A balanced approach: remote employees’ experiences with employee engagement and well-being

Purpose This paper aims to better understand remote and hybrid employees’ experiences with the interconnection between employee engagement and well-being in relation to the participants’ lived experiences in nontraditional work roles post-pandemic. Design/methodology/approach To better understand how employees’ experiences with remote work underscore employee engagement and well-being in post-pandemic nontraditional work roles, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with remote and hybrid employees in various industries across the United States. Findings This study has three major findings. First, participants experienced employee engagement and well-being as distinct yet connected, with well-being and engagement simultaneously being positive and negative. Second, employee engagement was driven by the organization, while in some cases, well-being focused more on the individual. Third, participants discussed how their experiences reflected a cyclical connection between engagement and wellbeing. Originality/value The findings from this study demonstrate that employee well-being leads to employee engagement. In this way, well-being at the individual level becomes a predecessor or antecedent to employee engagement. Therefore, well-being plays a role in how engaged an employee might be. Participants also offered unique perspectives on engagement and well-being in the workplace, conceptualizing well-being and employee engagement as both micro- and meso-level outcomes.