---
title: "Employee Engagement During COVID 19: A Complete Guide"
description: "Organizations have to reorganize and retain their workforce due to COVID19. An effective Employee Engagement strategy becomes very important at this time."
canonical: "https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/employee-engagement-during-covid-19-a-complete-guide"
author: "Recooty Team"
date: "2024-09-02T00:00:00+05:30"
updated: "2026-10-22T15:35:28+05:30"
image: "https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/media/2020/07/Employee-Engagement-During-COVID-19_-A-Complete-Guide-4.png"
---

# Employee Engagement During COVID 19: A Complete Guide

The pandemic changed where and how many teams worked, but the engagement lesson still matters: people do better when they understand their priorities, can raise concerns, and see leaders respond. The original COVID-19 context is now historical, so this guide updates those lessons for remote, hybrid, and distributed teams.

Employee engagement after COVID-19 improves when people have clear priorities, supportive managers, useful feedback, fair flexibility, manageable work, and visible follow-through. A survey or platform can reveal a barrier, but engagement rises when leaders change the conditions employees experience every day.

## Key takeaways

- The original COVID-19 context is historical, but the engagement lessons still apply to remote, hybrid, and distributed teams when they are adapted to current working conditions.
- Engagement is not the same as happiness or attendance. It is strengthened by useful work, clear expectations, supportive managers, recognition, growth, voice, psychological safety, and the ability to do the job well.
- Gallup’s 2026 global report says employee engagement fell to 20% in 2026, while manager engagement fell to 22%. Managers need support because they shape the daily experience of the team.
- CIPD’s 2026 UK research found that 91% of employers offer some form of flexible working and 61% consider flexibility important when advertising roles. Flexibility should be designed with clear team norms, not left as an individual workaround.
- Measure engagement with a short pulse survey, participation and follow-through, manager check-ins, workload signals, retention, absence, internal mobility, and qualitative comments. Do not use one survey score as the whole diagnosis.

An [applicant tracking system](https://recooty.com/applicant-tracking-system) gives a hiring team one place to follow candidates and hiring stages.

- The best engagement action is specific: identify a barrier, give someone ownership, make a change, and tell employees what happened because they spoke up.

## Talent acquisition and employee experience platforms: compare ease of use and user experience

When you compare talent acquisition and employee experience platforms, define ease of use through the work each person must complete. Comparisons from [Greenhouse](https://www.greenhouse.com/blog/best-talent-acquisition-software), [Pinpoint](https://www.pinpointhq.com/insights/talent-acquisition-software-comparison), [SelectSoftwareReviews](https://www.selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/employee-experience-software), and [FirstHR](https://firsthr.app/compare/general/employee-experience-platform) show why a recruiter, manager, employee, and HR administrator can experience the same platform very differently.

| User group              | Experience to test                                                  | Evidence of usability                                                  |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Employee                | Pulse survey, feedback, recognition, learning or support action     | Completion time, accessibility, privacy explanation and follow-through |
| Manager                 | View team themes, respond to issues, plan action and close the loop | Clear prompts, manageable workload and useful recommendations          |
| HR or people team       | Configure surveys, segment safely, manage permissions and report    | Definitions, anonymity thresholds, exports and audit history           |
| Talent acquisition team | Intake, sourcing, interviews, feedback and candidate communication  | Adoption, stage completion, time in workflow and candidate experience  |
| Leadership              | See patterns without exposing individual responses                  | Decision-ready trends, context, confidence limits and action owners    |

Before choosing a platform, ask each vendor to demonstrate one end-to-end scenario: an employee raises a workload concern, a manager reviews an aggregated theme, HR assigns an action, and leadership sees progress without access to identifiable comments. This tests user experience, permissions, analytics, action planning and trust in one workflow.

### Employee engagement platforms: measure listening and follow-through

Compare platforms on question libraries, pulse frequency, anonymity rules, multilingual access, accessibility, comment analysis, manager dashboards, action plans, integrations and data retention. Do not treat sentiment analysis as a substitute for listening. A low score tells you where to ask better questions, not what action will automatically fix the problem.

Gallup's [State of the Global Workplace 2026](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/leadership.aspx) reports that global engagement fell to 20% in 2026 and manager engagement fell from 27% to 22%. These figures describe a global trend, not a diagnosis of every company. They do support giving managers realistic spans of control, training, decision authority and time to respond to employee feedback.

Recooty's editorial view: the easiest employee experience platform is not the one with the fewest buttons. It is the one employees trust enough to use, managers can act on without another administrative burden, and leaders can connect to a specific change in work. Ease of use without follow-through becomes another survey exercise.

For related workflows, see Recooty's [employee engagement survey guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/employee-engagement-surveys-all-you-need-to-know), [performance review guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/a-guide-to-performance-reviews-dos-and-donts), [remote-team tools guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/a-complete-list-of-must-have-tools-for-remote-teams), and [candidate experience guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/improve-candidate-experience).

