Are Floating Holidays Enough?

Every year a friend of mine writes a LinkedIn inclusion post about the Jewish High Holidays – Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the two most significant holidays of the year in Judaism. He does this to remind people to “Do your Jewish colleagues a favor and don’t schedule that big meeting, exec review, or product announcement over them.” Taking a page out of his book, let’s zoom in to the issue.

Why It Matters

While there’s been a significant improvement in awareness of different cultural and religious moments, there’s still great room for improvement. We live in an interconnected increasingly global world, and respecting regional and cultural differences is crucial for employee and customer satisfaction (aka business success). While approximately 48% of companies in the U.S. may offer “floating holidays’ that employees can use for any cultural or religious observances still one in four American workers don’t get any paid holidays according to a Zippia paid holiday 2023 report.

Here are essential strategies to manage time effectively for global teams.

The Time Zone Puzzle

Coordinating across multiple time zones is often the biggest hurdle. When teams are spread from San Francisco to Sydney, finding a time to connect can feel impossible. Yet, leaders who can navigate these differences will see gains in productivity.

For real-time collaboration, identifying core working hours where all time zones overlap is key. These windows can be used for essential meetings, reducing the need for inconvenient late-night or early-morning calls.

Technology also plays a vital role in managing global teams. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana enable asynchronous communication, where team members don’t need to be online simultaneously. This reduces dependency on real-time interactions and allows employees to work when they’re most productive.

World clocks embedded in calendar apps like Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook or apps like Time and Date simplify the process of scheduling across time zones, helping avoid unnecessary confusion.

What About Global Team Meetings?

For global team meetings this may be more difficult. One leader I worked with applied the “Spread the Pain” approach. The idea could have used a rebranding, the approach was to have the team meeting at a time that was in optimal working hours for each region.

Another approach is to hold the team meeting at hours that overlap the most regions and record the sessions. Then follow up with a communication to the organization with timestamp of the key sections. This is even easier to do now with AI features built in to applications like Microsoft Teams.

What ever approach you take it’s important to use data to inform the decision and account for cultural and religious holidays.

Respecting Cultural and Religious Holidays

Global teams also face the challenge of navigating diverse cultural and religious holidays. In the U.S. we tend to focus on just a few holidays, however in the coming months there are many holidays that team members may request time off for or may be working limited hours due to activities like fasting.

Building awareness around regional holidays is crucial for preventing misunderstandings. By educating teams on the global holiday calendar, senior leaders can build a sense of respect and empathy while avoiding unnecessary delays. Consider, avoiding these moments in your communication plans and assigning temporary coverage to employees in regions not affected by certain holidays helps keep the work on track.

Tell Me There’s AI For This

As managing global teams becomes more complex, generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are emerging as powerful solutions for streamlining communication and improving productivity across borders.

For senior leaders managing international teams, AI tools like Clockwise and Motion, which integrate with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar, can function as a personal assistant, helping to schedule meetings, set reminders for important regional holidays, or even recommend adjustments to a team’s workload based on upcoming vacations. By automating these tasks, AI frees up leaders’ time to focus on more strategic decisions.

Bottom Line

Effectively managing global teams requires more than just keeping track of time zones. Leaders must understand and accommodate vacations, holidays, and cultural nuances. With the right strategies, senior managers can ensure smooth collaboration and continuous productivity in an increasingly interconnected workforce.

Image generated by Image Creator in Bing. Content written in collaboration with ChatGPT.