A study on Employee Engagement during Covid-19 in IT and Finance Sector

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to understand the various online engagement activities being conducted in the IT and Finance sector and how were the engagement levels of employees during COVID Design/methodology/approach-102 employees were surveyed of the IT and Finance sector who were working during the covid-19 pandemic in India through Google Forms. The data was also collected from secondary sources like newspaper articles, websites, etc. to further support our findings.

Full text

Int. J. Adv. Multidiscip. Res. (2023). 10(1): XX–XX
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International Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Research
ISSN: 2393-8870
www.ijarm.com
(A Peer Reviewed, Referred, Indexed and Open Access Journal)
DOI: 10.22192/ijamr Volume 10, Issue 1 -2023
Research Article
A study on Employee Engagement during Covid-19 in
IT and Finance Sector
Ms. Tanvi Vyawahare,Research Scholar, Xavier Institute of Management and
Entrepreneurship, (Recognized Research Centre of University of Mysore), Bangalore.
Ms. Sharmishtha Maity, Research Scholar, Xavier Institute of Management and
Entrepreneurship, (Recognized Research Centre of University of Mysore), Bangalore.
Dr. K. Subha, Assistant Professor, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship,
(Recognized Research Centre of University of Mysore), Bangalore.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to understand the various online
engagement activities being conducted in the IT and Finance sector and how were
the engagement levels of employees during COVID
Design/methodology/approach –102 employees were surveyed of the IT and
Finance sector who were working during the covid -19 pandemic in India through
Google Forms. The data was also collected from secondary sources like newspaper
articles, websites, etc. to further support our findings.
Findings –By drawing on the concepts of various employee engagement activities
taken place during online working were made predicting that the alignment of the
various activities done by the organizations to engage the employees will be
leveraged in the present as well as the future to enhance the engagement and will
help the organization to improve the Job Satisfaction, Job Involvement, Job
Commitment of the employees along with building the Organizational Citizenship
behavior within the employees.
Keywords
Employee
Engagement,
Job Involvement,
Job Satisfaction,
Job Commitment,
Organizational
Citizenship
Behavior,
Covid -19
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22192/ijamr.2023.10.01.XXX

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1. Introduction
1.1| Work from home
Work that is performed remotely, rather than by
employees commuting to a central office, is
referred to as work from home, remote work,
work from anywhere, telework, remote job,
mobile employment, or distance work. For
convenience, the notion is abbreviated as "WFH."
Since many people are considering working from
home, the office is no longer the sole place to do
work. For millions of workers worldwide,
working from home has been the new norm since
the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic,
many employees and businesses were forced to
abruptly and unpreparedly transition to remote
work.
After everyone settled in, what quickly became
apparent to many office-based teams is that
employees could be productive and focused when
not in the office—in many cases, even more so.
Employers everywhere began to understand that
remote work really works and can be adapted
even after the pandemic to take advantage of the
many benefits it has. The big question was that
there are many advantages to working remotely,
but are the employees engaged?
1.2| Employee Engagement
The current business landscape is changing as a
result of the global COVID-19 outbreak. HR
managers are always coming up with innovative
and effective strategies to engage the staff during
this difficult period. Employee engagement is a
way of thinking about the workplace that
motivates all employees to continually give their
all in support of the goals and fundamental
principles of the firm. Organizations typically
take into account the fact that motivated
employees boost workplace morale, which in turn
raises customer satisfaction and always results in
higher sales and profitability for the company.
Employee engagement can act as a catalyst for
changing employees' attitudes, intentions, and
behaviors in order to boost job output (Andrew &
Sofian, 2012; Saks, 2006). Andrew and Saudah
(2012) concluded that employee engagement can
be utilized as a mediator to enhance the behavior,
intention, and attitudes of employees toward a
better work performance.
Employee engagement helps the business achieve
its goals, carry out its plan, and produce
meaningful financial returns. Different HR
methods, including job design, recruitment,
selection, compensation, training, and
performance management, can increase employee
engagement (Vance, 2006). An engaged
employee is focused on their work and the
success of the firm, and they constantly want to
believe that their tenacity and diligence could
make a difference. Engaged workers are more
productive at work, which results in increased
customer satisfaction, a rise in sales, and an
increase in the organizations' profits.
A characteristic of a company's relationship with
its employees is described as employee
engagement. In other terms, employee
engagement refers to employees' cognitive and
affective involvement in the business.
Additionally, the link that exists between
employees and their employment is precisely
described by the term "employee engagement."
Employee and organizational efficiency will
increase as a result of more employee
engagement, which will also minimize
absenteeism, injuries, and attrition.
Employee engagement is linked to concrete
indicators of an organization's efficacy, including
effectiveness, success, quality, customer
satisfaction, benefit, and development (Moetaz
Soubjaki, 2011). The findings of Garg, Dar, and
Mishra (2017) showed a correlation between job
satisfaction and work engagement that is
favorable. Further investigation revealed that
employee engagement is a direct result of work
satisfaction. Employees who are actively engaged
are consistently upbeat, maintain positive
interpersonal relationships, and perform at a high
level for the company (Jena, Pradhan, &
Panigrahy, 2018). According to Tiwari and Lenka