[![Post a free job on Recooty](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/media/2024/12/Recooty-simplies-hiring-3.png.webp)](https://app.recooty.com/register?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=banner)

## What is Employee Engagement?

Typically defining, employee engagement is the emotional connectivity an employee has to their work. It revolves around how much investment an employee makes to their team’s goals and the organization’s mission. An ideal engaged employee should have a purpose and will to make a difference with their work. Also, they should be aware of how their work helps them and impact others as well.

Employee engagement can be the difference between an employee who does the minimum and one who contributes fully to the team. A well-engaged workforce can increase productivity and make a company [21% more profitable](https://haiilo.com/use-cases/employee-engagement). A [Gallup study](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx) also found that highly engaged workplaces had a 41% lower rate of absenteeism. Employee happiness can support engagement, but it does not replace clear work, resources, feedback, and fair treatment.

Employers and managers are facing a number of challenges during this pandemic. Most companies are forced to set up remote work measures to ensure safety of their employees. So, during this excruciating time, employee engagement strategies must have dropped down in the list of priorities. However, in the remote work environment, employee engagement is the most important initiative to keep at the forefront to ensure successfully getting out of these tough times. Thus, companies need to do all they can to ensure that the employees stay engaged while sailing through this crisis.

The most important question now is, How can you boost your employee engagement in these challenging times? Here are a few things to keep in mind while facilitating your employee engagement strategy.

## Encourage All Forms Of Communication

Working from home can instill a feeling of disconnection between you and your employees as well as among your employees. That’s why prioritizing communication is one of the most important measures you need to focus on. Make sure that the team managers have regular conversations with their team. By doing this, you can keep the employees engaged effectively. Also, this makes picking up on any mental health issue easy. Set a daily time for video or audio calls. Along with formal mentor-mentee communication, make sure you encourage your employees to connect to their peers as well. Remember, all your employees are humans, and are social animals. So you need to keep in mind the employee’s social needs too.

## Empathize With Your Employees

During this time of crisis, it is very important to show your employees that you care. With remote work, situations are not the same as they used to be. Understand the fact that most of your employees are struggling to maintain a work-life balance. That’s why, doing what you can to reduce your employees’ stress, will boost their engagement levels. The first step you need to take is to find out what your employees are struggling with on a daily basis and try to solve their issues. Be there and listen to their needs. Make sure they are able to access all the info and resources they need. Take initiatives focusing on the wellbeing and nurturing the mental health of your employees. Making your employees feel support can go a long way in boosting their productivity.

## Set Clear But Flexible Goals

With the new remote work environment, employees are living a new routine. There is a lot of uncertainty involving new working arrangements, new interruptions while working, and whatnot. But, whether in office work or remote work, the human yearning for a purpose always remains constant. It is desired by employees universally. So, you need to give your employees a precise directive on what’s expected from them. Set clear goals for your employees, but make sure they’re flexible and easily achievable. Be honest and open with your employees so there aren’t any surprises.

## Equip Your Employees With Correct Tools

Working from home may seem easier but it has its own drawbacks. Employees can have their children playing, or pets seeking attention, noisy neighbors, or anything. In short, remote work can be quite disruptive with different disturbing elements. Also, a distributive workforce can have a huge impact on the levels at which employees are engaged. You need to make your remote employees well engaged and a part of your company. To work from home efficiently, you need to give your employees the proper tools they need to work. To enable them to work collaboratively, you need to make combinations of the proper tools. For example, Slack as a chat platform, Zoom for video conferencing, Google cloud-based applications for data sharing. Once you’ve decided on tools, onboard your employees on how to use them.

## Recognize and Reward Your Employees

Remember, your employees are doing their best to succeed, even in these times of uncertainty. A little appreciation can go a long way in motivating an employee. Always celebrate the small victories and achievements of your employees. Appreciate their efforts and work. This can highly boost employee engagement. Also, share the company’s victories and achievements with your employees and give them the credit for it. Make announcements of new deals made or new targets crossed. Consider rewarding your top performers too. It’s not necessary that the reward has to be materialistic. It can be a day off, a team lunch paid by the company. Also, encourage your employees to support and uplift each other too.

## Make Room For Feedback And Suggestions

Feedback can be very constructive for an employee working remotely. Make a note of analyzing your employees’ work critically and have a structure in place to provide feedback. You can provide this feedback through regular virtual meetings, or even on chat platforms. Make sure that the feedback comes off positive and not as a criticism. If you feel your employees are not comfortable giving feedback, then creating a channel where employees can give feedback anonymously is a great idea. Feedback should always be a two-way street. So, keep an open channel and encourage your employees to give feedback as well. Be open to their suggestions and make them feel valued. 

