What Does Employee Engagement Look Like After COVID-19?

Businesses that thrived during the height of the pandemic (and continue to enjoy success) tackled employee engagement challenges and viewed them as a priority, working with their employees to develop a new future-orientated engagement framework and the necessary employee engagement tools.

In many ways, the pandemic simply highlighted weak employee engagement structures within companies, stressing the need for rapid change.

An extreme environment

During the pandemic, many workers faced significant challenges such as:

  • Higher workload
  • Psychological distress
  • Shortage of quality personal protective equipment
  • Lack of incentives, and
  • Absence of management coordination

Research shows these factors contributed to a stagnant employee engagement environment with 40% of employees saying there was no employee engagement improvement at the end of 2021, compared to 2019. A further 30% indicated that the quality of engagement at their companies declined since 2019.

New realities that are shaping employee engagement

The last two years have had a lasting impact on the future of work. Company executives who want to improve their employee engagement strategies need to confront the following realities:

  • Mainstreaming of hybrid work

Hybrid work is here to stay and returning to a totally on-site structure might result in the loss of up to 39% of a company’s employees.

  • Employee turnover will increase

Employees no longer attach the same significance to the emotional cost of leaving a company as they did pre-pandemic.

  • Well-being is now a key metric

Measuring employee engagement and overall well-being will become standard practice.

  • Managers’ roles are changing

Managers must be deliberate in forming and nurturing connections with employees to support employee engagement.

Companies are challenged to respond to these realities in innovative and flexible ways.

Delivering on employee engagement expectations

Digital employee engagement tools play an important role in achieving this desired employee work environment. They can be used innovatively when companies are adopting the following employee engagement strategies:

  • Reconnecting with employees

Effective communication is the cornerstone of employee engagement. Our mobile-first solutions put crucial information at employees’ fingertips while promoting two-way and peer communication, no matter where employees work.

  • Data-driven

Successful employee engagement requires ongoing assessment of factors that can impact this engagement. Digital solutions enable quick and uncomplicated employee surveys, providing you with data analytics to identify trends and act accordingly.

  • Wellness support

Globally, 70% of companies have put wellness programmes in place post-pandemic but these are underutilised by employees. Wyzetalk’s solutions help you understand employees’ behaviour and identify underperformers, thus highlighting problems that could benefit from wellness interventions.

In the future, effective employee engagement tools will need to provide increasingly granular detail and forward-thinking companies will employ digital solutions that provide these insights.

Key Takeaways

The vast majority of companies want their workforces to emerge healthier and stronger, both physically and emotionally, post-pandemic. By building stronger relationships between managers and employees and improving employee engagement, while leveraging the benefits that digital solutions offer, this can be achieved.

To find out how you can place your company on this employee engagement journey talk to an expert.