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(2019), the level of engagement among
employees is increased by functional, financial,
and psychological rewards. The findings show
that employee engagement was positively
correlated with internal corporate communication,
perceived communication satisfaction, knowledge
sharing, continual learning, and intrapreneurship.
This paper found that if organizations invested in
their human resources and building complete
human resource management (HRM) system in
their organization, it produces engaged personnel,
and, in return, organizations improve their
performance (Tensay & Singh, 2020).
Employees who are engaged are enthusiastic and
full of energy. In addition, they are frequently
preoccupied with work, and time is limited.
Employee engagement is one of the key
characteristics that has a significant impact on
organizational performance, according to leaders
and managers around the world. Beyond the
traditional notions of involvement, organizational
commitment, and work happiness, employee
engagement continues to drive business success.
Utilizing one's emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral resources while working toward the
organization's objectives and tactics constitutes
the engagement (Tanveer Ahmed, 2020).
Employee engagement is described as one of the
crucial issues that each association attempts to
maintain among its employees and to make sure
that workers give their jobs their all in Adhitama
and Riyanto's (2020) definition. On the other
hand, according to Baumruk (2004), Shaw (2005),
and Frank et al. (2004), employee engagement is
typically defined as employees' level of voluntary
effort in their work or their enthusiastic and
intellectual commitment to the organization.
1.3 | Disengagement
The signs of disengagement, which include slow
working pace, lack of interest in work, being
easily and repeatedly distracted, and minimal
production, are frequently used to describe it
(Pech& Slade, 2006). Employees that are
disengaged frequently have unfavorable attitudes
regarding their jobs and employers. It has been
demonstrated that these unfavorable sentiments
have a negative impact on organizational success
and productivity. As was stated at the outset of
this research, organizational managers and leaders
must act promptly to pinpoint the underlying
variables that cause disengagement. The
following is a list of the three main elements cited
by Rastogi et al. in 2018:
1. Lack of Job Resources refers to the
absence of the many elements of a job that
support the work experience, encourage
growth and development, or directly assist
with job duties.
2. Lack of job control refers to an employee's
inability to decide on their own work (i.e.
the path or approach taken toward task
completion). Employees with less job
control tend to be less independent and
determined.
3. Lack of Job Complexity: When duties are
assigned, there isn't much innovation,
complexity, or challenge. Work that is
monotonous and repetitive immediately
affects how engaged employees are.
1.4 Research Gap
There were various articles that were looked at to
see what their future scope was and tried to
implement that in our research paper. (Meenakshi
and Neha, 2020) said in their paper that it would
be better to combine primary data along with
secondary data to enhance the study and
understand the current scenario.(Aileen, Nina,
Janna, Leonard, Angeline, April, Jhoselle, 2021)
and (Moetaz, 2021) also mentioned in their
research paper that future researchers should use
primary data along with secondary data. They
also suggested expanding research in other sectors
to improve results and accuracy. (Juliet Shambhi,
2021) also suggested the same as above.
Furthermore,(Nisha and Sangeeta, 2020)
suggested that it is vital to identify the different
factors that affect employee engagement and what
activities are being carried out. Lastly,
(Andriyastuti, SuhartiniI, Majang, Fereshti,
Muhammad, 2021) suggested that future studies
should examine the effect of existing variables by
focusing on specific institutions.

