An action research on improving communications in compliance teams in a remote workplace environment through one-on-one sessions

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the work environment of ABC Group Ltd. from a physical work setting to a remote virtual work environment. This brought about changes in the culture and communication of Employee Compliance Teams. This action research paper seeks to improve the current communication levels of this team through two cycles of One-on-one Sessions. The aim of this action research paper is to (1) provide a venue where team members can communicate informally, and (2) develop interpersonal relations between members. The first cycle was a One-on-one Session was between two local teams both situated in Manila namely, Employee Trade Monitoring (ETM) and Employee Trade Advisory (ETA). Through the collaborative efforts of the members, the first cycle made the team members realize the connection they regained with their peers and they feel more belonged. With collaborative assessment on improvements from the first cycle, a second cycle was implemented to cross-regional teams, namely ETM and Jacksonville Team (JAX), situated in the Philippines and USA. Issues on time zone resurfaced from the second cycle, however was still a successful implementation as all team members still improved their communications and gained deeper interpersonal skills with their peers. A causal critical realistic theory was extrapolated from this action research and highlights: (1) the importance of reconnection for teams coming from a physical to virtual work setting, (2) communication is highly dependent on media selection based on comfortability and current conditions, (3) environmental factors such as noises and time zone (more extensive impact seen for global virtual teams) highly affects the quality of communication and in building interpersonal work relationships in virtual teams