Introduction
Employee engagement plays an essential role in determining the outcome among employees and organizational leaders. According to MacLeod and Clarke (2009), there are various benefits of employee engagement both for the employees and the employers. For example, positive engagement ensures that all the stakeholders are working towards a common goal and thus increases the productivity and profitability of the organization. As observed by Dromey (2014) , employee engagement results in increased job satisfaction and this contributes to improved employee performance. On the other hand, lack of employee engagement creates some disconnect in the organization, which leads to reduced productivity Accordingly, organizational managers must put effort to ensure that the organizations they lead retain effective employee engagement to facilitate positive outcomes for both the workforce and the organization.
Background of the Company and Headline Issues on Engagement
PGMBM is a unique partnership between British, Brazilian and American lawyers, with particular expertise in group litigation and is currently managing some of the largest claims in English legal history including claims arising from the collapse of the Fundão Dam, the largest environmental disaster in the history of Brazil. The firm is also at the cutting-edge of UK group consumer claims, representing thousands of affected clients throughout the UK and the world. These claims are against Volkswagen, Daimler (Mercedes Benz), British Airways, Bayer and other major multi-national corporations. PGMBM is a disruptive and innovative firm championing justice for victims of corporate wrongdoing, changing the world one case at a time. The breadth of experience they possess is unparalleled, having worked for governments, multi-national organizations and NGOs, as well as being leaders of the trial bar in their respective countries. The company gathers together the most experienced lawyers across the globe and it has adequate resources to challenge any company. Moreover, the lawyers are pro-active and like to get into the field to truly understand our cases by connecting with their clients and seeing first-hand the losses and damages they have suffered. The firm emphasizes hiring lawyers who are not only highly qualified but have deep connections with their communities and the roots of their cases. Additionally, the lawyers are responsive given that they react to a problem within a short period. For instance, when the Data Breach case came up, the organization was the first to respond within 48 hours. Responsiveness is an essential in law since it enables lawyers to optimize the legal process and obtain results within a short period. Another principle guiding lawyers’ operations in the organization is dynamism. The lawyers are readily available in the field which makes it easy to interact with them. Finally, the capability of the company to tackle the Fundão Dam case demonstrates that the lawyers within the company think big.
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PGMBM workforce consists of about 200 people across its six offices located in London HQ, Putney, Liverpool, Miami, Netherlands and Brazil. In early 2020, the Covid-19 virus arrived in the UK and caused significant changes to how the firm operated and had a major impact on engagement in the Liverpool office , which has more than forty employees. By March of 2020, the actual office was closed as a measure to protect the employees from the effects of Covid-19. The management equipped the employees with a working from home kit and set up structures that facilitated remote working among the employees. The changes have negatively influenced the organization since the rate of turnover has significantly increased. Additionally, the organization is characterized with minimized productivity and the employees often miss their deadlines . As a strategy of enhancing its effectiveness, the company management has severally considered reallocating tasks assigned to the team working at Liverpool Offices to the workforce in London HQ . It is essential to note that regulating the conduct of the employees during the Covid-19 pandemic has been extremely difficult as it is challenging for the management to get into contact with their staff working at home when they are supposed to be working. Such occurrences are harmful because they lead to distrust between the management and the employees. Additionally, such practices make it difficult for leaders to take over their roles effectively since they cannot provide guidance on operations within the organization.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world in different ways. One of the biggest changes was in the way people worked. Lockdowns were imposed all over the world and policy makers urged people to work at home. Felstead and Reuschke (2020) report that homeworking in the UK was 5% before the pandemic and jumped to around 45% at the start of the lockdown and the number continues to remain high. The changes in the economy and work environment resulted in multiple consequences for workers and employees. Morretti et al. (2020) suggest that homeworking had a negative impact on job productivity, job satisfaction, work-related stress, and musculoskeletal issues. The impact of the Covid-19 can be analysed by considering various themes such as Covid19-related staff turnover, low productivity, disengagement, absenteeism, and mental health.
Engagement Theories
Employee engagement is an essential element in facilitating employee productivity in the workplace since it ensures that the workforce commits in achieving the mission of the organization by behaving as good citizens as postulated by Podsakoff et al . (1990). The process of employee engagement requires that the employer and the employees retain a professional health relationship characterized with trust and respect. Khan’s theory on employee management suggests that employees have the capability to activate three principles that influence their productivity. These principles include physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects. Physical engagement relates to the manner in which employees expend both mental and physical energy to have operations undertaken in a workplace (Terry, 2020). The capability of employees to expend more energy as they go about their duties makes employees more confident because they feel positive about themselves. On the other hand, cognitive engagement refers to the stage where the employees develop the interest to understand the mission and goals of their employer and purpose to fulfil them. Finally, emotional engagement refers to the existing relationship between the employer and the employees. A positive emotional engagement is essential because it encourages the employees to mentally associate with the organizational mission and values as postulated by Allen & Meyer (1990) . Consequently, it is essential to have employee engagement address all the three principles to achieve the best results for a company.
