today to see how we can help you with your distributed workforce.
Disclaimer: Borderless does not provide legal services or legal advice to anyone. This includes customers, contractors, employees, partners, and the general public. We are not lawyers or paralegals. Please read our full disclaimer here.
