Barriers to Employee Engagement in Remote Work Arrangement

Research Idea: Barriers to Employee Engagement in Remote Work Arrangement
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Research Topic and Rationale
I aim to investigate the barriers to employee engagement in remote work arrangements. The topic interests me for a few potential reasons. Firstly, one of the key measures taken by the business world to ensure survival during government-mandated lockdowns amid COVID-19 is to rely on remote work arrangements (Mark et al., 2022). While the world has now entered the post-pandemic phase, the remote work arrangement is likely to persist as it has emerged as a new normal with potential benefits for employees and businesses (Smite et al., 2023). Despite the realization of benefits, HR management faces various issues associated with engagement, as the employees are likely to miss the camaraderie of a physical workplace (Sharma, 2022). Similarly, the communication gaps and lack of proper connectivity remain potential deterrents to their engagement (Patanjali & Bhatta, 2022). Since one of the core responsibilities of HR managers is to utilize resources to keep the employees engaged, the aforementioned issues need to be articulated with greater clarity. The clarity on these issues will enable HR managers to tackle the key drawbacks of remote work arrangements related to employee engagement as a way to optimize productivity.
Summary of Existing Research
There is considerable debate in the existing literature regarding the issues employees face in remote work arrangements. For example, there is a concern that despite widespread theoretical assumptions that flexibility associated with remote work arrangements contributes to improved work-life balance, the findings from different contexts indicate the opposite. Counter-intuitively, it is found that employees are exposed to a higher amount of distractions while working remotely due to