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As the digital divide closes and the post-pandemic lessons of remote work are applied, more companies are accepting of a geographically dispersed workforce.

It allows businesses to access a diverse talent pool, work across different time zones, and innovate with fresh perspectives, but managing global teams comes with its unique challenges. 

From communication barriers to legal compliance, navigating the employee experience of remote and global teams leaves HR with plenty of work to do.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits, challenges, and best practices for managing global teams effectively.

Benefits Of Global Teams

For a long time, the nature of work was so tethered to physical locations, it was quite difficult for anyone, from the CEO down to entry-level employees, to imagine a future in which opportunity and the business’ access to top talent wasn’t limited by geography. 

But things are different now and organizations are experiencing some distinct benefits. Here are some examples of these. 

Access to a diverse talent pool

One of the most significant benefits of managing global teams is the ability to tap into a wide range of talent. When hiring is not limited by geography, companies can find the best person for the job, no matter where they are located.

This access to diverse skill sets and experiences allows businesses to foster innovation and bring fresh ideas to the table. So it's no wonder why it's gaining traction in the startup world.

With startups, especially, there’s a big push on hiring overseas. A lot of tech and engineering jobs are going to South America, Colombia, so there’s a lot of requests for global hiring solutions.

Cara Barnes

Often, the word diversity is translated to being solely about race, but what the move toward global teams has reminded everyone is that it goes far beyond that, encompassing social classes, life experiences, national identities, neurodivergence, and other intersections of the human experience. 

In recent years, surveys have shown that almost 90% of white collar workers (aka knowledge economy jobs) have completed or will complete projects in which they collaborate with a global team through virtual means. 

Around-the-clock productivity

With team members in different time zones, businesses can achieve almost continuous productivity. When one part of the world is wrapping up their day, another is just starting. This global working cycle can help accelerate project timelines and improve response times for international clients and improve your ability to monitor employees' collective work

At a previous job, one of our clients was a tech company with developers in the U.S. and Asia. Their ability to hand off projects at the end of the U.S. workday, allowing teams in Asia to pick up where they left off, and ensuring progress is made almost 24/7 was impressive to me. 

I tried to mimic it when we began to run HR conferences in Asia to some success. The ability to divide and conquer on a project where we’d aligned on the overall vision was an experience that laid bare the value of dispersed teams for me personally. 

3. Cultural insights and innovation

Working with a team spread across multiple countries brings a wealth of cultural knowledge that can enhance decision-making and innovation. These insights can be particularly valuable for businesses looking to expand into new markets, as employees from those regions provide firsthand knowledge.

Korn Ferry estimates that diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets, thanks to the variety of perspectives and solutions that a global workforce can offer. Whether it’s cultural insights or technical expertise, diversity drives innovation.

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4. Cost Efficiency

Managing global teams can also lead to cost savings. Hiring talent in countries and states with lower living costs allows companies to access highly skilled workers at a lower salary compared to more expensive regions, without sacrificing quality.

Many tech companies hire developers from Eastern Europe, where the cost of living is lower than in Silicon Valley, but the talent pool is equally skilled. While the great exodus of venture capitalists and startup founders from the valley has slowed a great deal, the expansion to a global talent footprint is here to stay for bottom line reasons. 

Challenges Of Global Teams

Of course, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows around managing global teams, it still comes with its challenges just the same as managing personalities in an office did. The nature of the issues tends to be a bit different. 

Below, I’ve illustrated some examples of what I mean by this and attempted to provide some tips that can help you. 

Time zone differences

While global teams provide around-the-clock productivity, they also face scheduling challenges and require the adoption of asynchronous working patterns, which not all company cultures are very accommodating of. 

Coordinating meetings and ensuring alignment across different time zones can be tricky, especially when you have team members spread across continents.

Author's Tip

Author's Tip

Use tools like World Time Buddy to find overlapping hours where all team members can meet. Rotate meeting times to ensure one group isn’t always inconvenienced. You can also use tools like Loom to create short video updates and share your screen so that people can see what you’re referring to and still feel as though they’re engaging with you directly.

2. Communication barriers

Language differences and varying communication styles can lead to misunderstandings, which can hinder collaboration. Even when everyone speaks the same language, cultural differences in communication also pose challenges.

In some cultures, employees may prefer indirect communication, while others value directness, to the point of being blunt about their feedback and opinions. Misinterpreting these signals can lead to confusion or frustration.

