A number of tech firms, Yahoo! most prominently, have reversed years of casual remote-work policies and insisted that employees come to the office. This was roundly vilified as a counterproductive strategy sure to alienate current and potential employees who prefer their libertarian existence.
What the critics failed to understand was that Yahoo!, HP and others were in the midst of turnarounds and needed get a better grasp on who and what they had as well as being able to inculcate the new culture and strategic direction they hope to implement. Most of the organizations that have announced reductions in remote work have made it clear that the move was a temporary decision in line with their need to reorganize.
That has not mollified the critics who apparently view such actions as a of violation of natural rights. Nor has it apparently affected either the hiring policies or experience at most of those companies, good jobs being scarce, even in tech.
Dell, however, being approximately 1,000 miles from Silicon Valley, seems to think this might present an opportunity. The announcement that they want half of their 110,000 employees to be working remotely by 2020 seems predicated on the assumption that some of those disaffected Californians wouldnt mind working for a company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas as long as they dont have to go there too often (if ever). There is also the possibility that Dell, which recently completed a contentious - and expensive - buy-out engineered with a lot of founder Michael Dell's money - and a requisite amount of debt - would not be averse to cutting some expenses, like real estate.
It is not clear that this will really help Dell attract the sort of people and skills it wants, especially in the new markets it hopes to penetrate. But it does remind us that people remain central to the essence of competitiveness in tech, however disparate the theories may be for attracting and retaining them. JL
Christopher Calnan reports in the Austin Business Journal:
Dell Inc. plans to have half of its employees working remotely by 2020.
Dell expects to increase the portion of remote employees from a current level of 20 percent to 50 percent. The remote workers saved Dell $14 million last year, spokeswoman Colleen Ryan said Thursday.
The company considers the initiative a recruiting and retainment tool. The remote working improves employee engagement and productivity, she said.
"There is no corporate edict here," Ryan said. "This is going to be a team leader driven effort."
Round Rock-based Dell, the No. 3 computer maker in the world, employs 14,000 workers in Central Texas.
Earlier this year, another technology company, Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), drew a measure of attention when it ordered remote workers back to their company offices after former Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) executive Marissa Mayer took Yahoo’s CEO position.
In February, Yahoo explained a new policy that required all work-from-home employees to report to the company’s physical offices effective in June. Citing the buzz and energy of a renewed workforce around the world, Yahoo officials indicated that working side-by-side is the best solution to becoming the best place to work.
Critics said the move went against the trend of technology companies saving money and keeping quality workers with distributed workforce models.
Dell is a company in transition. Last month, it completed a $24.8 billion shareholder buyout after being publicly traded for 25 years.
CEO Michael Dell led an investor group in the go-private deal to enable Dell to expand beyond personal computers to the higher profit margins provided by software, services and other networking tools.
0 comments:
Post a Comment