I am the VP of Engineering at Apriorit, a software development company that provides engineering services globally to tech companies.
Distributed teams are the reality for many organizations. The struggles related to managing such teams are also real. Whether you have remote employees or outsourced teams, organizing communication and establishing smooth workflows can be tricky.
Belonging to a distributed team means collaborating with people from different countries, time zones and cultures. In such an environment, even diligent and motivated workers can find it challenging to demonstrate the degree of responsibility their role demands. One reason for this is a lack of team cohesion: Fifty-three percent of remote workers admit having difficulties feeling connected to their coworkers without face-to-face interactions.
My company has team members located in several countries across two continents. Moreover, we work with clients from all over the world. As such, I’m aware of the challenges in building a harmonious in-house workflow and long-term B2B partnerships when managing a distributed workforce.
In this article, I share my insights on a comprehensive approach to managing culturally diverse teams that are distributed across countries and time zones.
1. Location-Related Challenges
Combining online and offline working models already decreases oversight of individual employees and entire teams. But significant differences in geographical location bring even more variables to the management equation.
There might be a power outage in one city and severe weather in another or simply a distracting environment in a coworking space. Such issues often create a sense of insecurity among business executives who anticipate risks of negative team dynamics and productivity issues.
To reduce these risks, make sure that project goals and tasks are written down in a shared space. Everyone on the team will know what they have to do and what results you expect. This will keep the entire team on the same page, even if some members miss a sync meeting for reasons beyond their control.
You can also consider allowing non-conventional working hours. This can help distributed employees perform their tasks conveniently. However, such an offer must be accompanied by accountability for completing tasks before deadlines.
It’s also crucial for your project managers to detect and resolve potential issues early by:
- Arranging project retrospectives to reflect on completed tasks and come up with ways to mitigate future risks.
- Scheduling regular one-on-one meetings with team members to check how they feel about work.
- Conducting online team-building meetings to improve team cohesion.
2. Time-Related Challenges
Another important factor to consider is time-zone mismatch. Moreover, some countries and regions might have specific working hours and breaks during the day due to traditions and climate conditions. Your managers can also find it challenging to establish efficient collaboration due to differences in work calendars because of local holidays and weekends.
With all these time mismatches, the ultimate challenge is to keep everyone on the same page.
In my company, we set clear rules regarding the time, frequency and format of updates for each project. These rules depend on time differences both within our team and between our team members and a client’s representatives. A useful practice is to ask employees to send project updates a few hours before the end of the workday. Thus, both fellow team members and clients from different countries have time to review changes and ask questions if necessary.
I also recommend having your project managers take extra measures to smooth out time zone–related differences, such as:
- Finding time overlaps in schedules among all employees and using them for team synchronization meetings and the most crucial project communication.
- Meticulously planning work schedules to make sure every employee has clear task descriptions and the latest project updates in advance of work hours during which they’re flying solo.
3. Culture-Related Challenges
Employees from different countries live in different contexts. Even when keeping relationships strictly professional, it’s difficult to avoid misunderstandings in a cross-cultural team.
When addressing culture-related differences, I recommend focusing on creating and maintaining a friendly environment. For instance, in many countries, straightforward criticism is inappropriate. Therefore, in my company, we make sure that management knows how to provide careful yet informative feedback.
Another helpful practice is establishing a single approach to work. For example, my colleagues and I notice differences in how software developers from different countries approach the same tasks. To mitigate the risk of misunderstandings, our managers and top engineers create guidelines, practices and checklists.
On the project management level, I recommend introducing practices to ensure smooth collaboration across cultural contexts, such as:
- Encouraging the use of inclusive language within your organization to minimize possible misunderstandings and offenses.
- Communicating specifics of how certain project processes run in your company, as expectations may differ across countries and cultures.
- Adjusting the communication format to reflect cultural patterns (e.g., by considering that some team members are more likely to enjoy small talk than others).
It’s hard to predict all challenges of distributed workforce management and quickly resolve them. Thus, the best solution is to learn from others’ experiences.
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