Staff satisfaction at Dell Technologies has crumbled under the weight of mass layoffs and unpopular return-to-office (RTO) mandates, according to a leaked internal survey seen by Business Insider.
Conducted annually and dubbed ‘Tell Dell’, the survey is used by the firm to track satisfaction among staff. At least one of the metrics used is the employee net promoter score (eNPS) which measures the extent to which an employee would recommend Dell as a place to work.
In the latest ‘Tell Dell’ results, the company-wide eNPS score - calculated by subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters” - dropped from 62 to 48.
Based on the responses of about 98,000 staff members, this decline is a noteworthy indication of lingering negative sentiment in the firm. One employee told Business Insider they had “never seen” a score move that quickly toward the negative.
Tellingly, another employee said that most of the people they work with were “expecting a steeper decline”, pointing to the pervasive sense of dissatisfaction within the company.
Some areas of the business were more deeply affected. In Dell’s global marketing department, the eDPS score dropped by 68% and was even approaching or at zero in certain smaller divisions.
"I think the marketing teams feel particularly threatened due to the accelerated adoption of GenAI to streamline marketing processes and reduce cost," one staff member said by way of explanation.
Despite the evident staff uproar, however, it is not clear the extent to which Dell plans to improve the current eNPS score.
"It's as if every leader was given the OK to ignore it," one employee told Business Insider regarding the firm’s response to the survey. Multiple staff members agreed that Dell’s leadership seemed to ignore the eNPS result.
"I don't think leadership cares about our feedback. They just keep rowing in whatever direction they want," said another staff member.
Dell Technologies staff have faced one thing after another
News of Dell’s freefalling eNPS score comes in the wake of a challenging period which included rounds of layoffs that saw the firm cut over 6,000 jobs last year.
More recently, execs at the company have been engaged in a drawn-out dispute with staff members over the firm’s RTO policies, which have come under fire for being overly strict.
In the first instance, Dell demanded that hybrid workers track their office attendance to prove that they were entering a physical office space 39 days each financial quarter, equating to about 3 days a week.
Fully remote workers were also told that they would no longer be eligible for promotions or role changes. Despite these measures, nearly 50% of the firm’s staff opted to remain fully remote.
Experts told ITPro at the time that, in general, the demand for remote working capabilities is high within workforces. Other tech firms have been experiencing similar pushback and Dell’s RTO policies are not surprising in their unpopularity.
UPDATE: Dell Technologies responds to claims
In a statement given to ITPro, Dell Technologies has responded to claims surrounding the internal staff survey.
In the Tell Dell Survey, our team members shared that they believe their leaders treat them with respect, uphold the company's Culture Code values and offer flexibility to balance work/life," a spokesperson said.
"Our team members also expressed their confidence in the future vision, strategy and leadership of Dell. While it is true that our eNPS score did drop from last year, you’ll see from a blog from Perceptyx that our score exceeds the industry averages."
The spokesperson added: "To be clear, as we know many have reported on our hybrid work policy (in some cases inaccurately), globally, about 75% of our team members have opted to return to office in a hybrid capacity. In the US, nearly 70% of all team members who live near a major Dell office opted for a hybrid role."
