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 Employee engagement in remote working

 

After the pandemic, most organizations started to move toward the remote working modes as it provided a more secure way to run the organizational operations without interruptions. However, even before the pandemic considering the last decade, there was an 80% increase in remote working employees as many organisations realized that remote employees are more productive than those who work in traditional office environments apart from the same remote working has drastically decreased the unnecessary cost and provided the opportunity to hire valuable staff members irrespective of the distance (Lee, 2018). Work from home is not an alien concept, It has been in the business world since 1970; during this period, there was an oil crisis that made people pursue work from home (Yadav, 2020).

 

Figure 01

 



(Agovino, 2021)

 

 

employees who are working remotely tend to get depressed and feel alienated, which eventually affect the performance as remote working causes detachment from the office atmosphere,  It is affecting the employee engagement level (Pattnaik and Jena, 2021). It has been found that employees who are focused work from home go through immense pressure as employees do not know whether the employers recognize the hard work employees do while working from home, according to the statistics 82% felt burnt out, 52% found themselves working longer than normal hours, and 40% felt they needed to contribute more than their in-office counterparts (Oliver, 2021).

 

According to a survey, 18% of employees believe that respective supervisors do not care about the virtual employee well being and professional growth. (Benjamin, 2020) Though remote working is a successful method of minimizing the spread of the virus, many employees were unhappy about the extended working hours, which harmed the work-life balance (Information Technology & People, 2020).

 

As I am working for one of the largest organizations in the country, when the pandemic happened organization soon realized it would be an issue that needed to be addressed immediately to run an uninterrupted service. The organization stated to strengthen its non-voice customer service teams (social media and email) as these teams can be easily done remotely. Employees were given equipment to serve the customers remotely, and at the beginning, employees took this as a positive outcome since it was expected that employees could have more work-life balance. However, after a while, employees were not happy about the change. The workload has increased unexpectedly as more and more customers tended to connect to the organization via non-voice channels, and employees had to work additionally. Since employees were not engaged as they used, the employee felt isolated and disconnected, which affected the overall performance.

 

After seeing the drop in employee performance organization realized the importance of engagement, and as a result, there were one to one sessions with employees, employee surveys were done. Through this gathered data organization realized the issues employees have and started to address the same.  Currently, non-voice performance is up to the standard; employee feels more engaged with the organization due to the virtual connectivity sessions.

 

In conclusion, though remote working is not a fairly new concept is being practised now more than ever. Remote working has both positive and negative outcomes. However, since it is the best available option, it is necessary to find the solution for these concerns.

 

 

Reference list

 

2020. Information Technology & People. [ebook] Available at: <https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/f8f474e0eca42c17d9f43a8381175b6a3f629ab261f2d5b7812076b2d38a3d2f/291476/ITP-Accepted%20Version.pdf> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Agovino, T., 2021. What Will the Workplace Look Like in 2025?. [online] SHRM. Available at: <https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/the-workplace-in-2025.aspx> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Benjamin, L., 2020. Achieving The Dr ving The Dream Thr eam Through A Scr ough A Screen: Exploring Emplo een: Exploring Employee Engagement And Commitment In Virtual Environments. [ebook] Available at: <https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=od_theses_msod> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Lee, A., 2018. An Exploratory Case Study of How Remote Employees Experience Workplace Engagement. [ebook] Available at: <https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6848&context=dissertations> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Oliver, J., 2021. How Remote Work is Shaking Up the U.S. Workforce: Research on the Recent Shift to Remote Work. [ebook] Available at: <https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=finnuht> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Pattnaik, L. and Jena, L., 2021. Mindfulness, Remote Engagement and Employee Morale: Conceptual Analysis to address the “New Normal”. [ebook] Available at: <http://file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/InternationalJournalofOrganisationalAnalysisOct2020.pdf> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Yadav, S., 2020. Employee Engagement Strategy for Employees Working in Virtual Environment in the IT Industry. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.jnu.ac.in/sites/default/files/abvsme/WP-03.pdf> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Comments

  1. Dineth PereraDecember 6, 2021 at 5:49 PM

    Hi surangi, agree with you, adding to your point, the significant attribute in hear is, engagement employees place optimal effort to get the job done. and take more responsibility and accountability in any kind job given to them the Organization can relay that they will compete the tasks on time (Allen, 2014).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 7:45 AM

      While I do agree with your point, Managing employees remotely was not an easy task for employers too and further Human resource managers are creating innovative, creative, and effective ways to engage the employees more healthily during this challenging time (Chanana and Sangeeta, 2020)

      Delete
  2. Lakshan SamaranayakaDecember 12, 2021 at 10:28 AM

    Hi Surangi, agreed with your points. Adding to that employee engagement shows the level of commitment and involvement of an employee towards their organization and its values. Engaged Employee is having positive feelings toward his work, find their work to be personally meaningful and manageable, and he has the confidence about the future of his work (Saks, 2006).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 7:52 AM

      I do agree with your point, and further, Schaufeli and Bakker (2010) further argued there is more to employee engagement than simply being committed and satisfied with one’s job