During difficult periods, access to professional support, such as [psychological counselling](https://www.artemishospitals.com/specialities/mental-health-and-behavioural-science), can support employee wellbeing and engagement.

## How should employee engagement strategies work after COVID-19?

Treat the original pandemic advice as the starting point, then update it for a mixed workplace. In the [State of the Global Workplace 2026 report](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/can-work-from-home-sometimes.aspx), Gallup reports global engagement of 20% in 2026 and describes a sharp fall in manager engagement. In the [CIPD flexible and hybrid working research](https://www.cipd.org/en/knowledge/reports/flexible-hybrid-working/), 74% of organisations report having hybrid working in place, while access to flexibility is not equal across employees. These findings make the manager and team system as important as the employee’s individual resilience.

Use this engagement operating model to turn the article’s original recommendations into an ongoing practice:

| Engagement driver         | What managers should do                                                                             | Signal to review                                                               |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Purpose and priorities    | Connect each person’s work to a visible team outcome and explain what can wait                      | Employees cannot describe what matters this week or why their work matters     |
| Voice and feedback        | Ask focused questions, close the loop, and show which suggestion was accepted, changed, or declined | Survey participation falls or the same issue appears repeatedly                |
| Manager support           | Hold consistent one-to-ones, remove blockers, coach performance, and protect recovery time          | Managers are overloaded, one-to-ones are cancelled, or escalation happens late |
| Recognition and growth    | Recognise specific contribution and discuss skills, development, and internal opportunities         | Recognition is only for visible work or development access is uneven           |
| Connection and belonging  | Use inclusive meetings, documented decisions, and purposeful social contact                         | Remote or quieter employees miss context and informal opportunities            |
| Flexibility and wellbeing | Agree availability, workload, adjustments, and response expectations                                | Flexibility becomes hidden overtime, isolation, or unequal access              |

## A practical employee engagement measurement loop

Do not wait for an annual engagement survey to discover that a team is overloaded or disconnected. Use a simple loop each month or quarter:

1. **Listen:** run a short pulse with a small number of repeatable questions and one open comment prompt.
2. **Segment carefully:** compare results by team, work pattern, tenure, level, and other categories only when the group is large enough to protect privacy and avoid misleading conclusions.
3. **Diagnose:** combine survey responses with workload, absence, retention, one-to-one themes, internal mobility, and exit feedback.
4. **Act:** choose one or two changes that a manager or leadership team can actually deliver.
5. **Close the loop:** tell employees what was heard, what will change, who owns it, and when progress will be reviewed.

Gallup’s 2026 material identifies manager engagement as a major pressure point and says the manager or team leader accounts for 70% of the variance in team-level engagement. That is not a reason to blame managers for every result. It is a reason to give them manageable spans of control, clear priorities, training, decision authority, and support from senior leaders.

### Recooty editorial view: engagement improves when employees see follow-through

Our view is that the most credible engagement strategy has a visible feedback-to-action trail. If employees raise a workload, recognition, tooling, or communication problem, leadership should either fix it or explain the constraint and the next review point. Recooty’s [employee engagement survey guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/employee-engagement-surveys-all-you-need-to-know) and [feedback guide](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/most-common-mistakes-that-managers-make-while-giving-feedback) can support that operating rhythm.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the degree to which people feel connected to their work, understand what is expected, have the resources to perform, and want to contribute to the team and organisation. It is different from short-term happiness or simply being present.

### How can companies improve employee engagement in remote and hybrid teams?

Set clear priorities, document decisions, schedule useful one-to-ones, recognise specific contributions, protect focus and recovery time, make flexibility rules clear, create an inclusive feedback route, and act visibly on recurring issues.

### What are the best employee engagement metrics?

Use a combination of engagement-pulse results, response themes, manager check-in completion, workload and wellbeing signals, absence, regretted turnover, internal mobility, recognition, and employee-experience differences across teams or work patterns.

### How often should you run an employee engagement survey?

Use short pulses monthly or quarterly when the organisation can respond to the findings, and use a deeper survey less often for broader diagnosis. Survey frequency matters less than trust, useful questions, privacy, and follow-through.

### Why are managers important for employee engagement?

Managers translate priorities into daily work, provide feedback, recognise contribution, remove blockers, and notice when people are struggling. They need authority, training, realistic workloads, and leadership support to do that consistently.

### What should an employer do when engagement survey results are low?

Share the result honestly, identify the most actionable themes, discuss them with employees, choose a small number of owned actions, and set a review date. Avoid launching many disconnected activities before understanding the underlying barrier.

---

*Source: [https://recooty.com/blog/employee-engagement-during-covid-19-a-complete-guide/](https://recooty.com/resources/blogs/best-ai-powered-applicant-tracking-systems)*

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