IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT OVER ITS EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE BRANDING AMONG EMPLOYEES OF IT ITES SECTOR

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET)
Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2020, pp.1830-1839, Article ID: IJARET_11_12_172
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJARET/issues.asp?JType=IJARET&VType=11&IType=12
ISSN Print: 0976-6480 and ISSN Online: 0976-6499
DOI: 10.34218/IJARET.11.12.2020.172
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT OVER
ITS EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND
EMPLOYEE BRANDING AMONG EMPLOYEES
OF IT/ITES SECTOR
Girish R
Research Scholar, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, India
Dr. S Kamala Suganthi
Research Supervisor, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, India.
ABSTRACT
In Today’s Global Pandemic Situation, Organizations across the globe got severely
affected and even then the company asked its major workforce to work from home option,
wherein this scenario has severely affected both employee engagement and their
respective performance in the most predominant manner. Here in this research study,
the researchers try to explore the major impact of employee engagement over its
employee’s performance in the organization during this Covid -19 lockdown. Many
IT/ITeS companies asked their employees to do Work from Home (WFH), whereas many
other industries have utilized technologies for an alternative to do their business
operations. From a manager's perspective, it is a challenging task to get the best work
from their employees during this lockdown. Virtually all IT/ITeS companies are focusing
to enhance their employee engagement because it leads to job execution. In a view of
employee’s perspective, they too face many challenges in these pandemic situations
because of their family commitments, fear of spreading the virus rapidly. Especially for
women, the challenges are higher than men because of the work-life balance. So,
researchers have focused to collect the primary data on IT/ITeS professionals focusing
on problems and challenges faced by the employee. The finding of this research study
would discover the relationship between employee involvement and it’s linked to
employee job satisfaction and its related performance
Key words: Employee Engagement, Employee Performance, IT/ITES Employees,
Covid-19 Lockdown.

2. Impact of Employee Engagement over Its Employee Performance and Employee Branding among
Employees of IT/ITES Sector
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Cite this Article: Girish R and S Kamala Suganthi, Impact of Employee Engagement
over its Employee Performance and Employee Branding among Employees of IT/ITES
Sector, International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology,
11(12), 2020, pp.1830-1839
http://www.iaeme.com/IJARET/issues.asp?JType=IJARET&VType=11&IType=12
1. INTRODUCTION
The notion of employee engagement is a relatively new one, one that has been heavily marketed
by human resource (HR) consulting firms that offer advice on how it can be created and leveraged
(Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B., 2008). In these tough times, all employees are struggling to
take care of themselves and their families. Companies are also going through difficulty at the
beginning of this Covid-19. Later, employers found their ways to assign duties to their
employees. In this study, researchers are focusing only on IT/ITES employee’s comfortableness
and dis-comfortableness factors in their preferred and chosen work mode during this COVID-19
pandemic situation. For IT employees, the offline work culture already existing in their company
policy of many top multinational companies, only small IT/ITES companies struggled in these
hard times. From the employer’s perspective, managers need to get the best work from their
employees even though the situation is challenging. So, the company has to focus more on
employee engagement. Hence, researchers have focused on employee involvement at the job and
their satisfaction level in the work from home culture.
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Ismail, H. N., Iqbal, A., & Nasr, L. (2019) study findings showed a significant positive effect on
employee engagement on job performance. However, mediation analysis has shown that
creativity has fully mediated the relationship between engagement and performance. This study
suggests the important implications for managers to encourage creativity in the workplace.
Employee creativity at the workplace is an important tool to improve the impact of engagement
on job performance.
Bali and Dixit, (2016), in their study titled, “Employer brand building for effective talent
management”, projected at accentuating the extent to which employer branding is conducive to
attracting relevant and experienced candidates for the organization. It also aimed at outlining the
effectiveness of employer branding in retaining the existing employees through brand building.
The results of the study illustrated that employer brand building has a positive impact on pooling
both experienced and fresher candidates with relevant skills set. In alignment with this, an
interesting finding showcased that a strong employer brand image leveraged competitive
advantage in terms of monetary compensation that is offered to potential job seekers.
Nonetheless, building an internal brand image of the employer accounts for long term procedures
and efforts. However, the attainment of a good internal brand image ensures higher sustainability
of strategically important employees and greater productivity.
Employee Engagement is defined as concurrent contributions of physical, cognitive, and
emotional into their work roles (Kahn, W. A. (1990); Rich, B. L., et al., 2010). Also, an employee
who fully engaged during work time tends to be more productive, more profitable, less stressed
(Harter, J.K., et al., 2002) and provide competitive advantages (Harter, J.K., et al., 2002;
Vaijayanthi, P., et al., 2011). Employee Engagement is a motivational process, which drives the
employees to perform well and it influences an employee’s work role performance. It has been
noticed that men who belong to Indian origin showed high motivation as compared to other
countries (Singh, S. K., et al.,2016). Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2008) suggest that
employees with high job involvement will find their work interesting and meaningful and they

