Challenges And Benefits Of Working Across Time Zones

By far, one of the biggest benefits of employing remote workers in your organization is to get the work done across many time zones and have updated information at any time of the day. This continuous coverage means that support is available 24 hours a day.

That said, there are challenges as well and it’s not a bed of roses altogether. If your company is considering expanding its talent pool and crossing the borders, here are the challenges and benefits of working with virtual employees –

The Pros of Working Across Time Zones

·         Someone will always be available –

For companies that cater to customers and have dedicated customer service department, have staff coming in for various overlapping shifts which means they can boast 24/7 service. Outwardly facing, this shows that you care about your customers and do not want to leave them unattended.

But on an internal level, having employees who work in overlapping shifts means having someone always available in times of crisis.

·         It adds diversity to your staff –

Operating a local business and then expanding it across oceans brings diversity in your business. Multicultural teams can add diversity to your organization, and can also boost the culture of the company. The one area that you benefit from is customer service as the local customers feel more comfortable interacting with local employees available in that region, in their own time zone, in their own language, and with their own cultural nuances.

·         It brings in new ideas and fresh perspectives –

Let’s face it: having a homogenized staff with similar backgrounds can dull the environment and stagnancy in the ideas after a period.

When you introduce new workers into a team who hail from different countries, you provide the opportunity for fresh insight, diverse cultural perspectives, and new ideas that can be implemented in the next project.

The Cons of Working Across Time Zones

·         Communication must be crystal clear—and consistent –

For a remote team to function smoothly, there needs to be bespoke communication. That becomes even more imperative when employees are on at various times of the day and night and different location.

Understanding an individual’s communication style can help you established the channel. You can vet this during the hiring process, especially if the candidate has already worked as virtual employee.

Communication should be seamless and what is intended should be communicated clearly.

·         A lot can get lost in translation –

When your teams are divided across time zones, there is a possibility of losing out on information at some point. The same advantage of having diverse workforce can cause your projects to crash due to lack of clarity during communication. If workers are battling with language and cultural issues, the management is required to reinforce unity in diversity and bring the team work to action above individual difference.

As an employer, you should ensure that the team can communicate well with each other and is in harmony throughout the project.  This will require you to put some effort, but will ultimately benefit the team—and the company in building strong teams and increasing productivity.

·         Your company must take the time to set up the team for success –

Sure, you have employed workers to cover every hour of the day, but that isn’t always enough. You must set up your team for success by introducing trendy tools to make it easy for teams to stay on the same page and work together. They should always be in sync with the ongoing activities in the team and never feel left out.

This will help employees covering a second shift take over from the first without losing on critical information. It doesn’t stop there, though. Management needs to train all the employees on the collaboration tools to boost productivity and team effort.

There are pros and cons to everything, and having a virtual team working across various time zones is no exception. But knowing some of the potential pitfalls ahead of time can give you time to bring your act together. We at WebBee can help you get maximum benefit from hiring virtual employees and increase your productivity from having workers across the nation—and the world.