What are global teams?

Global teams are a geographically dispersed workforce of employees that work on a single business from all over the world.

Your business may service one or several markets, but most team members will be located and working remotely in different countries.

How can global teams help small businesses?

Having a global team model can transform your business, giving it an edge by broadening your global network and knowledge pool. When you have geographically dispersed team members, you have access to highly skilled specialists and insights from local expertise.

Generally, small businesses seek local employees and can often struggle to source top talent within a small radius of their company headquarters. Utilising global teams can take away that frustration, make your small business more competitive and open you up to a world of amazing opportunities – literally!

But how can small and medium-sized businesses access global talent without the HR resources of large companies? A Professional Employer Organisation (PEO) is the answer.

A PEO is an HR solution that manages payroll, benefits, remuneration, administration, employment taxes, HR guidance and more, in accordance with local government laws. Employment Hero’s PEO service can give you access to talent in 54 countries!

Read more: Employee remote work policy template

What are the challenges of geographically dispersed team members?

Here’s a new buzz phrase for you: asynchronous working. If synchronous working means that all team members are working together at the same time, asynchronous working means that all team members are working at different times.

Asynchronous working styles go against conventional practices. When you think back to the classic 9-5 office job, we have a popular idea of work as a physical place that’s inhabited in real-time. This older model simply doesn’t make sense when you’re engaging with global teams.

This style can streamline workflow processes and free teams from unproductive meetings. Of course, meetings will always have their place in the work environment, but a workday weighed down by meetings could be costing your business money.

Did you know that approximately $37 USD billion a year is spent on unproductive meetings? Asynchronous working can keep your meetings relevant and dynamic. It has been shown to have some other amazing benefits among global team members.

Asynchronous communication can lend itself to big chunks of focus time and help your team work between multiple time zones.

Closer to home, it can also contribute to a sense of work/life balance for remote workers and fit in with team members’ personal productivity preferences and personalities.

With a few changes in operations and communication styles, you can optimise your workforce for asynchronous working and achieve amazing results together.

Read more: How to onboard employees remotely

How do you create an effective global team?

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how to create global teams that work!

1. Organise regular meetings for your whole team

Before we dive into asynchronous working hacks, let’s acknowledge a classic work practice, the tried and tested team meeting. This may be an obvious one, but organising regular team meetings is an absolute must!

The point of difference for organising meetings for socially distanced teams? Team meetings should be thought of as essential collaborative opportunities. As your common time available will be limited, use remote team meetings wisely to work through a group project or to unpack ideas.

To lead global teams, be sure to completely utilise these time slots, organise a structure and circulate an agenda so team members can come prepared. Put a regular meeting in your staff members’ calendars and make sure you stick to it.

Make it easy to access by using Zoom or an equivalent online meeting tool. Encourage everyone to turn on their videos so you can see each other, as you would if you were attending an in-person meeting.

Research finds that up to 73% of meetings conducted by video finish on time and yield better results. Video meetings also open up virtual cues, which help team members build an emotional connection with team members, fostering trust and empathy.

Read more: What does the future of work look like?

2. Keep in touch with online notifications

As meetings should be reserved for team discussions and collaborating, company news and information (unless sensitive) should be delivered virtually.

Whether it is a regular email blast, a shared Slack channel or an online HR platform, be sure to keep your staff regularly updated. It’s also a great idea to include personal announcements about your team in these communications.

Whether a member of your team is about to get married, someone has completed a marathon, or a team member has welcomed a new baby, sharing life milestones can give your team talking points and make them feel more connected.

Find a way to make these announcements stand out, as it can be easy to lose messages with busy work schedules and crowded email inboxes.

You’ll get extra brownie points from your team members if you share it on a channel where they can easily send reactions and comments without a clunky reply-all email.

3. Use project management tools

Project management technology is one of the handiest tools in the arsenal of global team leaders when it comes to asynchronous working. Project management tools are cloud-based programs that remind team members of their tasks, deadlines, and projects.