3. Girish R and S Kamala Suganthi
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will have a positive influence, including happiness, joy, and enthusiasm. Work engagement has
several relationships that exist in employees between employees and works environment Taiwo,
A. S. (2010). Based on this definition, work involvement is formed by the relationship between
these two elements, employees and the environment in which employees work. Macey, W. H.,
& Schneider, B. (2008) argue that just as with satisfaction, engagement also has a positive
valence, which is more inclined towards enthusiasm and energy. Job involvement can be seen as
a positive state that activates work-related influences with increased motivation Warr, P., &
Inceoglu, I. (2012).
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
• To find out the comfortableness and dis-comfortableness factors in their preferred and
chosen work mode during this COVID-19 Pandemic Situation.
• To find out the level of the respondents' satisfaction towards their preferred and chosen
work mode during this COVID-19 Pandemic Situation.
• To identify the impact of demographic factors on their preferred and chosen work mode
during this COVID-19 Pandemic Situation.
3.1 Need for The Research Study
It’s always essential to do a periodical study on employee engagement and involvement in almost
every competitive organization, where these employee engagements and involvement which
would certainly increase productivity and turnover of the organization. So we should always
measure this employee engagement and involvement as a unique competitive component that
needs to be concentrated to remain competitive and strong in the global business environment.
At this Pandemic COVID-19 Pandemic situation, every employee finds themselves difficult to
get adjusted to the working culture and environmental sustainability. In this condition, the
mindset of the employees seems to affect a lot due to a lot of uncertainties like Lack of
Infrastructure Facilities, Job Security, Time Management, Business Communication, Work-Life
Balance, Business Sustainability and Survival, Many other similar factors, etc., Which they come
across in their organization almost in all the industry where they rely on employees productivity
and turnover has been affected to the utmost core. Hence the researcher had planned to carry out
a research study focusing on employee engagement factors and its related impact on employee
satisfaction among IT Professionals in Bangalore City.
3.2 Problem Statement
In this present pandemic COVID-19 Situation, Every Industry finding themselves to get adjusted
towards the various kinds of uncertainties prevailing differently. At the same time, the IT
Industry specifically had taken some measures by adjusting their business strategies and models
according to the situation prevailing, also it has asked its employees to adapt their newly framed
business strategies and models to the core extent. Further, IT Companies had asked their
employees to do their regular work with the same expectation of adapting the Work from Mode
of Working for their respective organization. This change would have affected the minds of the
employees at all the levels of their organization irrespective of the workload been allocated to
them with various time frames as a deadline for the accomplishment of tasks. It is being quite
evident that almost all the employee has to adopt the new working style and culture of the
organization irrespective of various uncertainties standing tall in fronts of them like Time
Management, Infrastructure Facilities, Business Communication, Work-Life Balance, Job
Security and Many More. Keep all these factors in mind, the researcher would like to specifically
focus on the IT Industry Employees Work Engagement and Involvement, wherein change in the
mode of working would have certainly affected their Work Engagement factors which would

4. Impact of Employee Engagement over Its Employee Performance and Employee Branding among
Employees of IT/ITES Sector
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certainly affect work-life balance and other related performance factors, which is been taken as
a central focus of problem among them and these above mention problems would certainly affect
employee satisfaction to the core extent, wherein the researcher wants to find out through this
extensive research study.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Researcher carried out the descriptive research study, wherein his research, the researcher
major focused on employee engagement and employee performance during this COVID 19
pandemic situation. The research was carried out in Bangalore city of Karnataka, where the target
population is the employees belong to the software industry. The researcher had adapted the Non
Probability Sampling method and further adapted the convenience sampling technique for their
research effectiveness. To carry out the research by focusing on primary data collection, a
formally structured questionnaire has been being used as a research instrument, and using the
research instrument a survey questionnaire was administered to Indian IT employees. The survey
instrument consisted of 18 questions on a five-point Likert-type scale that measured Employee
Engagement using the Measuring Work Engagement Rothbard, N. P. (2001). Task Performance
Questionnaire consisted of 6 questions on a five-point Likert-type scale Pradhan, R. K., & Jena,
L. K. (2017). In this study, researchers have taken gender from a demographic variable. The
questionnaire has circulated over more than 500 Indian IT employees. Finally, researchers have
taken consideration of 132 IT employees’ data for this research.
5. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
Table 1 Reliability of Employee Engagement Scale
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
0.924 24
Interpretation
Table No.7.1. Reveals that the Cronbach’s Alpha value is .924 which is higher than the standard
value 0.924. Hence it is found to be high internal consistency and the scale is highly reliable.
Cross Tabulation
Gender Classification*Comfortableness Factors in Choosing Your Preferred Work Mode with
Respect To The Preferred Work Mode
Table 2 Gender Classification*Comfortableness Factors in Choosing Your Preferred Work Mode With
Respect To the Preferred Work Mode
Gender
Comfortableness Factors in choosing your
preferred work mode
During this COVID-19 Pandemic
Situation, Respondents Preferred work
mode
Total
Work from home Work from office
Male
Time Management 4 36 40
Organizational Support and cooperation 0 4 4
Work-life balance aspects 12 26 38
Total 16 66 82
Female
Time Management 6 0 6
Organizational Support and cooperation 0 14 14
Work life balance aspects 0 30 30
Total 6 44 50
Grand Total 22 110 132
Source: Primary Data

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Interpretation
From the above table. No. 7. 1, it is inferred that Out of 132 Total Respondents, it is found that
22 Number of respondents feel that work from home is a better option compared to work in the
office, whereas the remaining 110 respondents feel that Work from The Office would be the
better option compared to work from home. Both Gender Category of the respondents has their
preferences in their preferred work mode and they have different comfortable factors for
choosing their preferred mode of work too.
When we see in-depth, it is being inferred that Out of 132 total respondents, there were 82
male respondents and the remaining 50 were female respondents. Out of 82 Male respondents,
66 male respondents preferred to work in an office because of the following major factors, which
they do feel that these majors play a vital role in the selection of their preferred work mode (Time
Management, Organizational Support, and cooperation, Work-life balance aspects), Eventually,
remaining 16 male respondents feels that work from would be the better-preferred work mode
because they could be able to manage their time and work-life balance found to be good, that is
the reason why they had chosen this kind of work from home mode as a most reliable mode for
them to go with. Similary, Out of 50 Female respondents, 44 female respondents preferred to
work in an office because of the following major factors, which they do feel that these majors
play a vital role in the selection of their preferred work mode (Organizational Support and
cooperation, Work-life balance aspects), Eventually, remaining 6 male respondents feels that
work from would be the better-preferred work mode because they could be able to manage their
time in a better manner, that is the reason why they had chosen this kind of work from home
mode as a most reliable mode for them to go with.
Cross Tabulation
Gender Classification*Dis-Comfortableness Factors In Choosing Their Preferred and Chosen
Work Mode
Table 3 Gender Classification*Dis-Comfortableness Factors in Choosing their Preferred and Chosen
Work Mode
Comfortableness Factors in choosing
your preferred work mode
Gender Classification
Total
Male Female
Time Management 18 12 30
Peer Relationship 30 06 36
Infrastructure Facilities 18 20 38
Expert Guidance and Supervision 06 00 06
Work-life balance aspects 10 12 22
Grand Total 82 50 132
Source: Primary Data
Interpretation
From the above table.No.7.2, it is inferred that Out of 132 Total Respondents, it is found that 82
respondents belong to the Male Category and they do feel find themselves discomfort with the
following factors in their preferred and chosen work mode, which they are Time Management,
Peer Relationship, Infrastructure Facilities, Expert Guidance and Supervision, Work-life balance
aspects. Similarly, Out of 132 Total Respondents, it is found that 50 respondents belong to the
Female Category and they do feel find themselves the discomfort with the following factors in
their preferred and chosen work mode, which they are Time Management, Peer Relationship,
Infrastructure Facilities, Work-life balance aspects. Hence, the researchers would like to
conclude that both the gender feels a similar kind of dis-comfortableness factor in their preferred
and chosen work mode.

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Cross Tabulation
Gender Classification*Level of Satisfaction in Choosing Their Preferred and Chosen Work Mode
During this COVID-19 Pandemic Situation
Table 4 Gender Classification*Level of Satisfaction in Choosing their Preferred and Chosen Work
Mode
Gender
Respondents Level of Satisfaction towards
their preferred mode of working during this
pandemic COVID 19 situation
During this COVID-19 Pandemic
Situation, Could please mention
preferring work mode
Total
Work from homeWork from office
Male
Highly Dissatisfied 02 02 04
Dissatisfied 00 06 06
Neutral 12 06 18
Satisfied 00 26 26
Highly Satisfied 02 26 28
Sub-Total 16 66 82
Female
Highly Dissatisfied 00 06 06
Dissatisfied 01 04 05
Satisfied 05 20 25
Highly Satisfied 00 14 14
Sub-Total 06 44 50
Both Male
and Female
Highly Dissatisfied 02 08 10
Dissatisfied 01 10 11
Neutral 12 06 18
Satisfied 05 46 51
Highly Satisfied 02 40 42
Grand-Total 22 110 132
Source: Primary Data
Interpretation
From the above table.No.7.3, it is inferred that Out of 132 Total Respondents, it is found that
there were around 52 (78%) of the total 66 Male Respondents are both satisfied and highly
satisfied with Work from a home mode of working, whereas the remaining 14 (12%) of the male
respondents are only dissatisfied with the work from office mode of working. Similarly, 34 (78%)
of the total 50 female respondents feel that both satisfied and highly satisfied with the Work from
a home mode of working, whereas the remaining 10 (22%) of the female respondents are only
dissatisfied with the work from office mode of working. Hence, the researcher would like to
conclude that both gender classifications preferred to choose Work from office option would be
a better one in order get the fullest satisfaction towards work and with respect to its completeness,
Efficiency, and Effectiveness.
5.1 ANOVA Test
Hypothesis Testing H1: There is no significant difference on dimensions of Employee
Engagement based on Age Group and Experience of the respondents

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Table 5 Difference on dimensions of Employee Engagement based on Age Group and Experience of
the respondents (ANOVA)
Dimensions
Based on Age of the Respondents Based on years of experience of the
Respondents
F Sig F Sig
WE 4.003 .002 11.623 .000
FE 15.808 .000 4.646 .000
TP 3.153 .010 3.801 .002
Inference
From the above table.No.7.5, it is inferred that from Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) reveals
that the significance value for all the dimensions of Employee Engagement are less than .05 and
hence the Null Hypothesis H1 is accepted. It reveals that there is no significant difference on
dimensions of employee engagement based on age group and years of experience of the
respondents.
5.2 Independent Sample ‘T’ Test
Hypothesis Testing H2: There is no significant difference on dimensions of Employee
Engagement based on Gender and Marital Status of the respondents
Inference
From the below table.No.7.6, it is inferred that from Independent Sample t test, that the
significance value for all the dimensions of Employee Engagement are higher than .05 and hence
the Null Hypothesis is rejected. It reveals that there is significant difference on dimensions of
employee engagement based on Gender and Marital Status of the respondents
Table 6 Difference on dimensions of Employee Engagement based on Gender and Marital Status
(Independent Sample T test)
Dimensions Based on Gender of the
Respondents
Based on Marital Status of the
Respondents
t Sig t Sig
WE -.963 .334 -.796 .428
FE -1.423 157 -.823 .412
TP -.886 .377 -1.037 .302
Hypothesis Testing H3: There is no significant difference on Employee Engagement based on
Mode of work preferred
Table 7 Difference on Dimensions of Employee Engagement based on Mode of work preferred
t value Sig. Value
WE -2.974 .004
FE -1.996 .048
TP -4.965 .000
Inference
From the above table no.7.7, it is found that that the significance value for all the three dimensions
are lesser than the standard value .05 and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. It is inferred that
there is no significant difference on dimensions of Employee Engagement based on Mode of
work preferred.
Hypothesis Testing H4: There is no significant association between Work Mode Preference and
comfortableness

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Hypothesis Testing H5: There is no significant association between Work Mode Preference and
discomfort
Table 8 Association between Work mode preferred and comfortableness and discomfort in the work
mode (Cross Tabulation)
Association between
Work mode preferred
and comfortableness and
discomfort in the work
mode
Comfortableness do you get
in choosing your preferred
work mode
Discomfortableness do you get in
choosing your preferred work mode
Time
Management
Organizational
Support
and
cooperation
Work
life
balance
aspects
Total
Time
Management
Peer
Relationship
Infrastructure
Facilities
Expert
Guidance
and
Supervision
Work-life
balance
aspects
Total
Work from home 10 0 12 22 0 12 6 0 4 22
Regular office work 36 18 56 110 30 24 32 6 18 110
Total 46 18 68 132 30 36 38 6 22 132
Table.7.9 Chi Square Analysis
For Comfortableness For Discomfort
Value df
Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
Value df
Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
Pearson
Chi-Square
4.499a
2 .105
Pearson
Chi-Square
14.457a
4 .006
Inference
From the below table.No.7.8, it is inferred that the significance value for gender based analysis
is higher than .05 and hence the null hypothesis is rejected. It reveals that there is significant
association between work mode preference and comfortableness. People gain organisational
support and cooperation which is missing when they work from home. With regard to discomfort
the significance value is very low and hence the null hypothesis is accepted. It mean there is no
significant association between work mode preferred and discomfort.
6. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
• Hypothesis Testing H1: There is no significant difference on dimensions of Employee
Engagement based on Age Group and Experience of the respondents (Null Hypothesis is
Accepted).
• Hypothesis Testing H2: There is significant difference on dimensions of Employee
Engagement based on Gender and Marital Status of the respondents (Null Hypothesis is
Rejected).
• Hypothesis Testing H3: There is no significant difference on Employee Engagement
based on Mode of work preferred (Null Hypothesis is Accepted).

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• Hypothesis Testing H4: There is significant association between Work Mode Preference
and comfortableness (Null Hypothesis is Rejected).
• Hypothesis Testing H5: There is no significant association between Work Mode
Preference and discomfort (Null Hypothesis is Accepted).
7. CONCLUSION
The outcome of the research study clearly states that working in this pandemic situation itself
created a kind of psychological pressure among them and that too organizational support
provided towards these employees working in that condition has always been a challenging part
of many of the organizations. Not only the working style but also various factors like Peer
Coordination, Business Communication, Technical Issues, Infrastructure problems have been
added more psychological pressure among them. Ongoing through the gender sensitivity and
marital status with respect to that work bifurcation, it is been seen that these employees don’t
feel comfortable to work from a home option of working and completing their task since they do
find Work-life Balance, Time Management, and Supervisor Mentoring as a major issue to be
dealt with in these conditions and these employees not only find themselves difficulty to work
with but also it quite challenging to change themselves to come out of the routine style of
working. It’s been quite evident that organizations want their employees to adapt their new
policies and procedures towards their work culture and work environment, but in turn, it has
added a lot of workload and addition burden for the employees to go up with these changes, even
then employees striving themselves by working hard to accept the reality and making themselves
adjusted to this difficult times in order keep themselves competent and thereby making their
organization profit-making in their business domain what they have been specialized for in it.
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Employees of IT/ITES Sector
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