● Close to 75% of organizations said that their employees were not engaged in the workplace. ● Almost 30% of organizations are looking at improving employee experience in the hybrid workplace through employee engagement initiatives. ● 43% of organizations undertake employee engagement to attract and retain talent. ● 61% of small enterprises feel employee engagement is an ad hoc initiative, while 60% of medium enterprises treat employee engagement as a business strategy.

Leena AI, an innovative technology solution transforming the employee experience, released their Employee Engagement & Hybrid Workplace Report 2022. The bi-annual report sheds light on employee engagement across 250+ enterprises globally, including in India and the US.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the importance of employee engagement has skyrocketed with changing needs amongst both employees and employers. The hybrid work model, which has become the norm across many large enterprises, requires organizations to adopt employee engagement tools and practices in-line with this evolution.

Annual surveys: still the norm!

While organizations have commonly used annual employee engagement surveys, 50% of the report suggested a growing frequency of such surveys. 25% of organizations stated that they had implemented quarterly employee engagement surveys, while only 8% executed them monthly.

In India and the rest of the world, there is a growing need for an active listening model in the workplace, where shorter and more frequent pulse surveys have become the norm. In a hybrid work model where employees are often interspersed, continuous listening has proven to be paramount.

Technology: a distant dream

The increased frequency of employee engagement surveys has also led to the need for advanced tools and technological practices in the workplace. As per the report, more than 50% of the respondents admitted the usage of simple surveys and feedback forms to gauge employee engagement, while 25% claimed to rely solely on manual methods.

A significant 30% of organizations also acknowledged the need for technological tools to discern employees’ wants and needs, i.e., possible areas of improvement in their respective organizations, actions that their workplace could take to promote inclusivity and mental well-being, and so on.

In addition, 25% of organizations also expressed an interest in wanting to understand the trend of engagement scores over a specific period.

Rewards and recognition = Employee engagement?

Rewards and recognition remain one of the most popular and high-impact strategies in the hybrid work setting. According to the report, almost 50% of the respondents admitted to relying on this method to engage their respective employees.

However, from the total pool of respondents, only 10% saw merit in including employees in primary decision-making processes as an engagement method.

Additionally, only 20% of organizations have implemented a detailed onboarding process designed to align new employees to the organization’s mission and vision in a hybrid work setting.

HR: owner of employee engagement initiatives?

70% of organizations said that the HR team owns employee engagement initiatives, while only 8% of organizations concurred with the involvement of mid-level managers.

While the HR department is indispensable in shaping an organization’s culture, it alone can not be held accountable for employee engagement. As of now, particularly since remote working has become the norm, employee engagement efforts are siloed in most organizations. It has been observed that organizations wherein CXOs lay the groundwork for creating a more positive work environment tend to witness increased employee productivity.

With India on the brink of its Great Resignation phase, organizations can benefit by revisiting their employee engagement policies, creating a more inclusive work environment, predicting attrition, and so on.

Employee engagement to attract talent

About 51% of IT and Software companies use employee engagement to attract talent, followed on close heels at 50% by the Media and Entertainment industry. About half (50%) of the media and entertainment industry also use employee engagement to create an employer brand.

42% of IT and Software sector organizations also use employee engagement to improve employee experience in a hybrid work model.

Organizations across different industries know what employee engagement can do for them - from getting access to better talent to retaining them. Their goals might be different, but their destination is the same.

Adit Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, Leena AI, commented, “While the pandemic brought about some uncertainties, it also facilitated in shifting our focus to the core of every organization i.e. its employees. It is interesting to observe whether organizations manage to engage their employees regularly and actively. For a while now, employee engagement has been considered a secondary activity conducted on a need-only basis. However, in the post-pandemic world, employee engagement's importance has skyrocketed with the changing needs of both employers and employees. Today, organizations must implement an effective HR strategy to build a positive work environment and retain valuable talent.

This report has been developed to identify patterns that employee engagement initiatives face around the world, whether the right tools are being implemented, whether the final impact is successful, and so on. We endeavor to support organizations, thought leaders, and decision-makers to make informed decisions towards a successful employee engagement strategy.”