5 Best Time Zone Meeting Planners For Scheduling Remote Work

One of the core challenges of remote teams is scheduling a meeting when all the members from diverse locations are present.

That is, solving the complex time zone maths and finding a “golden hour” for scheduling a video call. But it is easier said than done.

In a report from WinSavvy— around “92% of remote teams stretch across at least two time zones”. So, it is difficult to manage the project timelines and maintain communication with teams spread across borders.

That’s where a time zone meeting planner comes into play.

With its dynamic features, it helps remote employees navigate through the complexities of the world clock. So, simplifying the process of global meeting scheduling.

But with countless planners, choosing one for the remote team can be confusing. So, in this blog, I am going to explore the top 5 global meeting planners, focusing on—

• The relevance of the meeting planners,
• Their unique features, pricing, and ratings,
• Things to look for while choosing one, and more.

So, come dive right in!

What Is A Time Zone Meeting Planner?

A time zone meeting planner is a simple digital tool that helps with scheduling virtual meetings based on the suitability of different time zones.

So, it identifies the best time for hosting online meetings, webinars, or scheduling conference calls for remote teams with employees in different time zones.

Moreover, it allows users to vote on the meeting times to show their availability. So, members can check the votes before deciding on scheduling the meetings.

Why Do Remote Teams Need Time Zone Meeting Planners?

Unlike on-site teams, remote employees work from diverse locations. And, most of the time, there is a considerable difference in their time zones.

So, progressing with projects and maintaining workplace communication becomes challenging. But with the time zone meeting planners, this issue is resolved in a jiffy.

Since the planners provide the best times after considering the different time zones, it is easier to bring together the entire team for project discussions in a meeting.

Moreover, the voting feature further helps the managers to understand the availability of the team members. So, scheduling a meeting with the majority of the team becomes easy and simple.

Key Features In Time Zone Meeting Planners

Most of the global meeting planners come with a set of dynamic features. So, some of their core features include—

• Automated Time Zone Detection: Firstly, the planners can detect the different time zones automatically for all the remote employees.
• Time Zone Comparison: Moreover, they provide a visual display of the times in different time zones. So, remote employees can easily compare them without needing complex calculations.
• Seamless Calendar Integration: In addition to this, they allow the seamless integration of team calendars like Google or Microsoft Outlook for a better understanding of employee availability.
• Availability Voting Option: Also, they offer the polling feature to allow users to vote for their availability for a specific time. So, it eliminates the back-and-forth adjustments.
• Customization Elements: Furthermore, these tools come with customization filters to set specific work hours, blackout times, and more across diverse time zones.
• Local Time Notifications: Finally, the planners are time-sensitive. So, they provide reminders and alerts to meeting participants based on their local time.

Top 5 Time Zone Meeting Planners For Remote Teams

Global meeting planners efficiently simplify the process of finding the right times for everyone on the remote team. So, here are the top 5 time zone meeting planners to try.

1. World Time Buddy

Unlike complex planners, World Time Buddy provides a straightforward design with all the global times for different locations. So, it helps employees to understand the time differences easily.

Moreover, it allows users to save time zone groups to check the times in different places quickly. So, it is easier to set meetings based on the best time for all the employees.

• Pricing: Free— Basic time viewing features; Premium Plan— Includes additional meeting scheduling features.
• Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

2. Clockwise

Clockwise is an all-in-one time optimization tool. Apart from showing the global times of different locations, it also helps in optimizing work hours. So, it is easier to schedule meetings and manage time in remote work.

Moreover, the app offers automatic rescheduling of meetings. So, the meetings are created after considering the time preferences of the team members.

• Pricing: Free— Basic time optimization features for individuals; Team Plan— Monthly subscription plan for $6.75 per teammate.
• Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars.

3. Time Zone Converter

Time Zone Converter is another efficient tool that helps calculate the time differences between different locations by displaying their current times. Also, it colour codes the time to show whether it is best or not.

In addition to this, it also helps in scheduling the meeting from the time frames that are tallied against each other for different places. So, employees can check the time frames and set the meetings.

• Pricing: Free— Basic meeting scheduling and global time viewing features for remote workers.
• Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars.

4. Every Time Zone

Unlike other global meeting planners, Every Time Zone provides a cleanly laid out timeline for different kinds of locations. It helps clearly visualize the global time and identify the overlapping working hours.

Moreover, the timeline is spread horizontally. So, employees can scroll to find the optimal timeslot for hosting a virtual team meeting with the other teammates.

• Pricing: Free— Basic global time viewing features; Pro Plan— Yearly subscription plan for $39 for 3 users with unlimited contacts..
• Ratings: no user ratings.

5. Rallly (Tungle.me)

Finally, Rallly, or as formerly called Tungle.me, prioritizes the simplification of the global meeting scheduling process. So, apart from showing the timelines and enabling meeting scheduling, it comes with the voting feature.

That is, the employees can simply vote in the polls to show their availability for the specific meeting time. Also, it allows the seamless integration of the calendars of the workers.

• Pricing: Free— Basic global time viewing features; Premium Plan— Yearly subscription plan for $56 per teammate for additional meeting scheduling and voting features.
• Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars.

Things To Keep In Mind When Choosing A Time Zone Meeting Planner

Just like how Pomodoro apps and project management tools are an integral element of remote work. Helping remote employees manage their projects and work hours efficiently.

Time zone meeting planners are also part of the essential things for remote work.

That is, it is important to choose the right one for conducting your virtual team meetings. So, here are a few considerations to make before choosing the right one—

• Ensuring the tool displays global time, schedules meetings, and has polling features.
• Understanding the time zone differences to schedule meetings that all the workers can attend.
• Checking if the planner comes with in-built team scheduling and customization filters for creating meeting slots.

So, by simply using the right tool, you can easily eliminate the issue with time zone differences. Moreover, this can help in increasing work efficiency and reducing manual errors.

So, what’s the wait for? Go ahead and take the planner to schedule all your global team meetings and client calls within seconds.

FAQs

Here are some of the common questions about time zone meeting planners for you to check.