Dell employees are not OK

Business Insider

17-07-2025

Every year, Dell asks its employees in a company survey how likely they are to recommend the company as a good place to work.
Last year, the results weren't great.
This year, they're worse.
On Tuesday, Jenn Saavedra, Dell's chief HR officer, announced that the employee net promoter score (eNPS) — an industry-standard measure of employee satisfaction — had fallen to 32, according to a transcript of an internal video update obtained by Business Insider.
The results mark a double-digit drop in the eNPS for the second year running at Dell — it fell from 63 to 48 in 2024 — and an almost 50% decline in two years.
Saavedra said the eNPS score was "below the benchmark we do aim to achieve, and we take that seriously," per the transcript.
Saavedra told employees that Dell had been "navigating a lot of change both within the company and in the broader environment," adding that the pace and scale of the change has been "a lot."
Dell declined a request for comment from BI for this story.
'Tell Dell' survey results
The eNPS score is the key metric from Dell's annual survey, called "Tell Dell."
One question asks employees to rank how likely they would be to recommend Dell as a great place to work to someone they know on a scale from 1 to 10. The eNPS is calculated as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.
Four Dell employees who spoke to BI about the Tell Dell results raised factors like Dell's RTO, ongoing layoffs, fatigue with the company's AI push, and a shift in culture as reasons for the eNPS decline. They spoke on the condition of anonymity. BI has verified their identities and employment.
"There's been a general decrease in trust with all the regular layoffs and feeling like the company isn't listening to employee concerns," said one employee who is based at Dell's Round Rock headquarters.
The person said that office conditions, such as "noisy rooms and desks that feel temporary," were also contributing to low morale.
"Most people I know are not feeling secure in their jobs," they added.
"I was more negative on my Tell Dell than I have ever been," a Dell engineer who has been at the company for more than eight years, told BI.
The engineer said they felt the company's RTO push and layoffs had damaged Dell's reputation as a good place to work.
Previously, managers were flexible, workforce reductions were rare, and employees enjoyed a good work-life balance, the engineer said.
They said they felt company culture had changed as they had been "gradually and with decreasing compassion and understanding forced back into the office."
"The constant layoffs are just the cherry on top," the engineer added.
Dell has been steadily ramping up its RTO policy since February 2024, when it asked all US employees to classify themselves as either hybrid or remote — roughly 50% opted to stay remote. In September, the sales team was called back to the office five days a week, and in January, all staff living near a Dell office were told they were required to be in five days a week from March.
Vivek Mohindra, Dell's senior vice president of corporate strategy, previously told BI that having staff in the office brought "huge benefits," including "learning from each other, training, and mentorship."
"For all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction," CEO Michael Dell told staff in an internal memo when the 5-day RTO was announced.
Alongside the RTO push, Dell's workforce has shrunk significantly in recent years. An SEC filing from March showed that the company's staff numbers have fallen by 25,000 in the last two years — a 19% reduction. As of January 2025, Dell employs 108,000 people.
One tech support employee based at the company's RoundRock headquarters said the fall in head count had led to increased workloads on their team. At the same time, the ongoing workforce reductions have held back internal movement and promotions, the employee said.
Dell's leadership was a bright spot
While the survey shows employee satisfaction has fallen, Dell workers responded favourably to questions about leaders.
The leader net promotion score (NPS) was 76, with employees saying their leaders were supportive, collaborative, and helped them champion modernization, Saavedra said in the update.
Dell has been steering the company toward an AI future, rolling out AI across its internal operating model in 2024 and positioning Dell as a leading provider of the key infrastructure and servers that companies require as they deploy AI.
Dell's ISG division, which develops AI servers, has grown 29% year on year, the company reported in its latest annual results.
Total annual revenue was up 8% in its 2024 financial year to hit $95.6 billion — its third-highest result after the pandemic-era boom in sales helped push annual revenue to a peak of $102.3 billion.
Improving employee satisfaction
In the six-minute video update, Saavedra said Dell would be "increasing visibility" through quarterly updates and people leader meetings to help develop more transparent communication.
"Everyone wants direct communication from leadership and clarity on where we're headed and why," Saavedra said.
Leaders would also be reviewing their team's Tell Dell results and turning feedback into action, she said.
The HR lead encouraged more frequent two-way conversations between leaders and teams, and suggested employees use available well-being resources.
"Hopefully, the score getting cut in half over 2 years means they are going to make popular pro-worker changes," the tech support worker told BI.