A good offshore team works your business day, not its own. Whether you are in London, New York, Toronto or Sydney, your team can be online from your 9:00 start to your 17:00 finish, joining your meetings and answering your customers in real time. What matters is which hours each role really needs, and what happens when your clocks change.
This guide covers the two ways to work across time zones, which roles need full alignment, how daylight saving affects your team, and how to make the hours work day to day.
Full alignment or partial overlap?
With full alignment, your team works your business day, whatever time it is where they are. With partial overlap, the team works its own standard day and overlaps with you for a few hours.
| Role | Best pattern | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Customer support | Full alignment | Customers expect answers during their own day |
| Sales and appointment setting | Full alignment | Calls only work when prospects are at their desks |
| Healthcare admin and scheduling | Full alignment | Patients call during your opening hours |
| Software development | Full alignment or a long overlap | Standups, reviews and pairing need shared hours |
| Design and content | Partial overlap often works | Briefs and feedback fit into a shared window |
| Back office and data entry | Partial overlap often works | Work can be queued and completed against deadlines |
Chishty Global teams work your hours as standard, and the exact shift times are agreed with you during set-up.
UK businesses
A UK business needs cover from the morning rush to the end of the afternoon, Monday to Friday. Your offshore team keeps the same hours, so an email sent at 9:00 is answered at 9:00, and nobody waits until the next day for a reply.
US and Canadian businesses
North America spans six time zones, from Atlantic to Pacific. If your customers are spread across the continent, agree which time zone your team follows, or stagger shifts so both East Coast and West Coast hours are covered.
Live roles such as support and sales should always follow your customers’ hours. Work that can be queued, such as data entry or bookkeeping support, can follow your head office instead.
Australian businesses
Australia has three main time zones, and only some states use daylight saving. Teams covering Sydney or Melbourne follow Australian Eastern time. Perth is two hours behind Sydney in winter and three hours behind in summer, so a team covering both needs a clear rule about which clock it follows.
What changes when your clocks change
When your clocks go forward or back, your team’s shift moves with them, so it still lines up with your 9:00 start. The dates differ between countries:
- UK: clocks change on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October (GOV.UK).
- US and most of Canada: clocks change on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.
- Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia change on the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday in April. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not change.
The UK and US change on different dates, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the gap between them is an hour different from usual. If one team covers both, agree in advance which market’s clock it follows.
Making the hours work day to day
- Agree shift times in your own time zone, and put them in writing.
- Keep shared calendars in your time zone, so meeting invites are never ambiguous.
- Hold a short daily check-in at the start of your day.
- For overnight or split coverage, agree a written handover at the end of each shift.
- Review the pattern after the first month, and adjust it if your busiest hours turn out to be different.
See it live
Our how it works page shows a live timeline of where each market’s working day falls, and our dedicated teams page explains how a managed team covers your hours.