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The research is an attempt to bridge the gap by
combining primary data by conducting a survey
and secondary data by taking relevant data from
various sources such as different articles, news,
research papers etc. Furthermore, the research
survey identified different variables that would
affect Employee engagement such as Job
satisfaction, Job involvement, OCB and Job
commitment. Also, the research was focused on
specific sectors such as IT and Finance with
existing variables.
1.5 | Research Objectives –
1. To identify the employee engagement activities
in IT and Finance sectors during COVID-19
2. To analyzethe difference in the level of
employee engagement brought about by
engagement activities conducted by IT and
Finance sectors.
2 | Hypothesis:
To understand the engagement level and if the
activities that were performed in the organization
impacted employees during the online working
mode the following hypothesis were taken into
account -
a. H(a) - The level of job involvement of the
employees due to engagement activities
conducted by the organizations differ between IT
and Finance sector
b. H(b) - The level of organizational citizen
behavior of the employees due to engagement
activities conducted by the organizations differ
between IT and Finance sector
c. H(c)- The level of job satisfaction of the
employees due to engagement activities
conducted by the organizations differ between IT
and Finance sector
d. H(d) - The level of job commitment of the
employees due to engagement activities
conducted by the organizations differ between IT
and Finance sector
3| Study
3.1| Participants and Procedures
The survey collected data from 102 employees of
the IT and Finance sector who were working
during the covid -19 pandemic in India through
Google Forms. The employees across various
companies provided an overall idea of the
employment engagement environment that
different companies are providing in both sectors.
Integrating both positive and negative work-from-
home engagement activity processes developed
how to make the employees feel a part of the
organization and bring about a sense of belonging
as well as a sense of security during the hours of
uncertainty.
The uncertainty in the world due to covid-19 had
brought about various levels of anxiety and stress
in the lives of many. People were not only
struggling to provide for themselves and their
families but what could have been done as a
society. Moreover, it was the organization that
had to boost the morale of the employees and
keep them engaged while working to be able to
survive in the competition and to keep the
business upfloat. The task of Human Resource
Managers had become very important and
challenging to know and understand how to bring
about the required changes. A total of 102
participants completed the survey, among them
58.7% were male respondents and 40.4% were
female respondents. The demographics were that
out of all the respondents the majority of
participants were of the age bracket of 26-30
years.
3.2 | Measures
Surveys were administered in English, as PAN
India the people are well versed with English
Language and it is one of the official languages of
India, moreover in both sectors i.e., IT and
Finance Sector the English Language is prevalent
in the corporate sector. Unless otherwise noted,
our variables were measured using a 5-point
Likert scale wherein 1- Strongly Disagree, 5-
Strongly Agree).