Author's Tip

Author's Tip

Communication is a challenge even when managing remote teams that are from the same culture or country. You’ve got to have enough time for managers to connect with people both individually and as a team and you’ve got to have standards for communication set in place. There’s a lot of notification fatigue that is just part of our lives here, so look to create some standards or policies on what gets communicated where, when, and how. Having a central source of truth that outlines common processes and policies will give employees ways to answer their own questions and limit Slack or Teams communications to more meaningful questions where a person’s expertise is needed, making it a more engaging experience for everyone.

3. Cultural differences in work style

Different countries have different approaches to work. For example, some cultures value hierarchy and formal processes, while others may prefer a more flexible, collaborative approach. These variations can create friction if not managed well.

Sometimes, the teams aren’t so much from different cultures in terms of geography or ethnicity as they are in ways of working. I’m reminded of the first time I saw the Agile methodology, then more common in tech, applied to a content marketing team’s work. 

The people who trained the content team on it were engineers who met their deadlines through Agile while the content marketing team had more of a newsroom approach that gave more autonomy on creative timelines to the manager’s of the content. 

To this day it’s one of the best examples I have seen of two groups of people who speak the language looking at each other with confusion about what the other was communicating. In the end, the team cultures that shaped their working styles were very different. Each saw the other’s techniques as inefficient and wasteful of time and effort. What they needed was a better base understanding of each other’s work before processes changed. 

Author's Tip

Author's Tip

Conduct cross-cultural training to help team members understand and respect these differences, ensuring smoother collaboration. There’s bound to be opinions about which way is better or preferred, but it’s important that we challenge people to try working in new ways, under different philosophies intended to get different results. It’s good not only for professional development and collaboration but also for understanding the challenges of colleagues and improving company culture.

Employee engagement and inclusion

It’s easy for employees in one part of the world to feel disconnected from a team in another, especially if they are located far from headquarters. Without proper engagement, they may feel isolated, which can impact their productivity and well-being.

This is particularly true if you have a team that is isolated in one region, completely cut off from another that a majority of employees inhabit. 

Author's Tip

Author's Tip

Regular virtual team-building activities and consistent one-on-one check-ins can help remote employees feel more connected and valued. There’s a ton of employee communication software that can help facilitate this. I prefer using an app like Donut, which can automatically connect employees in different timezones at overlap times that work for both of their calendars. It also does a good job of connecting employees who wouldn’t normally interact through the course of their work, helping people understand the work of other teams and the broader view of the business.

Compliance with local labor laws

Each country has its own labor laws regarding taxes, benefits, and employment contracts. This is why the use of an employer of record (EOR) has grown in popularity since the pandemic years. 

Managing global teams requires strict adherence to these laws to avoid penalties and ensure smooth operations. The best EORs are adept at navigating these compliance demands and can help you with everything from recruiting to payroll and performance management. Some EORs are particularly strong in a particular market such as India, China, or the UK

Karen Weeks, Global Chief People Officer at Obviously, offers up some advice on what to look for once you find an EOR that you’re interested in working with. 

“Understand how their values align with yours, ask them to share success stories but also how they handle client concerns. Share key practices and expectations of your internal team and see how that compares with their HR practices, like payroll timelines and onboarding processes.  I have had great experiences with EORs and struggled with other partnerships, the wins and frustrations often came down to misalignment on the above.”

8 Tips For Managing Global Teams

So I’ve already given you some tips on overcoming the common challenges, but let’s take that a step further and dish out some more that you can apply proactively to set global teams up with the right culture and environment to thrive. 

1. Focus on employee experience

The success of any team depends heavily on how employees feel about their work environment, no matter where they're located.

While working remotely might be someone’s ideal work environment, how you deliver the remote work experience will determine whether you retain the employee and how satisfied they are with their work. 

Part of what drives this is how people feel, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Create initiatives that cater to the holistic well-being of your team, such as offering mental health support, career development opportunities, and regular feedback sessions.

Ensure remote employees have access to the same tools and resources as their in-office counterparts.

2. Establish clear communication channels

To overcome timezone and language barriers, it’s crucial to establish clear and reliable communication channels. Collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams are great for helping team members communicate in real-time.

From an administrative point of view, you’ll want to set expectations around response times and communication etiquette.

For example, Automattic, the company behind WordPress, uses Slack for instant messaging and P2, a WordPress-based platform, for asynchronous communication, that essentially acts as a centralized shared inbox.

