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In our increasingly remote, decentralized and global business environment, many organizations will not be able to realize their full potential until they expand their talent and sales pools beyond their own time zone.
Since the pandemic, working across time zones has become both easier and more of a competitive necessity. Not only did it lead to a more remote and decentralized workforce, but it also exacerbated talent scarcity problems. At the same time, many knowledge workers have built up a high level of comfort and productivity in a remote environment.
Now that technology has made space collaboration relatively seamless, that’s the biggest barrier most people face when reaping the benefits of a global workforce time. Some global teams solve this challenge by bending to a single, dominant time zone (“everyone must keep hours on the US East Coast”), but prioritizing one group of employees over others can have a range of negative consequences. Ultimately, those in the disadvantaged segment of the workforce will notice the strain on their personal lives, mental health, and ability to maintain work-life balance. In the end, many choose between moving to a different time zone or moving on to another company.
Related: How to manage people in different time zones
The other option is to allow staff to maintain comfortable working hours no matter where they are, but that comes with its own challenges. In particular, it can magnify the effects of simple miscommunication or communication gaps. When something is missing or misunderstood in a traditional organization, team members can quickly get clarification or fill in information gaps. Global teams, meanwhile, can lose a day’s work waiting for clarification from a sleeping colleague on the other side of the world. Such delays are costly and make it more difficult to meet deadlines, make decisions or close deals.
The solution that most organizations use as standard in such cases is a live meeting at odd times. While out-of-hours meetings may be required for an emergency, organizations that become accustomed to this solution risk making employees feel “always available,” which can take a significant toll over time.
Related: How to transition your team to remote work
All these negative consequences have real costs. According to a recent study31% of American workers would sacrifice part of their salary to achieve a better work-life balance. In addition, the median amount that workers would need in additional compensation to sacrifice some of their work-life balance is $10,000.
Another study found that employees who feel strongly connected to an organization take 75% fewer sick days, while those who feel left out have a 50% higher turnover rate. Miscommunication costs the average small business (less than 100 employees) $420,000 per year in lost efficiency, confidence deficits, turnover and productivity.
So how can teams work effectively if their workdays only overlap for one or two hours a day, without relying on out-of-hours communication? After running for over a decade Bubbles as a completely third-party company, here are some of the best practices we’ve learned.
1. Make the most of overlapping hours
When team members only spend a few hours of their working day, it is essential to use that precious time effectively. Specifically, meeting times in those windows should be limited as much as possible and only include team members who have something meaningful to contribute — something that can’t be shared later in a note.
Participants should also have enough information before the meeting to ensure that the first few minutes are well spent and everyone is informed. In addition, agenda items should be limited to urgent, critical or difficult to address asynchronously.
Related: Open Your Digital Doors: Communication and Remote Working
2. Learn effective asynchronous communication
When overlapping hours are limited, much of the information that crosses time zones will instead be shared asynchronously, using communication media that does not require real-time participation. That means team members must rely on their ability to write or record messages to pass on to members in different time zones that leave little room for misinterpretation or misunderstanding.
Effective asynchronous communication also requires more dynamic tools than Slack and email, which often require strong written communication skills. Our platform, Bubbles, allows users to contribute to asynchronous conversations using text, audio or video, ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in the discussion, using the media that is most natural to them .
3. Build information repositories
If information is still missing after a short real-time conversation during those limited overlapping hours or an asynchronous conversation, it’s always good to have another backup option. That last failsafe before you resort to a panicked after-hours meeting or risk a day of lost productivity usually comes in the form of an information repository.
A simple shared document updated with relevant information about a particular project, or an employee handbook packed with answers to frequently asked questions, provides another way for staff to fill communication gaps asynchronously. After all, you can’t share everything in an asynchronous video note or email, and you don’t want to overwhelm the recipient with information. That’s why it’s always wise to have one extra place where employees can find answers when critical information is missing. Ending each day with a quick update for your colleagues across time zones is an effective way to reduce dependency on real-time meetings and a strong habit to track progress and identify opportunities to improve efficiency.
Ignoring the opportunities presented by a more decentralized workforce will make it harder for organizations to compete in the post-pandemic economy, but to tap into a global workforce, potential communication gaps must first be resolved. By making the most of overlapping hours, learning to communicate in sync, and providing additional information resources, international teams can still work together effectively, even with limited overlapping work hours.