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Further, before testing the hypotheses, a reliability
test was done to test using the SPSS tool for the
entire data as well as variable wise as it was
necessary to check how reliable the data was. In
the reliability analysis, the indicator system
yielded an overall Cronbach's ɑvalue of 0.930,
Job Satisfaction variable reliability of 0.782, OCB
variable Cronbach’s a value of 0.867, Job
Satisfaction variable Cronbach's ɑvalue of 0.803,
and a Job Commitment variable Cronbach’s a
value of 0.833 as shown in table 1
Table 1 Reliability Statistics
3.3 | Virtual Working
The research assessed the employee engagement
level during the remote and virtual mode of
working during the sudden shift to work from
home post the spread of COVID-19. The
employees of Finance and IT were asked for their
experience while being in an uncertain situation
of working conditions and virtually online. It was
important to observe the level of involvement and
the impact of the same on the employees. Since
the employee engagement would not only boost
the morale but also help in controlling the attrition
rate of the employees in the organization. The
following variables were further taken into
consideration-
3.3.1 | Job involvement
The research focused on understanding the
activities and their impact on the employee’s
involvement in their organization. The employees
were asked to answer the questions like “I
willingly participated in all the activities that took
place” i.e., all the virtual activities that were done
during the time of Virtual working mode. They
answered the question using a 5-point scale
ranging from 1 - Strongly Agree to 5 - Strongly
disagree.
In a research paper, job involvement was said to
“represents a type of attitude toward work and is
usually defined as the degree to which one
identifies psychologically with one's work, i.e.,
how much importance one places on their work.”
(Jelena,Milan, Slavica, Dubravko, 2018).
3.3.2 | Job Commitment
Job Commitment is the psychological attachment
of an employee to the organization.
The research tried measuring the positive impact
of a person’s commitment to the job which he is
working at in the organization by saying “Post
these activities, I relate to and enjoy the
company’s culture. They answered the question
using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 - Strongly
Agree to 5 - Strongly disagree.
3.3.3 | Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) refers
to the behaviors of individuals that promote
effectiveness in organizational functioning. OCB
accomplishes this effectiveness by providing a
positive social and psychological environment in
which task work can flourish along with the
employee. The same was understood to gain
knowledge and find out whether the activities that
were done for employee engagement brought an
impact and improvement in the OCB behavior of
the employees or not. The same was noted by the
question like “After the online engagement
activities, I feel proud to work for
Company”.They answered the question using a 5-
point scale ranging from 1 - Strongly Agree to 5 -
Strongly disagree.
3.3.4 | Job satisfaction
For any employee it is important to be satisfied
with the work and the working environment of the
organization to give their hundred percent and

Int. J. Adv. Multidiscip. Res. (2023). 10(1): XX–XX
6
work efficiently for themselves and the growth of
the organization as a whole. Job satisfaction has
become one of the vital elements of any employee
engagement activity. The research measured the
satisfaction level by questions like “The employee
engagement activities helped me feel satisfied
with the development of my work during COVID-
19”. They answered the question using a 5-point
scale ranging from 1 - Strongly Agree to 5 -
Strongly disagree.
4| Results
4.1 | Analysis
Table 2: Demographic Analysis
Sl No.
Demographics
Categories
Percentage
1
Gender
Male
Female
Prefer not to say
58.6%
40.4%
1%
2
Age
20-25
26-30
31-35
Above 40
30.8%
46.2%
19.2%
1.9%
The survey carried had 102 responses where 61
Respondents were Males which is about 58.7% of
the sample size, 42 of them were females which is
about 40.4% of the sample size and 1 person
preferred not to say which is about 0.9% of the
sample size.
Furthermore, in the survey carried out, out of the
102 responses 46.2% are from the age group 26-
30, 30.8% are from the age group 20-25, 19.2%
are from the age group 31-35 and 1.9% from each
age group i.e., 36-40 and above 40 years.
Employee engagement activities in IT and
Finance sectors during COVID-19
To understand what all activities have been part
of the Online Work Model in IT and Finance
Sectors, some of the working professionals were
reached out to and interviewed on what were the
online activities they remember which their
organization conducted during the COVID times.
Out of the list of the activities 11 activities were
chosen i.e., Virtual Lunch dates with the team,
Fashion Shows, Online Games, Courses made
available by the company, treasure hunt, Singing
competitions, Town Halls, Yoga and health
related activities, Concerts, Festival Celebrations
and Others.
When participants were asked which activities,
they were a part of, 57.6% answered that they
were a part of Online Gaming, 47.8% said that
they were also part of Town Halls that were
conducted in their organizations.
Further, the research went ahead to understand
which of the activities that were listed by the
survey was best preferred by participants based on
their participation in the said activities. By the
information collected it was understood that
Online Games were the most popular and liked by
the participants followed by Online Courses that
were made available by the company.