Its design allows teams to illustrate their point the same way they would in a blog post and keeps the messages from being lost in separate chats or email inboxes. 

This is an example of a collaboration tool that can give you a whiteboard element and bring people together in a different way, but just like you have meeting etiquette (like meeting space booking systems and rules), you need to establish platform etiquette. 

3. Foster a culture of inclusivity

A successful global team is built on inclusivity. Ahhh, a statement so obvious yet vague enough that you can imagine it coming from a politician. 

What this comes down to is essentially values. How much do you value feedback, candor, perspective, and knowledge? If you truly do, building a culture of inclusivity isn’t exactly rocket science. 

Encourage team members to share their perspectives and ensure that everyone has a voice in decision-making processes. That doesn’t mean that everyone makes the decision together, but as the decision is made, the person making accounts for differing perspectives and explains their reasoning as part of it. 

Tip: While it’s great that you’re celebrating cultural holidays from all regions where your team members are based, showing them that you listen to their feedback and insights by explaining how it influenced a decision does more to promote inclusivity and a sense of belonging than making sure the Diwali decorations ring true.

4. Implement flexible work schedules

To accommodate different time zones and work styles, offer flexible work hours. This allows employees to work during their most productive hours and helps prevent burnout. Flexible schedules also help reduce the stress of constantly coordinating across time zones or feeling like you have to constantly be switched on.

Tip: Establish core working hours where overlap is necessary, but give team members the flexibility to work during their preferred hours outside of that time frame. In cases where deadlines are somewhat arbitrary or self-imposed, give employees greater autonomy to take the time they need to do their best work. 

5. Use technology for collaboration

We’ve talked a bit about communication tools, but one thing you don’t want is for those to be confused with project management or workflow tools. Leverage collaboration tools like Trello or Asana for project management, and Zoom for virtual meetings. Having designated platforms for different functions helps set an expectation around experience and creates consistency in how certain messages are delivered. 

These tools help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that projects progress smoothly, regardless of location.

6. Set clear expectations and goals

Clearly define your team’s objectives and individual responsibilities. When managing global teams, clarity is like fresh air in your lungs, it’s endlessly a good thing. Ensure that all team members understand their roles and how their work contributes to the larger goals.

Perceptions of performance management tend to be less than satisfactory among employees, but it goes both ways. According to data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), managers rank their employees' performances lower than employees ranked themselves 50% of the time 

Tip: Use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to set measurable goals and track progress across the team. There’s a variety of OKR software that can help you set and track performance against these goals and that proves more and more useful as the organization grows. 

7. Emphasize cultural awareness

Cultural training can help team members understand the diverse backgrounds of their colleagues, which can prevent misunderstandings and enhance collaboration. Providing resources on cultural sensitivity and encouraging open dialogue can strengthen team dynamics.

Tip: When it comes to manager level and above, build DEI courses into their training to help them weed out bias in their processes and to help develop culturally sensitive communication.

8. Regular check-ins and feedback

Frequent communication is key to managing global teams effectively. Schedule regular one-on-one check-ins to ensure that each team member feels supported and has the opportunity to provide feedback. 

Provide these opportunities to give feedback in different formats, be it written responses, surveys, or getting them together as a team to discuss common pain points. 

Tip: As Zack McGill points out in an article on managing remote sales teams, "I have frequent check-ins with the whole team, individually (1 on 1’s, call coaching, ad-hoc huddles, etc). We also try to do a monthly online get-together for fun."

FAQs

How do you maintain team cohesion in a global workforce?

Maintaining team cohesion requires strong communication, regular check-ins, and team-building activities. Using virtual collaboration tools, fostering inclusivity, and organizing occasional in-person meetups can also help strengthen relationships within global teams.

What tools are essential for managing global teams?

Essential tools for managing global teams include communication platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams), project management software (e.g., Asana, Trello), and video conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet). Time zone coordination apps and cloud-based document-sharing platforms are also crucial for smooth collaboration.

How can managers ensure fair treatment of global team members?

To ensure fair treatment, managers should implement standardized processes for onboarding, performance evaluations, compensation, and benefits across all regions. It’s also important to be culturally aware and to provide equal opportunities for development and recognition, regardless of location.

David Rice

David Rice is a long time journalist and editor who specializes in covering human resources and leadership topics. His career has seen him focus on a variety of industries for both print and digital publications in the United States and UK.