Many organizations struggle to collaborate with a distributed workforce, especially when offices and employees are located across time zones. And it makes sense. When you have an office in LA and another in Amsterdam, for instance, it can be hard to get people on the same page when one office is awake and the other is sleeping!
With companies across the world being forced to go remote this year, people have had to adapt quickly and creatively to the new normal.
And while a global pandemic is not the answer anyone was looking for, we wanted to reflect on one silver lining through all the chaos—what we’ve learned from working remotely and how we can apply those lessons to working across time zones.
7 lessons from working remotely that you can apply to global teams
Turns out that teams can learn a lot from remote work best practices. See how these common lessons learned while working from home apply to global teams spread across multiple time zones.
1. Clarify roles and responsibilities
Working remotely means you don’t have the luxury of calling a quick team standup meeting or walking over to your co-worker’s desk to ask a quick question. Instead, communication must be a little more deliberate. However, when done right, remote work can actually enhance your team’s collaboration and the overall level of communication.
One crucial step is clarifying each team member’s roles and responsibilities.
Understanding what your job entails and what’s expected of you is important no matter where you’re working from. But when your team is distributed, you need to be crystal clear on each person’s job so you can effectively collaborate and meet performance goals on schedule.
Team leaders should establish clear processes and spell out each person’s roles and responsibilities so everyone is on the same page and no task is unaccounted for. As part of this process, your company might want to put together an org chart that shows both employees’ roles and locations.
2. Keep thorough documentation
An effective remote or dispersed team relies on clear documentation to keep everyone on the same page and ensure no work falls through the cracks. Maintain records of schedules, work plans, and work completed, along with notes, data, and other documentation for your teams to refer to.
This documentation is especially important for teams that must collaborate closely, such as sales, IT, or customer service. For instance, if a sales rep closes a sale and hands off the client to customer service, the customer service rep needs to know the details of the sale and the previous communication the client has had.
These touchpoints should all be documented and recorded in a single source of truth for the customer service team to reference. This documentation improves the customer experience by ensuring a seamless handoff and increases trust and collaboration among your remote workers.
When processes, work, and project info is documented in one easy-to-find source, the work can move along more efficiently and productively.
3. Take advantage of cloud-based tools
In the world of remote work, technology is your friend. Take advantage of cloud-based solutions that empower teams to collaborate, communicate, and track work effectively, no matter where they are.
Email communication is always important, but it’s not always personal or the best way to connect with your teams. Cloud solutions like video conferencing software, Slack channels, and project management platforms can take your team communication to the next level.
For example, Lucidchart helps teams visualize their data and map their processes in one shareable space. Easily customize templates, import data, and collaborate with team members in real time.
The cloud makes it easy for teams to work together, document processes and work info, and stay on track, no matter the time zone or office location.
