Engage for Success: UK employee engagement survey 2022: exploring the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement in the UK

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Pass, S. ORCID: 0000-0002-5062-9793, Court-Smith, J., Liu-Smith, Y.-L. ORCID: 0000-0001-5277-0144, Popescu, S., Ridgway, M. ORCID: 0000-0003-4426-6516 and Kougiannou, N. ORCID: 0000-0002-6422-3831, 2023. Engage for Success: UK employee engagement survey 2022: exploring the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement in the UK. London: Engage for Success.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.17631/rd-2023-0001-drep

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on our working lives, resulting in organisations and employees being forced to make dramatic changes overnight. This report aims to provide insight into current levels of employee engagement in the UK, explore the impact of COVID-19 on employee work experiences, and examining how organisations responded and whether it influenced employee engagement during this time. In addition, an objective of the report is to offer guidance for organisations on how to measure and compare their employee engagement levels, utilising an Engage for Success (EFS) Employee Engagement Index measure.

Overall, the results indicate that employee engagement significantly dropped during the pandemic for most employees. Decreases were seen across an employee’s engagement with their job, colleagues, manager, and organisation. Across these four areas of engagement, there was an average drop in engagement during the pandemic of -11%. Although engagement has improved since, there has only been a partial recovery in engagement levels. On average, this has only increased by +3%. As a result, employee engagement in the UK is now rated as -8% lower than before the pandemic. The degree of drop in engagement was not universal, as there were variations across backgrounds and demographics.

The depth of the drop in engagement varied depending on the organisational response and the methods they used to engage with employees during the pandemic. There is a clear and consistent message across the findings; the more methods organisations used, the smaller the drop in engagement during the pandemic. For example, respondents who reported that their organisations did not provide online health and well-being initiatives during the pandemic reported a -13% drop in engagement with their organisation. This compared to a 1% drop for respondents who reported their organisations offered four (or more) health and well-being initiatives. Similar levels can be seen across communication channels, learning and development and employee involvement methods. Findings also highlight the fundamental role of line managers during the pandemic in maintaining engagement levels.

Item Type:

Research report for external body

Description:

Commissioning Body: Engage for Success

Creators:

Pass, S., Court-Smith, J., Liu-Smith, Y.-L., Popescu, S., Ridgway, M. and Kougiannou, N.

Publisher:

Engage for Success

Place of Publication:

London

Date:

31 January 2023