Employee Engagement Strategy: Building an Engaged Workforce during COVID 19 with Special Reference to Manufacturing Sector in India

Introduction

The Covid-19 epidemic in China poses a global hazard to health (Li et al., 2020). This sudden change to a work-from-home model has created uncertainty and unease among employees all around the world because of the pandemic crisis (Xiao et al., 2021).

Many businesses in India and throughout the world have been negatively affected by the ongoing COVID-19. Several countries, notably India, have declared a nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the escalating conflict, countries were forced to close their ports, airports, and internal transportation. As a result, the supply chain, production, and logistics sectors were severely impacted by the closure of facilities. This had a profound effect on the world's manufacturing industries. Chinese coronavirus is regarded as the world's most important industrial hub. A wide range of raw materials, intermediaries, components, and spare parts are all produced here, making it one of the world's major producers of these items. Many businesses were immediately halted because of the COVID 19 outbreak in China. This created supply chain interruptions and delayed deliveries due to logistical challenges. As a result, lockdowns around the country disrupted personal, business, and civil lives. Due to global supply constraints, the Indian industrial industry was also affected. Like in India, China imports a variety of products including raw materials and other manufacturing goods used by consumers. India, like many other countries, was having difficulty meeting customer demands, managing supply and labour shortages, and meeting manufacturing schedules. To prevent the spread of new coronavirus, India was also witnessed imposing its longest national lockdown. Several industries were shut down and migrant workers were left stranded because of this, significantly delaying production processes. Migrant workers had to struggle with financial hardships, food shortages, and other threats to their well-being. Kumar & Choudhury, 2021).