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Table 3 :list of activities based on preferences of the participants
Virtual
Lunch
Date
Fashion
Shows
Online
Games
Courses
made
available
by
Company
Treas
ure
Hunt
Singing
Competi
tion
Town
Halls
Yoga
and
Health
Activi-
ties
Concerts
Festival
Celebra-
tion
Others
IT
17
1
19
16
3
3
7
11
3
6
5
Finance
3
2
9
7
7
2
6
9
2
6
5
Total
20
3
28
23
10
5
13
20
5
12
10
This gave an understanding that the employees
were largely engaged in various activities and
were liking Online Games played during their
online activities. The second preferred activity
was Courses that were offered by the company
and it was followed by Virtual Lunch Date with
Team members and yoga and health activities.
Then, further the research tried to find out the
mean of the overall data that was noted as - 2.479.
Further the sector wise mean value obtained was
2.488 for the IT sector and the mean value
obtained for the Finance sector was 2.467.
Table 4: Mean of Sectors
Sector
Mean
IT
2.488
Finance
2.467
Both Sectors
2.479
By looking at the mean values individually as
well as overall, it was understood that both the
sectors and not entirely engaged in the activities.
Both the sectors have moderate mean values and
do not show a high employee engagement.
To understand the trend better the research further
moved to the data set and tried to understand the
significance of the data set with the help of T-test
and to further be able to understand the
significance difference between the two sectors
and it was statistically proven that there is no
significant difference between the two sectors.

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Table 5. Job Involvement in IT and Finance sectors.
Independent Sample T-Test
IT Sector
Finance Sector
T
df
Sig.
(2-tailed)
Number
Mean
SD
Number
Mean
SD
Underproducti
ve and the time
investment
65
3.77
1.042
37
3.92
.954
-1.019
80.981
.311
Part of the
community or
the
organization
65
3.91
.964
37
3.81
1.050
.478
66.513
.102
Willingness to
participate
65
3.58
.950
37
3.46
1.095
.640
63.602
.524
Team building/
Cohesiveness
activities
65
3.75
.969
37
3.89
1.125
-.728
63.501
.469
H(a)- The level of job involvement of the employees due to engagement activities conducted by the
organizations differ between IT and Finance sector
For the Variable Job Involvement, the statistical
values were taken and it was understood the
significance difference for the questions to
understand the employee engagement through Job
Involvement in both sectors. It was found that
there is no significant difference between the two
sectors to see the difference in Job Involvement,
i.e., the significance (P value) for the (2-tailed)
test was not below 0.05. Same can be seen in the
table 5. Thus, rejecting the (a) alternative
hypothesis.
Table 6. Organizational Citizenship Behavior in IT and Finance Sector
Independent Sample T-Test
IT Sector
Finance Sector
t
df
Sig.
(2-tailed)
Number
Mean
SD
Number
Mean
SD
Feel proud to
work for
(company)
65
3.52
.752
37
3.65
.889
-.816
62.545
.417
Great place to
work
65
3.63
.894
37
3.65
.919
-.189
70.233
.851
Employee
Value
65
3.57
.790
37
3.78
.917
-1.298
63.606
.199
H(b)- The level of organizational citizen behavior of the employees due to engagement activities conducted
by the organizations differ between IT and Finance sector

