
A new trend has emerged with employees working from home,
this has impacted the way organizations are operating globally. Recently, many
employees in Nigeria have been able to work from home and
therefore organizations have been able to source talent globally also employees
have the opportunity to work with people from different countries. Of course,
these advantages are not without their particular difficulties, especially in
the case of the application of teams, working in different time zones. Managing
time zones enables the organization to maintain proper remote coordination,
increase productivity and provide contented employees.
Statista’s research shows that 70% of employees worldwide
perform their tasks outside the workplace at least once a week, and 53% do
so three days a week. This global shift in practice means that Nigerian
businesses are not only involved in outsourcing work to local remote
employees but also in different parts of the world including different time
zones such as the Americas, Europe, and Asia. If there are no proper set-up
strategies, then it results in deadline management conflicts, communication
issues, and finally, employee burnout.
This blog post is an ultimate guide to overcoming time
differences in dealing with employees in Nigeria with practical tips on the
right applications to use, tips to consider, and recommendations on how to make
time zone changes as easy as possible.
Why Managing Time Zones Matters in Remote Work
Coordinated operational time is therefore important to be
able to manage people and work within their working hours and restrictions to
achieve the set goals and meet deadlines. Poorly managed schedules can lead to:
1. Missed Meetings: When two organizations work in different time
zones they mostly miss some important meetings.
2. Employee Burnout: Staff may be forced to work during
inconvenient times so that the shift lines up with other regions hence
inconsonant with the quality work-life balance.
3. Reduced Productivity: Synchronization failure can cause
maladjustment in the organization’s working process and even delay existing
projects.
Sophisticated equipment and the assistance of the
facilitators of adequate practices of work from home can help Nigerian
organizations eradicate these hindrances and design a more suitable environment
for work involving all its employees.
Tips for Managing Time Zones with Remote Teams
1. Use Time Zone Converters and Calendars
When it comes to tools for remote team scheduling, people
have to use such applications as World Time Buddy, Time Zone Converter and
Google Calendar. These tools allow you to:
- Integrated working hours that show the potential for
existing improvements.
- Conduct meetings with no need to ask different team members
what their time is where they are.
- Reminders and notifications for all the shared events.
2. Establish Core Working Hours
Core time is the unique time within the working day when all
members of a team, irrespective of distance, can work together. For example:
Typically, if your Nigerian team works with GMT+1, and your
remote staff works with GMT-5 (Eastern Standard Time), the overlap hours maybe
3 PM – 5 PM Nigerian time.
This practice allows for high-stake meetings and real-time
projects to take place while at the same time not compromising the need for
someone to work at midnight.
3. Leverage Remote Work Tools
Selecting the right remote work tools improves productivity
and reduces the effect of working across different time zones. Popular tools
include:
- Slack: For team communication that can be synchronous and
real-time as well as asynchronous.
- Trello/Asana: For organizing projects and tasks.
- Zoom/Microsoft Teams: For virtual meetings.
- Time Doctor: For teams that work remotely and need
performance evaluations.
Such tools help to facilitate communication and
coordination, assignment, and reporting of the work done in case of the
asynchrony of the teams’ work.
4. Prioritize Asynchronous Communication
The idea of everyone being simultaneously available is
unworkable for any team that has adopted a distributed working model. Though
discouraging face-to-face communication, using the asynchronous approach lets
employees reply when they are ready. Best practices include:
- Recording and minutes of the meeting for those attendees who
were unable to attend the meeting.
- Teaching with collaboration as in shared Word documents or
notes in Google Drive or Notion.
- Providing constructive comments with enough time to act
before a particular deadline.
5. Plan with Project Deadlines
In such a context, deadlines must take into account how many
hours each participant from different time zones works. If there is a need for
planning tasks and setting deadlines or meetings, one can use Monday.com or
Jira to define tasks, assign roles, and bring time gaps to make a team’s
schedule work for everyone.
For instance, a task set at 5 PM Nigerian time with messages
that he or she must respond to immediately should consider that the message may
get to a U.S.-based employee the next morning.
6. Be Mindful of Cultural and Regional Differences
The time zone is not only about using the correct clock but
also about being festive when it is festive somewhere else. This also focuses
on an application like Holiday API which tracks the public holidays of the member’s
country.
When it comes to the strategic allocation of time, one
should provide for the fact that working during weekends and evenings is
generally addressed from different angles than working within a workday and
during its peak, meaning that by considering the holidays, you can come up with
a schedule that suits everyone.
7. Automate Repetitive Scheduling Tasks
Employing automation tools can make it easier for you to
handle issues concerning organizing meeting schedules, reminders, and
deadlines. Some of the apparent innovations include usage of applications such
as Calendly or Doodle that let several people choose the meeting time without
having to exchange numerous emails.
8. Conduct Regular Check-Ins and Feedback Sessions
When it comes to expressing time-sensitive things,
definitely there are considerations about different time zones, still, it is
important to be in touch on some personal level with your team. Schedule
one-on-one check-ins to understand:
- Concerning the impressions that employees have about their
lines of work.
- Whether they are benefiting from the time zone arrangements.
- Ideas for better remote team collaboration.
A positive response provides an avenue of communication and
gives the impression, to the employees, that their views are important.
9. Supervise Work Without Hounding
Employing the Hubstaff or RescueTime, employee tracking
software allows for understanding the productivity rates of the team, without
offending. To retain the trust of your employees and also to ensure that you do
not overemphasize work hours here is how:
10. Foster a Culture of Flexibility
What is important to remember when dealing with remote teams
is that they must have certain flexibility to work successfully. Let flexible
working arrangements be arranged based on employees’ individual needs and
circumstances as long as they meet their deadlines.
Best Practices for Nigerian Teams Managing Time Zones
1. Educate Teams on Time Zone Awareness: Organize meetings
for employees to explain to them their significance, as well as teach them how
to work with the time zones.
2. Document Everything: Record keeping of the meeting
meetings, deadlines and status of the tasks performed should be clear and in
line.
3. Celebrate Team Diversity: Take advantage of the
differences in the time zone to explain how everybody in your team is unique
and comes from different places.
Strategies for Working Across Time Zones
Here are some of the top tools Nigerian businesses can use:
- World Clock Meeting Planner: It is also more useful in the
case of finding the best time for meetings.
- Clockify: For planning the time used, estimating the time
that might be needed, and so on.
- Microsoft Outlook: For utilizing functionalities of advanced
calendar and scheduling.
- Zapier: For integrating automated workflows for work across
the different times counterparts.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that managing employees across
the globe, which is in different time zones implies precise scheduling, communication,
and tools. These best practices: flexibility, technology investment, and
inclusiveness would help Nigerian businesses to overcome distributed workers
and spread humanities tasks across the world.
The key takeaways for successful time zone management
include:
- Scheduling tools, time zone converters, and shared calendars
as an effective means for scheduling a meeting.
- Building on the idea that using social media provokes more
asynchronous communication rather than relying on the immediacy of need.
- To ensure that the core working hours of the team activities
are set for the regions in parallel.
- There is constant checking on productivity and smooth
reporting of any hindrances along the way.
It is for this reason that Paredaim Plus appreciates the
challenges that organizations go through when supervising remote team productivity. Incorporating these tactics, your business will not only be good
for today’s globalized environment but also be able to leverage time zone
differences.
Let us know your thoughts about managing remote teams.
Please share your thoughts, or tools, in the comments section below.