Factors affecting virtual employee engagement in India during Covid-19

Many organizations are rapidly changing their procedures due to the rapid spread of corona virus (COVID-19) worldwide. Several companies have switched their entire workforce to temporary telecommuting and remote work. Like other employee-characters, there is believed to be a change in employee engagement as well. This research seeks to examine and statistically assess factors that can impact the employee engagement level. We collected data from 208 employees who are working from home in India with online questionnaire. Engagement scores have been calculated using UWES-14 (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale). We examined the impact of total 10 variables using multiple regression analysis. Our regression results suggest that proper virtual tools, contact by the organization leaders, mental health checkup and virtual training increases the employee engagement. Female employees are found to be more engaged than male employees while working from home. The number of kids are found to have negative impact on employee engagement. This implies that if the number of kids increases, the virtual employee engagement decreases. Our results could not find any significant impact of virtual teamwork, marital status, and entertainment tools on employee engagement. Based on the research results, this study make few recommendations. First, organizations should facilitate the improvement of virtual tools such as internet speed and personal computer configuration. Second, the salary employees should not be decreased. Third, the top organization leaders should have frequent contact with the employees, increase virtual training, and should encourage the employees to undergo the regular mental health checkup.