Why Time Zone Compatibility Matters for Your Remote Tech Team

Imagine your development team in the U.S. finishes the workday and sends critical updates to your colleagues overseas. But in the morning, you wake up in Poland and see delays, miscommunication and tasks that require time that you don’t have for revisions. This is how IT outsourcing works, is it a familiar situation? You are not alone: more than 70% of remote teams find themselves in the same situation, experiencing communication problems due to time differences. The key to the problem is that although IT outsourcing allows you to attract talent from all over the world, the time zone mismatch usually leads to synchronization failures, delayed deadlines and loss of productivity.

Bottom line: in today’s business world, remote teams are a necessity, but time zone differences often lead to slower workflows. What if you could work with a team whose hours are the same as yours? That’s what makes staff augmentation Europe the ideal region for American companies that need to work smoothly without downtime. Why is the time zone important, and how do European companies solve this problem for US companies? Let’s take a look at how it works and how it affects your business.

How time differences reduce productivity

Let’s make it clear right away that time zones are not when the hands are moved on the clock, but a business factor that directly affects the speed of the team’s work, and thus the success of the project. It’s about the fact that when a development team works in a time zone that is 10-12 hours different, you’re wasting time. Instead of getting answers or edits right away, you have to wait for the next working day. What’s more, communication delays lead to slow progress, and the lack of real interaction hinders rapid collaboration.

Campaigns like N-iX offer a solution. The idea is to match the working hours of remote teams in a way that overlaps. For example, a company from New York collaborates with developers from Ukraine. When the American team starts its working day at 8 am, the Ukrainian specialists already work for several hours. As a result, both teams get up to 5 hours of joint productive work. Thus, working with teams from Eastern Europe, American companies get 4-6 hours of overlapping working time. This allows for quick resolution of issues and tasks, such as making changes, without unnecessary delays. This approach enables remote IT companies to reduce project turnaround time by up to 30% through synchronized work.

Why Eastern Europe is an ideal choice for remote teams

Traditionally, US developers have hired local specialists for project work. But over time, in the context of the global economy, it has become clear that local specialists are much more expensive than remote IT teams. In addition to saving money, for example, Eastern Europe offers convenient collaboration times, strong specialists, and cultural fit. Traditionalists may argue that developers from other regions may not meet the expectations of U.S. customers, and the time difference interferes with operational efficiency. The top 6 problems tech startups face when hiring remotely are written about at The European Business Review.

In N-iX’s experience, European IT outsourcers have plenty of counterarguments. Eastern European IT outsourcers from countries like Ukraine, Poland, and Romania combine:

1. Flexible working hours. Overlap with working hours in the US make them synchronised by 5 hours.
2. Expertise. Specialists are proficient in modern technologies such as AI, DevOps and FinTech.
3. Quality of communication. 80% of developers are fluent in English.

Thanks to a strong technical base and cultural fit, augmentation staff in Eastern Europe easily adapt to Western working standards. As an alternative you can consider IT specialists from South Asia, they are cheaper. Yes, the rates in Europe may be higher than in South Asia, but the quality of work and faster communication make the cooperation profitable in the long run.

How time zone compatibility affects the success of projects

Time zone alignment allows teams to work faster and more efficiently. For example, N-iX, already familiar to us, has worked with Western companies to help them develop and implement complex technological solutions. In one of the interviews, Andrey Pavliv, co-founder and managing partner of N-iX, mentioned that the company has successfully implemented several projects for Western startups. For example, a utility product Thick Buttons was realised to improve user experience. Thanks to the collaboration and prompt cooperation of the transatlantic team, the application was launched ahead of schedule and without bugs.

Clearly, the key to success when working with teams across distant time zones is their ability to quickly or synchronously solve critical tasks that, in a bad scenario, can stretch over several days. This is where the natural phenomenon of time zone coincidence comes in. The best remote teams manage to leverage the coincidence of working hours for the next thing:

1. Daily standups and calls. All team members can discuss tasks in real-time.
2. Rapid iterations. Updates are tested and finalized the same day.
3. Flexibility. Urgent edits are made without having to wait for the next business day.

Why not just hire on-site experts? — you ask. Local specialists are expensive and not always easy to find. Eastern Europe solves both problems: providing quality specialists at a reasonable price, and being able to utilize the time zone difference in a professional and efficient manner. Forbes knows all about the advantages of hiring remote IT developers.

Conclusion

The global economy has only one obstacle left to overcome — time differences that hinder productivity and delay projects. Eastern Europe offers convenient time overlap, top-notch talent and affordable conditions. Remote and synchronous working technologies solve communication problems and speed up results. 

Don’t let time differences slow down your project. Consider partnering with human resource augmentation within Europe as the team that will help your business grow faster and more efficiently. Start collaborating today!