      Delete
  3. Isuru PereraDecember 13, 2021 at 4:44 AM

    Hello, Surangi. I agree with you as well. Including, according to Elliott (2018), employee engagement in terms of feelings and action. Employees who are engaged may describe feeling intensely focused and involved in their work. They are enthused and feel compelled to act. Engaged behavior is consistent, proactive, and adaptable in ways that allow work roles to be expanded as needed. Employees that are engaged go above and beyond their job duties in areas such as service delivery and innovation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 7:54 AM

      yes true, apart from the same The use of advanced technologies, skilled labor, best practices, and education has helped to increase the efficiencies in many prominent organizations and firms. However, disengaged employees who have lowered productivity since the 2008 (Purcell, 2014)

      Delete
  4. Gihan AmaratungaDecember 16, 2021 at 1:40 AM

    Hi Surangi. Well explained article. Would like to add more points. The Global pandemic had lead organizations to change the way they operate their day to day business. With creativity, a remote working experience has been established and employees had to confront many complexities (Garro-Abarca et al., 2021). Hence, some more companies started to build virtual teams, as WFH concept made the employees feel like alienated or disconnected compared to onsite employees.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 8:15 AM

      The COVID-19 pandemic can be described as an extreme, disrupted context from an organizational perspective. Such environments are triggered by extreme events that occur outside the core activities of organizations or communities; consider the day-level fluctuation of COVID-19 cases as extreme daily events since this disease results in unbearable physical, psychological, and material consequences to organizational members (Reinwald,2021)

      Delete
  5. D.P Dileep ErandaDecember 17, 2021 at 11:13 PM

    Totally agree with you Surangi. Further, the term “remote” was once reserved for coworkers in distant offices and branches who had a poor connection to the head office. But with the technological advances and the rise of new collaboration tools, remote work has become a favorable, productive option for both individual employees and the organization (Slack team, 2020). Also as you mentioned with the Covid19 pandemic situation this method has become the most secure and the most popular way to run organizational operations without interruptions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 8:20 AM

      I do agree with your point, Many organisations have put their leadership development programs on hold because they are too costly, perceived as challenging to run, or because it is assumed that leaders are currently too busy responding to change to make time for development and further Research shows that leadership directly impacts engagement, mainly through building trust, ensuring support and building psychological safety (Maintaining employee engagement during COVID-19, 2021)

      Delete
  6. Upeksha PathiranaDecember 18, 2021 at 8:02 AM

    Well said Surangi. To make remote employees feel as valued as in - office staff, you need to implement processes that allow for more collaboration across the organization. Providing access to information and easy methods of communication is necessary for boosting engagement (John Cochran,2018).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 8:25 AM

      I agree with you totally, The role of internal communication is no longer an afterthought, In today’s competitive and fast-paced business environment, it would be legitimate to say that internal communication is becoming an integral and dominant part of the corporate world and is playing a significant role, directly and indirectly, in contributing to the financial performance of a company’s bottom-line (Patra, 2017)

      Delete
  7. Ganith KandanarachchiDecember 21, 2021 at 3:59 PM

    Agreed with you suranggi, Also remote working enables a firm to be more efficient because of a more productive workforce using less space, energy further with most people working from home, pollution levels will be significantly reduced, and sustainability is now a major asset for firms, further for workers, the benefits of remote working derive from the better work-life balance, which improves the level of job satisfaction and engagement. Remote working is essentially viewed as a tool for reconciling work that is based on the intensive use of new technologies, enabling people to work from somewhere other than the firm’s offices or facilities (María C. and José L. 2021)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 8:35 AM

      I agree with your point. According to the (Hossen et al 2021) e-work means the utilization of ICT rather than commuting to work [1]. Work-family balance and less commuting are among the factors put forward to explain the interest in e-working.

      Delete
  8. ThilokaDecember 23, 2021 at 2:11 AM

    Hi Surnagi,I do agree with you. During the pandemic, remote working has become a new context and suitable for only some jobs (Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001). The four key challenges have identified in the remote working context are procrastination, ineffective communication, work‐home interference, and loneliness. Generally, those four challenges exerted detrimental impacts on individuals’ work effectiveness and well‐being.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 9:18 AM

      Even though I agree with you. Some sectors have affected by the new way of working. The pandemic has exposed deep-rooted labour market fragilities and structural inequalities, with low-paid workers, young people, women, ethnic minorities, the self-employed and informal and fixed-term workers among the hardest hit by the crisis (The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs and incomes in G20 economies, 2021)

      Delete
  9. Deshani RodrigoDecember 25, 2021 at 10:53 PM

    Hi Surangi, Agree with you. Further it is important to continue the process in the pandemic via real time appreciation, hosting virtual activities, provide toolkits to every employees considering the safety of the loved once, schedule more audio and video calls to build the relationship. Since the employees didn't meet physically these activities have to be in placed to drive the organization towards the achievement (Adisa, Ogbonnaya and Adekoya, 2021).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surangi PereraDecember 26, 2021 at 9:24 AM

      Hi , Yes , I agree with you, as in early 2020, disruptive conditions caused by the Covid 19 pandemic accelerate the need for transformation, customer prefers digital transactions to traditional ones, but these conditions create challenges for banking sector workers (Winasis,2021)

      Delete

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