A few years ago, if you saw someone working from home, you might have jumped to the conclusion that they were doing some trivial online jobs. Working from home didn’t fit the bill for the prestigious job descriptions many Indian households envisioned.

However, times have changed, and so has the way we work. Today, a good portion of the workforce either works entirely from home or locations of their choice. Distributed teams are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

With this shift in work culture, managing productivity has taken a whole new meaning. Distributed teams, while offering flexibility, also come with unique challenges such as time zone differences, communication gaps, and varying work schedules. This is where an effective shift management system is needed to bridge the gap.

In this article, we’ll explore

• What is meant by distributed teams and how do they function?
• Key challenges in handling a distributed workforce
• How employee shift management systems make distributed teams work better

What Are Distributed Teams, And How Do They Work?

Distributed teams consist of individuals collaborating despite being in separate locations. You will often find them dispersed throughout various cities or even countries. Rather than sharing a physical workplace to stay connected and work on a common project, they rely on virtual productivity tools and online shift scheduling software. While the distributed team model allows organizations to tap into global talent, for employees it offers the flexibility to work from any location of their choice.

Let's consider an Indian company with offices in two major cities: Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The Bangalore office, situated in India's premier IT hub, houses the company's technical talent - including software developers, designers, and programmers - due to the city's advanced technology ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad office specializes in marketing operations, as this region serves as the company's primary market. Despite the geographical separation, both offices operate under one corporate umbrella.

They share the same organizational goals and HR policies. To promote work-life balance, employees at both locations have the flexibility to work remotely when needed, which is made easier through a shift management system.

Key Obstacles in Managing Distributed Teams

The common challenges in managing distributed teams can be grouped into the following categories for easy understanding:

Absence of casual interactions

Casual chats between team members, even about non-work stuff, can really strengthen connections. Whether it's talking about the latest Netflix binge or joking about your favourite IPL team's last loss, these little conversations help build friendships. And success in the workplace starts with great friendships. But with distributed teams, people often miss out on these random chats that happen naturally in the office.

Communication Barriers

When all your employees are in the office, messages get across pretty fast, and the chances of misunderstanding are pretty low. Even if something is miscommunicated, it can be identified and corrected easily before it escalates.

However, this is not the case when you have teams working from different places. Messages can be easily misunderstood without seeing facial expressions or body language. For example, a quick "okay" in chat might seem rude to some, while others find it normal.

Time Zone Differences

This won't be a great deal if all your employees in distributed teams are from a single country with a single time zone. However, if you consider countries like the USA, Canada, or China, which have multiple time zones, or if you have employees reporting to work from more than a country with different time zones, you will find that bringing all of them together for common meetings, discussions, or virtual town halls can be a hard task without a good employee shift scheduling software.

Lack of Physical Bonding

Working remotely means missing out on casual office moments that help people become friends. You can't grab coffee together, celebrate birthdays in person, or have quick chats by the water cooler. Video calls and collaboration arrangements made via the shift management system can't fully replace the natural connection that happens when people share a physical space.

Team Coordination Issues

Keeping everyone on the same page becomes tricky when working apart. For instance, one team member might start working on a task that another person has already completed, or important updates might not reach everyone at the same time. Even though an employee shift management system can solve conflicts to some extent, it is not always easy to schedule meetings that work for everyone.

Difficulty in Upholding Team Culture

It's harder to build and maintain a strong team spirit when people aren't physically together. For instance, new team members might struggle to understand "how things are done here" when they can't observe and learn from their colleagues in person. Similarly, it is not always easy to demonstrate or pass on shared values and practices when you have teams working virtually.

Top industries that rely on distributed teams

Although many companies shifted back to regular office settings after the pandemic, the distributed model continues to be widely used across various industries today. By using shift management systems, many of these companies work well and provide 24/7 service to their clients with distributed teams, while using talent from around the world. Here are five industries that heavily rely on distributed teams these days.

Technology and Software Development

Big names like Google and Microsoft, along with many startups, have developers, designers, and product managers spread out across the globe. To keep things on, they often use an employee shift management system.

Digital Marketing and Content Creation

Marketing agencies and content platforms often have writers, designers, and strategists working from different locations to create and manage campaigns across various time zones and cultural contexts.

Customer Support Services

Many companies maintain global customer service operations with representatives in different regions to provide round-the-clock support. For them, distributed teams are essential to serve customers across all time zones effectively.

E-commerce and Online Retail

Online retail giants and smaller e-commerce businesses often operate with distributed teams handling everything from website management to logistics coordination across different geographical locations.

Financial Services and FinTech

Banks, insurance companies, and financial technology firms rely on distributed teams for a variety of their integral projects like software development, customer service, and financial operations.

How Does Shift Management System Allow Distributed Teams To Work Better?

One of the integral elements for the success of a distributed team today is an effective employee shift management system. Just as a traffic signal allows vehicles to move without collisions, employee shift scheduling software ensures that teams are ready for work at their designated times, regardless of their location. Let's explore how this system functions behind the scenes and facilitates collaboration and strong bonds within distributed teams.

Manages Time Zones

Shift management systems offer a structured way to handle time zone challenges in distributed teams. It can provide managers with a quick overview of team member availability across different locations. If anyone is unavailable due to leave requests, the system will reflect this information or mark the corresponding time slots as unavailable. Managers can then adjust schedules accordingly.

Distributes Work Evenly

Nobody wants to feel like they’re carrying the whole team on their back. If the workload is not properly distributed among the teams, such complaints will often arise. The online shift scheduling software can bring balance to the workload distribution using historical data and real-time analytics.

Keeps Teams Available

When you run a business where customer support is essential and you've promised 24/7 availability, customers take it as a given. No matter how challenging business conditions may be, your customers expect consistent service - failing to deliver means losing them. A shift management system ensures there's always someone available to help, whether it's midnight or midday, providing proper coverage for critical incidents.

Avoids Shift Clashes

Imagine two employees – Irfan and Ranvir – are scheduled simultaneously for the evening shift when actually only one is required, and there is no one to work in the morning. When you run into unexpected confusion like this, especially with a distributed team, there's no easy fix. An integrated employee shift management system that fetches leave request history and spots these mix-ups during scheduling ensures every shift is properly covered, and thereby eliminates any last-minute scrambles and gaps in coverage.

Gives Flexibility Options

Life doesn't always go according to plan. Sometimes employees run into emergencies, like when a relative drops by unexpectedly, and they need flexibility to start work later or switch to a different shift. With online shift scheduling software, team members can easily trade shifts with colleagues, provided skill levels match and labour compliance is maintained.

Summing Up

Modern workplaces thrive on collaboration, and so does productivity. For successful distributed teams, an efficient shift management system is crucial for keeping everyone in sync.

We hope you walk away from this blog with a better understanding of why shift management is key for distributed teams.

Need better shift control for your distributed teams? With Mewurk, every shift is possible. Discover more today!