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We followed the trail to further understand the
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
enhancement of the employees in the sector. We
aimed at the three questions we asked to evaluate
the OCB in the employees. The statistical values
showed that there was no significant difference
and none of the P- values were not below 0.05 as
can be seen from the table 6. Thus, rejecting the
(b) alternative hypothesis.
Table 7. Job Satisfaction in IT and Finance Sector
Independent Sample T-Test
IT Sector
Finance Sector
t
df
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
Number
Mean
SD
Number
Mean
SD
Improved
Efficiency
65
3.32
.886
37
3.27
1.045
-.086
63.345
.932
Recognition of
my suggestions
65
3.35
.909
37
3.70
.845
-2.259
79.945
.027
Satisfied with
the development
65
3.38
.860
37
3.81
.811
-2.424
75.235
.018
Work Routine
was maintained
65
3.63
1.039
37
3.43
1.094
.952
68.676
.344
Work-Life
Balance
65
3.09
1.057
37
2.97
.957
.717
78.780
.475
Employee
orientation
activities
65
3.37
.928
37
3.54
1.016
-.768
66.357
.445
H(c) - The level of job satisfaction of the employees due to engagement activities conducted by the
organisations differ between IT and Finance sector
For the third variable, the research was focused to
know whether the pattern is the same or different,
whether there is a significant difference for Job
Satisfaction level among employees in both
sectors or not. For the same the research tried
taking the variable and understanding the
difference from the questions that were asked in
the survey. The same trend was seen i.e., no
significant difference was found between the two
sectors i.e., P- Value was found to be above 0.05,
as shown in table 7 Thus, rejecting the (c)
alternative hypothesis.

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Table 8. Job Commitment in IT and Finance Sector
Independent Sample T-Test
IT Sector
Finance Sector
t
df
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
Number
Mean
SD
Number
Mean
SD
Suggestions to
the
Management
65
3.35
.975
37
3.43
.867
-.478
79.107
.634
Feel active
part of the
organization
65
3.42
.934
37
3.46
1.095
-.133
62.688
.894
Open
communicatio
n with
Manager
65
3.38
.963
37
3.59
.798
-1.459
89.096
.148
Open
communicatio
n with Team
and Other
Departments
65
3.34
1.004
37
3.54
1.120
-.960
65.350
.341
Company
Culture
65
3.49
.937
37
3.51
.932
-.039
72.126
.969
H (d) - The level of job commitment of the employees due to engagement activities conducted by the
organizations differ between IT and Finance sector
The last variable that was wanted to understand
whether it has any significance difference or not
is Job Commitment of the employee as a part of
employee engagement procedure. The same was
taken up by the 2-tailed T test, thus it was again
found that there is no significant difference
between the two sectors for this variable, i.e.,the
P- value is not below 0.05 thus it would reject the
(d) null hypothesis as mentioned earlier.
5| Findings and Discussion
Thisresearch was set to find out about the
employee engagement activities during COVID-
19 that were done by various organizations in the
IT and Finance Sector. To understand the
effectiveness of the employee engagement
activities used in each sector that helped enhance
the Job Involvement, Organizational Citizenship
Behavior, Job Satisfaction andOrganizational
commitment among the employees. It was found
out that the organizations were not successful in
engaging the employees and enhancing the above-
mentioned variables. It showed that the activities
only made the employees engaged in a mediocre
manner and the employees did not feel the
activities were engaging as the organization
planned them or set out to be for the betterment of
the employees. The research found that the
employment engagement activities were shown to
be less effective and did not show results as
planned by the organization.

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11
Moreover, there was no set pattern that could be
drawn from the data collected. Since there was no
pattern with the primary data collected, the
research looked for some secondary data which
would help to understand the responses and the
pattern.
Researchers found that the Employee Engagement
is not showing any significance difference or has
mean values to the middle i.e., showing less
engagement, according to the secondary research
it is believed that following are the reasons for the
less engagement amongst employees -
Firstly, as COVID -19 pandemic was a sudden
change for all the companies, managers did not
know how to adapt to this big change overnight.
In one night, everything went digital, suddenly
people could not step out, production was
stopped, etc. So, in this situation it was really
difficult for HR managers to think out of the box
and adapt to these drastic changes. Therefore, it
was not possible for the companies to come up
with activities specifically suited for the
employees to feel motivated and engaged. In the
survey that was conducted, it was found that both
the finance and IT sector conducted the same kind
of activities which were very generic and not
customized to the sector. This led to lower levels
of engagement in both the sectors or similar kinds
of engagement in both the sectors.
Secondly, during the second wave of the
pandemic which was during the period of March
2021 to August 2021 which was much more
devastating than the first wave of the pandemic
was when companies in all the sectors actually
started initiating and introducing the employee
engagement activities to engage and motivate the
employees in a better way. According to the data
found on worldometer, covid cases were
averaging to about 200,000 per day. This meant
that almost every household in India had a death
or someone who was hospitalized or was in a very
critical health state. In this situation of constant
worry and fear of losing their dear ones it was
impossible for any company to effectively engage
their employees in work as people were not in the
right mindset to even work so thinking about
engaging them through other activities was very
far-fetched. During this period of time, people just
wanted to finish their work and be with their close
ones, instead of engaging in these fun activities or
employee engagement activities that companies
were hosting after work timings or even during
work timings. This led to lower level of
engagement during the second wave of covid- 19
pandemic even though engagement activities were
being carried out
.

