The yearly employee-engagement survey at Dell, aptly called ‘Tell Dell’ has revealed that Dell has scored poorly when it comes to the employee net promoter score or eNPS. This is the score that shows how likely employees are to recommend their employer as a great place to work.
Looks like Dell employees would rather refrain from recommending Dell to others given that the eNPS has dropped by double digits compared to the previous survey. The score is based on the responses from about 98,000 employees, and therefore, cannot be ignored.
So why are employees unhappy?
For one, the return to office policy did not go well with them. The company had asked the employees to choose the hybrid model or the remote model. Those who opted for the hybrid model are tracked to ensure they are physically present in the office for three days a week, or 39 days in a quarter. Those who opted for remote work were told that they would not be considered for promotions or for role changes.
This was Dell’s strategy to get its employees back to office, but it backfired because almost 50 per cent of them chose to bear the repercussions of working remotely. They made it clear that they were happy to let go promotions.
There were reports that Dell used a colour code to track employees via their badge swipes and VPN connections to ensure that they were working from the physical offices. The system reportedly rated employees basis four different colours that measured how regular they were in following the return-to-office mandate. Then there were the layoffs of thousands of people earlier this year that had already disturbed the employees. All put together, there seem to be enough reasons for the employees to feel dissatisfied.
