Why Employee Engagement Needs a Reset in the COVID-19 Era

Employee engagement was at an all-time high in July 2020. Now it has returned to pre-pandemic levels. What drove these high and low levels of engagement? The changing workplace? The fatigue of remote work? How do organizations factor in for the fatigue that is the eventual outcome of radical change? A continuous action approach and direct involvement from leadership will, however, help navigate this space.

Gallup reports that 2020 has seen the maximum number of fluctuations in employee engagement. In July 2020, Gallup reportedOpens a new window that employee engagement in the U.S. had reached a record high – at 40%. However, earlier this month, the organization reported that employee engagement had reached pre-pandemic levels at 36%. The rest of the workforce? Presumably less or not engaged.

In June 2020, when the Black Lives Matter gained momentum, engagement levels reached an all-time low of 31%, according to Gallup. Managers and leaders showed the lowest engagement levels.

Gallup’s survey, however, measures a small sample of approximately 5,000 U.S. employees.

A Quantum Workplace studyOpens a new window (July 2020) on the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement discovered 83% of employees surveyed were found to be “highly engaged” in late March 2020. The research collected data from more than 470,000 employees from over 6,000 organizations from January 1, 2020, to May 12, 2020. This may be a better representation of engagement levels based on a larger sample.

Maybe higher engagement scores are evident because some employees are finally seeing in action what they have always wanted. For instance:

1. Engagement may have peaked because employees felt safer working from home than going to the office in the middle of a pandemic.
2. Employees initially enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of working from home. It would be interesting to see if engagement levels have dropped since schools reopened, and parents are now managing virtual schooling and work.
3. Remote working led to greater inclusion of a diverse workforce, such as individuals with disability, which may have led to greater engagement.
4. As the Quantum Workplace study indicates, when unemployment was at its peak in the U.S., so was employee engagement. It suggests that this may have led more employees to feel gratitude for just having a job and the flexibility to go with it in some cases. The result? Higher engagement.
5. Communication between leaders and employees also increased significantly, and employees likely felt seen in the middle of a crisis.
6. Conversations around diversity and inclusion also increased, with many companies pledging support to the D&I movement and promising change.

But it is likely now that with remote work fairly stabilizing, and the realities of juggling the home and the workplace becoming evident, some form of fatigue has set in, affecting engagement levels.

Engagement is not sustainable unless you plan for the fact that fatigue is going to set in, if it hasn’t already.

– Alan MayOpens a new window , chief people officer at Hewlett Packard EnterpriseOpens a new window (HPE)

The concept and the drivers of employee engagement are evolving. Organizations and leaders will have to develop a more agile, continuous action approach to maintain engagement levels.

We can’t be sure when the pandemic will end – though the hope is June 2021, when many tech firms will be reopening their offices. Until then, and after that too, engagement will need an entirely different approach in the new workplace.

What are some of these changes?

Learn More: Employee Engagement vs. Job Satisfaction: Key Differences and Metrics

The Myth of the Universal Benchmark of Employee Engagement

Organizations strive for employee engagement when they probably should be striving to sustain the drivers of engagement. Moreover, a one-size-fits-all approach in 2020 – when hyperpersonalization has been called the future of work – will not deliver any form of engagement.

“Certainly, high engagement is a prerequisite for top performance, but many other actions and practices are necessary to drive sustainable growth,” says May.

Many organizations provide external employee engagement benchmarking data, so single organizations can compare their engagement scores and figure out which percentile they are in.

But where is the value in this comparison? The drivers of employee engagement are so personal and can vary by industry significantly.

Rob Catalano, chief engagement officer at WorkTango, an employee listening platform, tells us that “a benchmarking mindset is more of a curse than an added benefit,” and here’s why. “Organizations get fixated on their ‘industry’ benchmark and accept a low engagement score because that’s what’s normal in their industry.”

So what if you’re 4 points higher than your engagement benchmark. Do you pat yourself on the back and not try to improve employee engagement? Does your approach change if you’re 94% and the benchmark is 90% versus if you’re 39% and your benchmark is 35%?

Having a higher benchmark, although interesting, shouldn’t have an impact on your journey to continually improve.

– Rob CatalanoOpens a new window , chief engagement officer, WorkTangoOpens a new window

Continual improvement is a step above merely continuous listening. Continuous listening is crucial, but are organizations ready to take continuous action?

“Continuous listening has the potential to provide greater insight on all aspects of the employee experience, but many organizations do not have the structures, governance, capability or capacity or overall readiness to take continuous action. Being able to implement meaningful, individualized action at scale will be the limiting factor at least for the near-term,” writes Ken Oehler, former global culture & engagement practice leader at AON.

But continuous action may be possible now. In an environment entirely in flux, testing different measures that augment employee engagement levels can turn into a permanent benefit – or a benefit that runs its course when it is due.

