Managing Timezone Difference When Working With Remote Teams
Timezone difference is a very tricky problem to understand; you might either face it all the time or very rarely depending on which country/city you are based out of.
For the uninitiated, let me explain how timezone difference can burn a hole in all the profits that outsourcing could bring. For example, Let us take two places that are approximately 12 hours apart. So when it’s 8 am in place A its 8 pm in place B. This could possibly pose a few problems like -
1) When Team in place A gets to work, the team in place B has finished up work and is at home
2) Feedbacks take almost a full work day
3) Changes, no matter how small take up a considerable amount of time
4) Both teams are on different pages altogether
Those were just a few of the problems that could arise. In a world where “Time is money”, outsourcing can be a boon or a bane depending on how you manage it. You can either have a 24-hour work day using outsourcing or have a 0-hour work day.
Enough backstory already, Now let me explain how you can Manage Timezone difference. The answer is simple — instead of having Start-of-day/End-of-day Standups, you can have multiple standups throughout the day. This way the feedback loop becomes shorter.
You can also assign a Remote Manager on your end who can work hours that overlap both teams. For example, with a 12-hour difference, the Remote manager can work 2– 11 pm on your end, which overlaps with 8–11 am on your Remote team’s end. This way both the teams can be on the same page. It is imperative, and I stress, IT IS IMPERATIVE, that you understand the difference between the way an in-office team works and a remote team works.
You need to be very aware of how those two are different and how you can mold your company to accommodate/facilitate remote work, if not, Remote Work no matter at however many hours apart will always fail for you.
So let me recap how to manage timezone difference-
1) Choose a country which has a time zone that you can work with
2) If no. 1 Fails, abandon the ship, throw your men overboard and swim to safety. HAHAHA! Just kidding, if no. 1 fails, have multiple daily touch points with your team. So the feedback loop is shorter.
3) Hire a Remote Manager who can work overlapping hours with both teams
4) if 1–3 fail, Call RemotePanda 🎵cue hero music🎵
Conclusion:
Well, working with an overseas remote team can be a vexing job, luckily RemotePanda offers solutions that can be a lifesaver for you and your business.
About RemotePanda:
RemotePanda is a personalized platform for companies to hire remote talent and get the quality work delivered from our city Pune. All talents associated with us are close network connections. When we connect them with you, we make sure to manage their quality, their growth, the legalities and also the delivery of work. The idea is to make remote work successful for you.
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