How to Communicate and Collaborate Across Time Zones

Having the right kind of gear empowers remote employees to actively participate in the conversation—to literally be seen and heard. The future of work is remote, which means negotiating different time zones is an inescapable reality. Read on for 10+ strategies on making your communication inclusive and seamless. Without holding real-time meetings, you may send fast messages, explain new methods, and clarify complex topics with your team.

How can you ensure that your team stays connected, productive, and aligned, without sacrificing your own work-life balance and well-being? In this article, we will share some of the best tools and practices for effective communication and collaboration across time zones, based on our experience and research. Teams employing a globally distributed workforce should pay special attention to learning and optimizing for different cultural specifics.

Remote Work Compliance Tips

Setting up the necessary structures and tools to constantly reinforce culturally acceptable norms is a major step in the right direction that many businesses ignore. Cultural values have a significant impact on hiring approach, attracting individuals who share similar beliefs and rejecting those who do not. One of the reasons a remote company like Turing’s culture is robust and our team members are so united is due to the clear nature of our principles.

There’s no need to wait for a conference call or meeting to start talking when you work together from the same office. But when working with a distributed team, communicating takes more effort. There is a false perception that remote workers are lazy, taking every opportunity to slack off because nobody is watching. In fact, remote workers are generally more productive than their in-office counterparts.

Best Practices for Working Across Time Zones

I’m also a morning person, I do my best, most efficient work between 7 and 10 am. That’s a problem when editing studies because typically the researchers are still writing it mere days before submission. Moreover, you can utilize task management software like Asana and Trello to monitor progress and hold one another responsible working remotely in a different time zone for tasks that should be done. Also, you can set definite deadlines for every task so everybody knows the timeframe within which they must finish their part. There is no silver bullet here — just lean more into the tools that your team already uses. We use a variety of tools at Buffer, many of which we’ve blogged about before.