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Dell’s return-to-office (RTO) mandate has been nothing short of controversial since it was introduced in February 2024.
First, the company told its staff they had to classify as either a remote worker or a hybrid worker. Hybrid workers were told to be in a recognized office a minimum of 39 days per quarter, while remote workers were told the price for working from home was to be overlooked for promotions.
Then, in May, the company announced it would be tracking hybrid employee office attendance through electronic badge swipes and VPN monitoring, before assigning them a color code indicating their level of onsite presence.
Initial feedback from the team was not good. Some workers claimed it was a form of “quiet firing” and “anti-women,” particularly for those who were not within a commutable location of one of Dell’s 17 “approved” US office sites. Moreover, nearly half of its full-time staff reportedly refused to come into the office.
Others pointed out statements from CEO Michael Dell, including a 2021 interview in which he said remote working was “absolutely here to stay,” and a 2022 LinkedIn post where he claimed those forcing workers into the office were “doing it wrong,” and that Dell had historically “found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based.”
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Some were more blunt, with one worker simply describing Dell as a “shit show.”
But perhaps the most telling reflection of the changes at Dell over the past twelve months – which have also included layoffs – has come through its latest employee engagement survey, “Tell Dell,” which surveyed around 98,000 workers.
The results of the survey, revealed by Business Insider, show that the company’s employee net promoter score (eNPS) dropped from 62 to 48 in the space of one year.
eNPS score shows Dell employees aren’t happy with RTO execution
eNPS is a measure indicating how likely employees are to recommend Dell as a great place to work, calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.
"No matter what, I've never seen a score move that fast in the wrong direction," one Dell worker told Business Insider. Another employee said most workers expected an even bigger drop off.
The drop-off in this metric varied from department to department, with some teams particularly badly affected – the eNPS score for Dell’s global marketing team, for example, dropped by 68%, with one worker suggesting the unit felt “particularly threatened” due to pressures to reduce cost and streamline processes amid accelerated GenAI adoption.
Some workers claimed that Dell’s leadership glossed over the findings shared with leaders in late June.
In 2023, an employee listening practice lead and a behavioral science consultant at Dell said the survey is a “key listening tool,” and that the company’s HR team would “further expand our support materials to empower leaders to act on their survey results.”
"In the past, leadership has treated Tell Dell very seriously,” one worker said. “The results are covered in detail with every team member along with action plans to address employee concern.”
But some workers claimed that this year, company leaders have ignored the results. “C-suite brushes over the real issues to push a positive image of the company,” one employee stated.
Dell’s CHRO argues eNPS score remains above industry average
Jenn Saavedra, CHRO at Dell, reportedly noted in an internal email that although eNPS dropped, this was an industry-wide trend, and Dell still exceeded the industry benchmark.
“While our score did drop, if you look at the Perceptyx blog, you will see that Dell is still well above industry averages,” a spokesperson for Dell told Fortune, also stating that the question about recommending Dell is one in a detailed survey that included other more positive findings.
Dell told Business Insider that workers “expressed their confidence in the future vision, strategy and leadership of Dell,” and valued the flexibility on offer.
Not all employees agreed with this outlook, however. “I don't think leadership cares about our feedback,” one staff member stated. “They just keep rowing in whatever direction they want," another added.
Dell is not alone in its struggles to successfully execute an RTO policy. Amazon, which has similarly adopted a hybrid model, has upped the stringency of its in-office monitoring, now requiring workers from different teams to stay in the office for two to six hours, in a bid to clamp down on ‘coffee badging.’
Like Dell, Amazon employees have similarly fought back against the company’s RTO mandate, with around 30,000 corporate employees signing a petition demanding the policy be revoked.