Int. J. Adv. Multidiscip. Res. (2023). 10(1): XX–XX
12
The pie-chart according to State Remote Report
2020 shows us various struggles faced by
employees while working remotely. The biggest
struggles faced are clearly collaboration and
communication, Loneliness and distractions at
home. This proves that while employee
engagement activities were being conducted
people were still facing these challenges which
means that the engagement levels were low due to
these contributing factors. This justifies what this
research is showing which is there were low
engagement levels during COVID- 19 pandemic
despite the engagement activities being
conducted. Engagement activities were being
conducted so that employees will not feel the
struggles mentioned above in the pie chart but
that was not the case.
A graph from Statista 2022 shows that the
Leading HR challenges faced working from home
(WFH) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the
Asia-Pacific region as of October 2020. From this
graph, it can be inferred that during the second
wave of the pandemic which is assumed was the
time when all companies were conducting
engagement activities, the engagement levels
were quite low due to reasons like insufficient in-
person communication, insufficient training for
remote working and insufficient team engagement
activities. Therefore, it proves what this research
suggests that there were low engagement levels
across all companies.
5.1 | Limitations
First, the limitation in the research is that the
sample size was limited to only 102 respondents.
This sample size is very small to represent the
employee engagement levels of PAN India.
Second, out of the 102 respondents,65% of
respondents were in the IT sector and 35% were
in the Finance sector, thus, the respondents from
each sector were not represented equally, which
was unsuccessful due to some factors.

Int. J. Adv. Multidiscip. Res. (2023). 10(1): XX–XX
13
5.2 Conclusion and Future Directions
It is challenging to keep an employee interested in
a virtual workplace. Every non-work-related
activity that used to engage employees has been
limited by the employee-employer relationship
through a virtual platform. Work has become
routine, dull, and non-creative as a result of the
decrease in opportunities for team engagement,
team gathering, and individual development.
Those who like this new work environment
concur that there are organizational sectors. Work
is more akin to a task that requires more
engagement and expression in order to convey
thoughts. Firms are using a variety of activities to
increase engagement in the virtual workplace,
including games, interactive sessions, video call
celebrations, and many more.
In this paper, it was conceptually explored how
effective online employee engagement activities
were during the work from home model in
engaging the employees and making them feel
motivated, satisfied and committed across IT and
Finance sectors. By drawing on the data of
various employee engagement activities that were
being conducted, it can be concluded that during
the pandemic, despite the online engagement
activities being carried out, the engagement levels
were still very low across both IT and Finance
sectors. Considering its theoretical and practical
importance, it is hoped that future research in this
field will find out about the engagement levels in
other sectors apart from IT and Finance as well.
Also, we encourage researchers to carry out this
research in different countries apart from India to
derive insights on the engagement levels where it
might be different than what we found out.
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Quick Response Code
DOI:10.22192/ijamr.2023.10.01.XXX
How to cite this article:
Tanvi Vyawahare, Sharmishtha Maity, K. Subha. (2023). A study on Employee Engagement
during Covid-19 in IT and Finance Sector. Int. J. Adv. Multidiscip. Res. 10(1): XX–XX.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22192/ijamr.2023.10.01.XXX