Strategies to Overcome Timezone Differences with Offshore Teams

Today, modern globalization has led to the increasing popularity of distributed teams. More and more businesses are hiring teams offshore to scale their business and find the talent they need. While there are many advantages to this model, there are also some cons that prevent organizations from establishing a dedicated remote team in emerging tech hubs offshore. Managing collaboration across global teams requires strategic planning and execution. And that's why we've listed out three tried and tested strategies to help you communicate better with your distributed workforce across borders and time zones. And that's why we've listed out three tried and tested strategies to help you communicate better with your distributed workforce across borders and time zones.

1. Hire the right people

It goes without saying that the employees you hire have a massive impact on how your business runs. The same applies when working with offshore teams.

With the time zone difference coming into play, it's essential to hire people who are reliable, self-motivated, and can manage their tasks efficiently. They should be able to work under minimal supervision and complete tasks within the stipulated time. Failure to do so can extend the timeline of your projects and even entirely derail them.

2. Implement an asynchronous communication strategy

While real-time tools like voice calls and video conferencing are great ways to communicate with your offshore team on a day-to-day basis, they aren't exactly remote-friendly. If you want to overcome the time zone difference with your offshore team, embracing an asynchronous communication strategy is key.

In a nutshell, asynchronous communication is not real-time communication. Emails, informational videos, project management software, reference guides, etc., are some of the commonly used asynchronous tools.

Using these tools allows your offshore team to receive, absorb, and act on information at their own time, reducing expectations of immediate responses, especially in the case of non-urgent tasks.

3. Use time zone management tools

Timezone.io, World Clock Meeting Planner, and World Time Buddy are some time zone management tools that allow you to track local time in other cities, schedule transnational meetings, and plan catch-up calls better. It's one of the simplest but most effective ways of overcoming time zone differences with your offshore team.

Source:http://www.apsense.com/article/3-strategies-to-overcome-timezone-differences-with-offshore-teams.html

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