May cites the increasing employee engagement index score at HPE, a 10% year-over-year increase with engagement at a 10-year high. “We’re proud of this, but I think progressive organizations measure success more broadly. At HPE, we look at factors like top talent retention, manager effectiveness, performance, and impact indicators to create a holistic view of not just how engaged team members are, but are they engaged in the right way, and driving meaningful results.”

But at HPE, the external engagement benchmark is equally valued. May adds, “We do compare our results on several baseline questions with both tech and general industry peers and have sustained top decile performance relative to both reference groups.”

Learn More: How Focusing on Learning and Development Enables Employee Engagement

Can internal employee engagement benchmarks solve this problem?

Catalano recommends using internal employee engagement benchmarks instead of industry benchmarks. “Internal benchmarks offer the ability to dig into and understand, more importantly, what’s influencing those engagement scores. Is it perhaps a leader’s approach? Legislation in a certain country? The internal benchmarks are much easier to understand and remedy than a standard number provided as a benchmark to an industry.”

Phil Chambers, CEO of Peakon, an employee engagement platform, is of a similar opinion. “Companies are unique in their culture, makeup, and functionality, and as such, they need to select the benchmarks that are most relevant to their industry, company, and team level. Only then can they really understand how they are performing with regard to engagement. We created a feature called True Benchmark®Opens a new window with exactly this company-centric approach in mind.” True Benchmark compares engagement scores between teams of similar composition and may provide a more useful insight into the state of engagement in a team/company.

The Connection Between Employee Engagement and Its Business Impact

Measuring the impact of individual drivers of engagement on the business may be a more effective way to identify what engagement means to an organization.

These drivers, such as environment, reward, and autonomy, help you to see the bigger picture and understand what is causing the overall increases or decreases in your engagement scores. Employee well-being, for example, had often been overlooked, but I’m pleased to see that it’s finding more traction today.

– ­Phil ChambersOpens a new window , co-founder and CEO, PeakonOpens a new window

Since these drivers will change, calculating engagement scores on the traditional engagement drivers may not have any measurable impact. They will result in a number that may not reflect the real sentiment in the organization and may demand constant agility and a close watch on what drives the workforce as the world changes.

For instance, before deciding that every employee is productive from home, organizations will have to identify who isn’t, their motivations for returning to work, and how to make accommodations for such employees.

But even with ever-evolving drivers of employee engagement, a few things remain constant about how leaders should react/respond to employees – crisis or not. These elements, as recommended by Catalano, are as such:

1. Focus on empathy:Understand what employees are going through. And if you don’t know how … learn. Leverage empathy training and support for leaders to build a more empathetic workplace. We all can’t relate to the work environment for a colleague within the walls of their own household.
2. Double-down on gratitude:In times of uncertainty, we expect a lot more of our employees. It is very likely they are doing things they’ve never done before – wearing multiple hats, working through unchartered territory, and simply overwhelmed with changes. A culture of gratitude ties into the intrinsic motivation of employees, which supports them and has positive influences in challenging items. Recognition is also a proven driver of employee engagement that costs you nothing.
3. Connect on a deeper sense of purpose:Great organizations have looked beyond their revenue numbers to support their communities for a much greater purpose. Rallying your organization to support and work for a larger cause can really support an engaging workplace and offer a sense of purpose and belonging.
4. Enhance your focus on engagement to include well-being:In these times, it’s important to improve our employees’ well-being. It’s a critical time to normalize employee stress and be flexible with schedules and requirements for being on meetings when they’re homeschooling their children.

Learn More: Employee Engagement in a New World: What to Measure, and How

High Employee Engagement Requires a Personalized Leadership Approach

It seems vital to repeat that employee engagement – its drivers and the approach to measuring and maintaining it – is no longer what it used to be. It needs to evolve, it needs to be more agile, and it requires a personalized leadership approach if you haven’t been following one already.

“We’ve been deliberate about training our people leaders to check in often and authentically with their teams to understand what’s working, how they’re feeling, and look for flags that might spell trouble ahead so that they can manage through it in an empathetic way while maintaining business performance and delivering for our customers and partners,” says May. “By far the most effective way to combat these issues is genuine, ongoing engagement by our direct people leaders addressing both personal concerns as well as business issues.”

Chambers further adds, “It pays to listen to your employees, and employees need a safe and anonymous platform to provide feedback around culture, wellness, and so many other topics. Intelligent listening coupled with real-time feedback helps create company action. That’s how you sustain productive growth around engagement.”

And if we are to go by the engagement numbers we saw in July, it could indicate “proof that businesses are responding to the needs and expectations of their workforce,” says Chambers.

Employee engagement, as both Catalano and Chambers assert is the outcome of an ongoing process of continuous improvement. “The pandemic is still ongoing,” says Chambers, “and the way businesses respond to the needs of their people during this time will set them up for success with their current and future employees. It is not a one-off effort, it is a continuous process to make work, work for people – even under extreme circumstances such as these.”

What are your thoughts on the evolution of employee engagement in the COVID-19 era? Share them with us on  LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .