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Mulligan, Jane (2022) The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employee engagement for millennials within Irish private sector SMEs. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
Millennials are increasingly becoming an important generational group for employers as generation X and baby boomers move to the later stages of their career and eventual retirement. Due to their increasing importance in the workforce, employers should ensure there are retention and engagement plans in place to support these employees. The researcher wanted to explore the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the engagement level of the millennial age group within small medium enterprises (SMEs) within the private sector in Ireland. The pandemic has been an unprecedented time for organisations and required organisations to change the way their employees worked overnight. The researcher wanted to investigate how leadership in SMEs responded to such a rapidly changing working world and their response to maintaining engagement amongst their millennial workforce.
From investigation into the literature, the researcher identified several gaps which led them to developing several research questions. These research questions focused on the areas of comparison between millennial engagement prior and after the pandemic, did the pandemic negatively impact engagement amongst millennials and leadership’s response to employee engagement. The researcher conducted five interviews with millennials who worked in SMEs in a variety of sectors in order to explore the impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on employee engagement.
After analysing the data from the interviews, the researcher discovered that overall, the pandemic had a positive effect on employee engagement amongst millennials in comparison to their engagement levels prior. One of the biggest reasons for this was the feeling of freedom working from home provided. However, the responses were mixed in relation to the overall impact the pandemic has had on employee engagement. Some participants became more engaged due to the change in their working environment and removal of the commute, while others described their frustration with micromanagement from leadership and the isolation of working from home.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Performance Management > Employee Engagement D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > Ireland H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Small Business Sector |
| Divisions: | School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management |
| Depositing User: | Clara Chan |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Nov 2022 10:48 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Nov 2022 10:48 |
| URI: | https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5897 |
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