How Often Should You Check In With Your Remote Teams

You hired someone in Colombia last month.

They’re crushing it. Fast responses. Good work. No complaints.

But you’re wondering: Am I checking in too much? Not enough? Should I be doing daily standups like my last team?

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about managing remote workers in Latin America.

It’s not about copying what worked with your last team in Ohio. Or mimicking what some startup blog told you about ‘async-first culture.’

It’s about understanding how time zones, culture, and trust actually work when your developer is in Buenos Aires and you’re in Austin.

Let me break this down.

The Check-In Framework That Actually Works

Stop copying what worked at your last company.

Here’s what works based on time zones and actual human behavior.

Daily Check-Ins (But Not What You Think)

Daily doesn’t mean daily meetings.

It means daily async updates in Slack or your project management tool.

• ‘Here’s what I finished yesterday.’
• ‘Here’s what I’m working on today.’
• ‘Here’s where I’m stuck.’

Takes two minutes to write. Takes 30 seconds to read.

This works for US employers with LATAM teams because you’ve got overlap. If someone’s stuck, you can jump on a quick call that afternoon.

For UK employers, daily async updates still work. You just review them in your morning, respond, and they see it in their afternoon.

For Australian employers, daily might be overkill. You’re not around to help with blockers anyway. Shift to every other day.

Weekly Video Calls Are Non-Negotiable

Once a week, get on video.

30 minutes. Fridays work well because it’s US morning, LATAM afternoon.

This isn’t a status update meeting. You already got status updates in Slack.

This is where you talk about what’s actually going well, what’s not, and what they need from you.

This is where you build the relationship that makes everything else work.

• UK employers: Schedule these carefully. Your afternoon, their late morning works.
• Australian employers: This is harder. You might need to take an early morning call or a late evening call. Rotate who takes the inconvenient time. Make it count.

Bi-Weekly Deep Dives

Every two weeks, go deeper.

Sprint reviews if you’re doing sprints. Project retrospectives if you’re not.

This is where you look at velocity, blockers, and bigger picture stuff.

It’s also where you make space for cultural connection. Let people share wins that aren’t work related. Ask about their weekend. Build actual rapport.

This matters more with LATAM teams than you think.

Monthly One-on-Ones

Once a month, talk to each person individually.

45 minutes. Just you and them.

Career growth. Compensation. What’s working. What’s not. Where they want to go.

This is also where you catch attrition risks early. If someone’s thinking about leaving, you’ll hear it here first.

For contractors, this is where you talk about equity grants or other retention tools. LATAM has a competitive remote work market now. Good people have options.

Quarterly Big Picture Stuff

Every three months, do full team alignment.

Mission. Goals. Priorities. Where you’re going.

Also, preview holidays. LATAM has some multi-week breaks that’ll catch you off guard if you don’t plan.

• Brazil’s Carnival is 4–5 days in February or March.
• Argentina has Carnival plus national holidays scattered throughout the year.
• Mexico has Independence Day in September and Day of the Dead in November.

Plan your sprints around these. Communicate ‘no check-in’ blackouts two weeks ahead.

Respect that family time matters. You’ll get better work and lower burnout.

The Time Zone Reality Nobody Talks About

LATAM runs on UTC-3 to UTC-6.

If you’re on US Eastern Time, you’ve got basically zero to three hours difference with most major cities. Mexico City is one hour behind. São Paulo might be one hour ahead. Buenos Aires is usually two hours ahead.

This is massive.

It means when you start work at 9 AM, your team in Medellín is already an hour into their day. Your developer in Mexico City just sat down with coffee. Your designer in Buenos Aires is hitting lunch.

Compare that to hiring in India (9+ hour gaps) or the Philippines (12+ hours). Those teams are asleep when you’re working. You ask a question at 10 AM, you get an answer tomorrow.

With LATAM, you ask at 10 AM, you get an answer by 2 PM.

That changes everything about how often you need to check in.

What This Means for UK and Australian Employers

If you’re in London, the math is different.

Brazil and Argentina sit 3–6 hours behind you. Mexico is 6 hours back. You’ve got tighter windows.

Your morning is their early morning. Your afternoon is their lunch. By the time you’re wrapping up, they’re just hitting their stride.

It works. But it requires more intentional scheduling.

Australia is the tough one.

You’re looking at 13–14 hour gaps with most LATAM cities. When you wake up in Sydney, your team in Santiago is going to bed. When they start work, you’re asleep.

This doesn’t mean you can’t hire LATAM from Australia. It just means your check-in strategy has to be completely different.

When You’re Checking In Too Much

You’ll know you’re overdoing it when people stop being proactive.

When they wait for you to ask instead of telling you.

When they seem stressed about meetings instead of energized by them.

Latin American work culture values relationships, but it also values trust. If you’re micromanaging, you’re signaling you don’t trust them.

Pull back. Give space. Judge by outcomes, not activity.

When You’re Not Checking In Enough

You’ll know you’re underdoing it when communication gets weird.

When small problems become big problems because nobody mentioned them.

When people seem disconnected from the mission.

When someone quits and you’re blindsided.

Remote work requires more intentional communication than office work, not less. Especially across cultures and time zones.

The Real Answer Depends on Your Situation

If you’re a solo founder hiring your first remote worker in Colombia, weekly video calls plus daily Slack updates is plenty.

If you’re scaling a customer support team of 50 people across Mexico and Argentina, you need more structure. Team leads doing daily standups. You doing weekly syncs with leads. Monthly all-hands.

If you’re in Australia hiring LATAM, lean heavily on async and make your bi-weekly video calls really count.

The framework is the same. The frequency changes based on team size, complexity, and time zone overlap.