Employee Engagement and Resilience of SMEs in Port Harcourt Nigeria

Employee engagement has been widely acknowledged as a vital factor in enhancing organisational resilience, especially in small and medium companies (SMEs) navigating volatile business landscapes. This research investigated the correlation between employee engagement and resilience among SMEs in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The issue at hand pertains to the scarcity of empirical data connecting engagement dimensions—vigour and dedication—to resilience dimensions—agility and adaptability—within the setting of Nigerian SMEs. A cross-sectional survey approach was used, including a population of 900 SMEs. We used Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) table to get a sample size of 269 people by simple random selection. Structured questionnaires were given; 269 were administered, 224 (83%) were returned and correctly completed, 45 were not retrieved, and all 224 retrieved were suitable for analysis. The hypotheses were tested using Spearman Rank Order correlation. The results showed a significant positive relationship between vigor and agility (ρ = 0.530, p < 0.05) and a moderate positive relationship between vigour and adaptability (ρ = 0.425, p < 0.05). Likewise, devotion exhibited a robust positive connection with agility (ρ = 0.632, p < 0.05) and adaptability (ρ = 0.514, p < 0.05). All null hypotheses were rejected, affirming that both energy and devotion strongly correlate with measures of resilience. The research suggests that staff engagement—through vigor and dedication—enhances SME resilience by boosting organisational agility and adaptation. It suggests that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) boost vigor via health and motivation initiatives, and boost devotion by making sure that employees' values match their work tasks. The larger point is that SMEs need to invest in employee engagement on purpose to be competitive in business conditions that are always changing.