When you enter a task in these systems, you can assign them to one (or several) employees, set deadlines and elaborate with sub-tasks. Using task management can help you organise your team’s work.

Most systems have comment sections where your employees can update each other with feedback or notes. When you use task management programs, colleagues working on shared projects can pick up where others have left off.

This reduces the chance of double-handling tasks and makes working towards deadlines easier.

Examples of task management software include Asana, Wrike and monday.com.

4. Get each team member to personalise their profiles

Conversing with an icon every day can become a little strange after a while. Your team is made up of unique individuals with different interests and personalities – encourage them to share it!

On the platforms, you use regularly, like email and instant messaging, make sure each staff member has uploaded a photo of themselves. If there’s a spot to write a bio, ask them to write a few lines about themselves.

Encouraging team members to customise their profiles not only shows them that you’re interested in them on a personal level but also makes them more approachable to other staff for informal interactions.

🤗 Read our top tips for keeping remote workers engaged from a distance.

5. Be conscious of time zones

Time zones can make global working tricky, but confusion can be avoided with a little forward planning. Don’t try to organise meetings ad-hoc, ensure you find a time that works for all zones for regular catch-ups.

If timings are really difficult to match, like Sydney to London, alternate your meeting times week-on-week so that the same team isn’t continually inconvenienced. Technology is your best friend here. Live by your calendar and don’t expect meetings to happen in a spontaneous fashion.

Share web-based time converting tools with your team like World Time Buddy – which allow you to load your favourite time zones and easily match times in the future.

6. Be inclusive in social interactions

If your business was established before your global team was introduced or still has an HQ in a particular city, it might be tempting to talk about your company as if it’s ‘based’ only in one location. This can be alienating to your distanced team.

To develop effective interactions with international diversity in mind, be sure not to push small talk about local weather or any social events near your company headquarters. Be conscious of your language in meetings and over email – try to avoid using a lot of cultural slang.

Although it can have its novelty, don’t make a habit of adopting the local language too often. It’s bloody hard yakka to understand unusual Aussie slang at the best of times!

When you’re organising team celebrations, ensure you include your team members around the world.

Whether that’s by organising gifting to be delivered to your employee in their home country or by organising a virtual event for a suitable time – your staff will appreciate the effort!

Read more: Tips for mental wellbeing while working remotely

7. Be mindful of local news and cultural events

It can be difficult to focus on work when something significant is happening in your country. Your people may be at a distance from you, but each will need support if major weather, social or political events are affecting their day-to-day.

As a global team leader, be sure to keep your eyes on the news in your employees’ countries. You can consider creating a news feed dashboard or following world news websites to stay aware of events.

If you have the knowledge and understanding of the situations your employees are encountering, it will make them a lot more likely to seek support.

Be an empathetic team leader, take the time to listen when an employee reaches out, and follow up with personal interest.

There are lots of ways team leaders can support employees remotely, read more about managing employee wellbeing from a distance.

Being an international employer is also a great opportunity to build your knowledge about cultural events around the world.

Join your staff in celebrating their national holidays and be conscious that some staff may need time off to participate in religious events.

A great way to keep on top of this is to create a shared multicultural events calendar, where employees can make a note of incoming holidays and leaders can be across them well in advance.

We’re talking worldwide!

In short – managing a global team may sound intimidating if you’re a small or medium-sized business owner, but the benefits infinitely outweigh the challenges.

By using these uniting tips, you can harness the power of global teams that work and join the multitude of businesses that are thriving with staff worldwide.

Go global with us 🌏

Our Global Teams service makes international hiring and global staff management a breeze. We handle all of the international compliance and administration, giving you easy access to the best talent from all over the world.

Talk to one of our small business specialists about how Global Teams could transform your business today.

Learn more about global teams by downloading this free whitepaper today.