'Nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction': Dell orders staff back into the office as the company shakes up hybrid working practices

Dell Technologies is ordering staff to return to the office, according to reports, as the company looks to change its hybrid working policies.

In a memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Michael Dell informed employees across the board that the company was 'retiring hybrid policy' from 3 March.

"What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction," he wrote, saying that a "thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days."

Dell Staff are now expected to be in a specific office five days a week. The new policy does, though, contain an exception for staff who live a long way from the office, with only those with less than an hour's commute expected to comply.

According to an internal FAQ seen by Business Insider, though, these workers won't be eligible for promotion through the company's annual pay planning process without approval from the company's SVP, ELT, and COO.

The policy stands in stark contrast to a statement on LinkedIn in 2022, in which Dell championed the company’s continued remote working policy.

"From my experience, if you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you’re doing it wrong,” he said at the time.

But, even before this move, the company was already shifting more workers back into the office, and Dell's latest memo claimed that this has delivered positive results.

"We've already asked our sales teams, manufacturing teams, engineers in the labs, onsite team members and leaders to be in the office five days a week, and we have seen these areas come alive with new speed, energy, and passion," he wrote.

"Now, we want to see that same sense of urgency and drive everywhere."

RTO mandates are gaining traction

Other major tech firms have been ordering staff back to the office too. From this month, for example, Amazon corporate employees are expected to return five days a week.

AT&T and JP Morgan have done the same, while Salesforce, Apple, and Disney have all tightened up their hybrid working policies.

Across 2024, the topic of RTO mandates became a recurring flashpoint for big tech companies, with a host of firms having experienced pushback from staff.

Dell staff in particular pushed back against its changing remote and hybrid working policies, with internal polling at the company showing decreased morale amidst the disruption.

However, with the tech industry mired in persistent talent shortages, there is evidence that expecting staff to come into the office every day may make things worse.

Recent research published in Nature found that, while managers expected productivity to fall under a hybrid model, the reverse turned out to be true. Neither productivity nor the rate of promotion were negatively affected when staff worked from home two days a week.