Drivers of employee engagement in remote working environments

Abstract

Employee engagement is an important driver of business performance and success. Accordingly, many extensive studies have been conducted on the drivers of employee engagement in the workplace. However, there exists limited research on the drivers of employee engagement in remote working environments. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a great impact on organisations drastically increasing the number of employees working remotely. This shift continuously introduces new challenges for employees and organisations, which impact employee engagement and ultimately business performance. With many employees favouring remote work and flexibility, and organisations forced to embrace this new norm, this is the future of work. Therefore, it is imperative for organisations to understand what drives and maintains a remote worker’s engagement levels. This research contributes to and enhances the existing literature by employing a qualitative, inductive, and exploratory approach to explore the insights through the lens of HR professionals. Twelve in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from varying sectors and organisations in South Africa. Key findings from the study indicate that the critical factors and drivers of employee engagement in remote working environments are communication, tools and resources, leadership, and culture. There is an unexpected finding regarding the agility and adaptiveness of organisations in today’s fast-evolving environment and how their response speed greatly impacts employee engagement. A framework is presented, highlighting the critical drivers impacting employee engagement in remote working environments. This study was limited to HR professionals in South African based organisations.