It is essential to address the impact of the transition experienced at Liverpool Offices as the employees were required to work remotely from home as a way of observing social distance. The transition theory addresses the experience of the employees after the change occurred, responds to various stages of change, and promotes health and well-being among the individuals (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). Moreover, the transition theory creates a connection between organizational and individual interests. The transition theory proposes that changes within an organization should be slow and gradual compared to rapidly adopting a new strategy (Lindmark et al., 2019). Additionally, the theory recommends that the organization should conduct employee training before implementing the change aimed at ensuring that the change has stuck among the employees. Sudden changes will only make the employees miss on some vital aspects of the organizational culture leading to minimized productivity. It is essential to ensure that the employees are engaged before implementing the change aimed at achieving some positive change.
Engagement Practices in your Organization
I joined the company in June 2020, and in the period I have been here, the increasing issues raised by other employees and heads of departments about the Liverpool Office staff specifically have become both strategic and operational concerns, with potentially significant commercial implications. They also are the last to respond to company-wide announcements or surveys. Almost completely disengaged from the rest of the firm.
One of the most devastating impacts on the pandemic that ultimately affected worker productivity is employee engagement. Adhitama and Riyanto (2020) defined employee engagement as a critical component among workers that ensures that they put hundred percent effort in their work. Employee engagement is based on the employment engagement theory opined by Kahn (1990). He stated that “engagement occurs when a person is able to harness their full selves to their work” (Kahn, 1990, 692). The study was based on the premise that people can have varying degrees of their selves emotionally, cognitively, and physically, which can impact their performances. Psychological conditions like that of availability, safety, and meaningfulness were found to have a strong relationship to employee engagement.
It is clear that the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic, including the government lockdowns and the how it was covered by the media, negatively impacted employee engagement, but more so for the Liverpool office. Hu et al. (2020) analysed how the Covid-19 mortality salience influenced the employees’ state anxiety and their responses to work. The study showed that the lack of a proper leadership led to an increase in employee anxiety and employees were more likely to be disengaged in the work. Additionally, the studies revealed that servant leadership was particularly important in guiding employees with the anxiety associated with their virus, making them engaged in their jobs and improved their ability to contribute more to the community. Aditama and Rivanto (2020) observed that the private working environment promoted employee frustration, anxiety, and burnout. These emotions had a negative impact on employee performance and engagement. Employees were less likely to survive in troublesome occasions as they had poor work quality and made frequent mistakes. Moretti et al. (2020) observed that there were also positive effects with working from home that could lead to improved engagement. Workers that had found it difficult to work at the office could experience better efficiency at their work, better concentration, improved family life, and reduction in psychological stress. The fact that working at home could create a better work-life balance also led to improve job satisfaction and better engagement. However, most workers experienced the negative effects of remote working where their work overlapped with their home lives and experienced more negative emotions. A pulse survey conducted in November 2020, showed a big difference between the Liverpool office and the rest of the fimr’s locations, despite having 80% of the staff working remotely, the result showed that most (89%) of the Liverpool office workers were disengaged with their work compared to the varying 12-23% in other locations.
According to Garton and Mankins (2020), the pandemic led to a further increase in the corporate productivity gap. Companies that were previously effective in managing their time, energy of their teams, and talents experienced a productivity growth of 5% to 8%. However, most organization experienced a reduction in their productivity of 3% to 6% due to the wasteful ways of working, decline in employee engagement, and inefficient collaboration. Felstead and Reuschke (2020) also reported conflicting findings by showing that 40.9% of homeworkers reported that they could not get much work done while only 2.9% reported that they had gotten more work done. The research from the studies showed that most workers experienced a general reduction in productivity. The biggest reasons were worker disengagement and distractions when working at home.
The general economic impacts of the lockdown can also be studied by comparing its benefits and costs. Miles et al. (2020) undertook a cost-benefit analysis of the lockdown in the United Kingdom. The study revealed that the average age at death and life expectancy loss at Covid-19 was 79.1 and 11.4 years while the death and life expectancy loss from Covid-19 were 80.4 years and 10.1 years. The study indicated that the lockdown costs were 40% higher than the highest benefits that could have come about by avoiding the worst mortality case scenario and realizing a full life expectancy tariff. The conclusion of the study was that the costs of continuing to hold the restrictions would be so great relative to the benefit of lives saved.
Employee disengagement can be defined as employees that are not happy with their work. Their lack of enthusiasm decreases their productivity as they cannot expend additional effort. Chadee et al. (2021) noted that the digital technology led to disengagement by withdrawing and avoiding work altogether. Additionally, the technology was also found to enable a greater engagement with work during non-work time. The implication of the study was that there was a need to make better use of digital technologies to further improve worker engagement.
