IMPACT OF WAGE RECESSION ON EMPLOYEE LOYALTY DURING COVID-19

Abstract

Employee loyalty is a complex, multifaceted construct that has been defined through numerous perspectives, including philosophical and psychological. This article, we studied the impact of wage recession on employee loyalty, the same was studied by Linz et al,2013. We decided to study employee loyalty during this pandemic period. Based on this the study objectives are framed to determine the various dimensions of employee loyalty, the impact of wage recession on loyalty and problems faced by employees those who work from home. The study population is college teachers and ITians. In these two sectors adopted a change in their working mode(i.e work from home) and faced wage recession. ITians don't face many issues since it is not new for them but for the teaching community, work from home is an entirely new concept. Teachers try to learn to work in a new platform like google meet, zoom app, cisco Webex meet and give assignments online and conduct exams in virtual mode, leading them to prepare themselves for a changing environment. The work from home created more stress for teachers but for ITians the family intervention and network issues created more stress. Apart from these issues, the employer also reduces the payment from 10% to 50%. Both are the major contributors of employee loyalty. A questionnaire was designed based on the suggestions of HR managers. The data was collected through the virtual mode from 96 professors and 74 ITians in and around Chennai. We measured the key factors which affect employee loyalty like salary, treatment by organisation, career focus, job involvement, job satisfaction, well being and work recognition. The study findings revealed that pay reduction does not affect loyalty much. Lack of communication creates more work stress among the employees. This virtual mode of working increased more working hours and responsibility but poor recognition by employers. Our study results reveal that most of the respondents have moderate loyalty and if the work of employees continues to be unrecognized which may decrease the loyalty in future.