Culture is Key to Hybrid Work

When author Malcolm Gladwell recently told a podcast host that employees working from home could be “socially disconnected from their organization,” less inspired in their work, and more likely to leave their jobs, he got a lot of pushback.

He’s not the only one who has expressed such an opinion, though. Even several of my fellow tech industry CEOs have pushed to get their teams back into physical offices “to engage more fully” or be a more visible presence.

But 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.

Technology’s ability to create a do-anything-from-anywhere world, where work is an outcome rather than a place or time, also enables you to create a strong corporate culture anywhere, all the time.

There’s a lot of benefit not only to workers, but also to businesses, in the type of flexible work environment we began building at Dell Technologies more than a decade ago. Prior to 2020, 65% of our team members were already leveraging remote work opportunities 1-5 days a week, and even more tell us they prefer it moving forward.

They’re not the only ones.

In a recent Dell Technologies’ Breakthrough study of 10,500 people around the world, 80% believe the shift away from everyone working in an office will create a more inclusive work environment. They also believe people will have time to work, achieve financial independence, and still care for loved ones or pursue other interests.

But what about career success? Does working in an office create an advantage when it comes to promotion, performance, engagement or rewards?

At Dell, we found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home. And when we asked our team members again this year, 90% of them said everyone has the opportunity to develop and learn new skills in our organization. The perception of unequal opportunity is just one of the myths of hybrid work that our Chief Human Resources Officer Jenn Saavedra recently busted when she shared how it’s working for us.

But not everyone is there. Our Breakthrough study also revealed that 58% of respondents are not yet experiencing a better life work balance and 41% believe staff are wrestling with burnout or poor mental health that’s affecting their ability to deliver on their work.

That’s what I believe Gladwell was seeing in his own personal purview, but it doesn’t mean that forcing everyone to return to an office is the answer.

Rather it highlights the importance of culture and the responsibility of leaders to create the right one for their organizations. Leveraging technology and internal insights for frequent touch points with teams is more vital than ever.

You have to continuously focus on your organizational values and remind your team what they do matters to the world. And you have to reward the actions of your team that ultimately build the culture you seek. Whether they work remotely, in-person or in a hybrid format, you can unite them by shared values, a customer focus, strong culture, and a common purpose.

Even new team members at Dell, hired since March 2020, tells us they feel connected. They have strong relationships with their direct team, and 88% tell us they intend to stay at Dell. We attribute this to purposeful actions aimed at driving inclusion and connection, such as robust mentoring programs, employee resource groups, and sometimes something as simple as a fun global step challenge.

But you also have to supply your team with the right tools and processes. Dell Technologies has invested heavily in our digital transformation over the past decade-and-a-half and it put us in a resilient position. When everyone was forced to work remotely, we continued to launch innovative new products, our productivity improved, and we were able to help our customers do the same. As we began re-opening our workplaces around the globe, relying on data and science to determine when it was safe to return to our offices, we found ourselves pivoting often with changing health and safety concerns. By communicating transparently and letting team members know their safety is our top concern, we were able to strengthen our culture through the uncertainty.

We’ve realized that one size does not fit all and shifted away from focusing on where our team members work to what they need to do, and ensuring they have the right tools, support, and technology to do it. It requires even tighter integration and collaboration between IT, HR, Facilities and Security teams to build a holistic strategy, approach, and success measures for the hybrid work model.

Ultimately, we have committed to allow team members around the globe to choose the work style that best fits their lifestyle – whether that is remote or in an office or a blend of the two. We are redesigning office spaces for the purpose of bringing teams together for social connection and collaboration to enhance hybrid experiences.

These decisions are grounded in our culture and based on the facts of our internal data. It is a philosophy of flexibility, choice, and connection.

Our business results show it’s working for us, and I believe this model will eventually be embraced as the future of work.