The Covid-19 pandemic decreased staff turnover intentions. According to Jung et al. (2021), Covid-19 led to an unprecedented crisis that impacted job insecurity. The increased insecurity led to a negative impact on their job engagement and their turnover intent decreased. The study further showed that the negative impact on turnover intent and job engagement was more pronounced on Generation Y compared to Generation X. Bairami et al. (2020) made similar findings by observing that age and marital status had an impact on job motivations and turnover intent. The authors found that turnover intention was largely caused by increased job insecurity, changes in organization, and work-related attitudes.
The forced government lockdowns led to social isolation and reduction in physical activity that impacted people’s mental and physical health. Research by the International Labour Organization and Eurofound found that 41% of those working from home reported that they felt stressed from their work compared to 25% of their colleagues that worked from the office. The reduction could be due to the tendency to work longer hours at home, interference between work and personal life, and work intensification. The pandemic also led to a further decline in mental health. Torales et al. (2020) established that the pandemic led to increased health problems such as anxiety, depressive symptoms, denial, insomnia, stress, fear, and anger globally. Xiong et al. (2020) analyzed the factors that caused the increase in poor mental health. The authors established that individuals that had frequent exposure to social media and news relating to Covid-19 had higher stress and anxiety symptoms. The frequent use of social media increased one’s chances to get exposed to fake news and disinformation which amplified the anxiety. The pandemic led to an unpredictable situation and fake news spread on social media created unnecessary fear and anxiety. Additionally, the anxiety could also increase when one observes on social media how different people suffered from the pandemic.
Different materials were used to conduct the research. Various internet sources such as the Harvard Business Review showed the difference in corporate worker productivity in well-performing companies and under-performing companies (Garton & Mankins, 2020). The article from International Labour Organization and Eurofound provided with statistics about worker stress. The academic journal by Kahn (1990) also revealed the significance of employee engagement in determining employee performance. It was identified by modern studies that worker engagement had decreased leading to a reduction in worker productivity (Aditama & Riyanto, 2020.). The key research area is employee engagement as it determines shows the nature of stress that employees have and is the key reason for the difference in productivity among different employees. For instance, it will be expected that Covid-19 pandemic led to a decrease in the engagement of employees which ultimately led to a decrease in productivity. The focus of the reading will be in the factors and consequences of employee disengagement. Key factors that affect employee engagement such as the leadership and level of stress (Hu et al., 2020). The other areas of the organization that could be studied in the primary research are the staff turnover, productivity, absenteeism, and mental health. Poor mental health would be a factor that leads to low employee engagement, while staff turnover, low productivity, and absenteeism would be the consequences of disengaged employees.
Notably, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no sufficient time to facilitate an effective change once the PGMBM employees at the Liverpool office began working from home. The management lacked sufficient time to prepare for the change. The management did not communicate about the intended goals of the organization, which led to lack of commitment among the employees. The end goal was that there was a communication breakdown between the managers and the Liverpool team and most of their assignments had to be completed in the London offices which lead to poor employee engagement.
Conclusion
Covid-19 resulted in lack of employee engagement in the Liverpool offices after the employees were required to work from home as a measure of protecting the workforce from contracting the virus. All employees were given a work-at-home kit aimed at enabling them to work minimum challenges. However, the employees became less committed and they would hardly complete their assignments. Furthermore, the management could hardly connect to the employees. The factors led to reduced productivity within the organization. Moreover, the distribution of assignments meant for the Liverpool team to the London offices would easily lead to fatigue of the workforce in the latter station as they were overburdened with work which lead to burnout and employee disengagement as explained by Maslach and Letter (2008) . The aspect further reduced the productivity of the organization amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and this made the company to experience reduced profitability.
Recommendations
It is essential that PGMBM recovers and resumes its operations post Covid-19 pandemic in order to become profitable once more. This can be achieved by employing various strategies that help to remind the employees of the goals and objectives of the organization and applying various measures that would help to motivate the employees. One such strategy that the company can make use of is to organize frequent meetings with their employees to remind them of the goals and mission of the organization and also to provide feedback on the employee performance. This can be achieved by exploiting platforms such as zoom which enable people to meet while observing social distance as the meetings are virtual. Accordingly, it is essential that the management reconsiders leadership drivers in the organization. Moreover, the leaders should retain good and stable relationships with the employees by investing in the well-being of their employees and by using incentives to motivate the employees such that it becomes easier to apply a leadership strategy (Parent et al., 2015). The leaders must also ensure that they establish clear goals in the organization and have employees capable of accomplishing the intended goals despite the circumstances in which the employees work Such a perspective is essential because it enables the employees to remain on track even when they experience some changes in the manner the company operates.
References
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