RTO Carrots vs. RTO Sticks

“No Promotions Without RTO? I’m Good.” — Employees

Last week on Reworked , I covered a novel approach to get people to RTO and how well it’s working. Specifically, what Dell Technologies is facing as they try to get their employees back to the office on a hybrid basis.?

Now, many organizations have taken a punitive approach to getting people to return to their very expensive offices. Some have called them layoffs in disguise . Others, like Grindr , have used them as a way to bully unionization pushes . Some companies are taking a more judicious approach to swing their RTO stick by targeting people individually when they lack a badge swipe at HQ, but that creates another set of challenges .

Dell, on the other hand, didn't fire anyone with its touted RTO order . What they did do was give people a choice: People who came in about three times a week would be eligible for promotions. People who didn't could continue to work for Dell indefinitely but they couldn't be promoted.?

In essence, they provided a carrot for their employees. They hoped that putting promotions behind an office door would entice employees to make the trek into the office. They even created a cute color code to indicate how good their attendance was.?

How did it work out? Half of the workers rejected the offer , preferring their comfy confines to the mere possibility of being promoted. Say what you want about the effectiveness of convincing people via force versus incentive, this is not the outcome Dell wanted.

While most of the headlines focused on the plan's efficacy and employees' rejection of it, I think the much more interesting angle is that nearly half of the employees did the math and thought they didn't need the promotion.??

As a work leader, I can’t imagine how disheartening that must be. The ability to move up and develop is one of the top things people ask for from a job and one of the top reasons they leave. They had to figure they had something cooking with this plan — especially with the tech industry still reeling from layoffs.?

While Dell can go back to the drawing board on this plan (or simply just accept that half their workforce has opted out of moving up), I think there is a lot of unanticipated soul-searching that came with this plan. How much easier will it be to pry talent away from Dell? For new hires, will they be strictly looking for people who are willing to come in to backfill those roles??

I’m guessing we’ll find out.?

Quick hits from around the web

What else is happening??

HR Tech Investments Aren't Delivering. Technology Isn't the Problem , by me for Reworked . Highlighting some interesting research from Gartner on why companies aren’t fully capitalizing on HR tech.??

Don’t Sacrifice Employee Upskilling for Productivity , by Stacia Sherman Garr and Priyanka Mehrotra for MIT Sloan Management Review . Organizations have swung the pendulum too far on performance measurement and optimization at the expense of being future ready.?

Why Zoom—Yes, Zoom—Went Back To In-Person Work, According to Its Chief People Officer , by Jane Thier for Fortune . You know what’s not surprising about this move from Zoom ? The exec touting this move doesn’t go to the office.

Summer Job Postings Are Down, While Internships Fare Worse , by ROY MAURER for SHRM . These are big declines in the career entry point for many younger employees.

Can ChatGPT Handle HR? Here’s What Happened When We Put It to the Test , by Susan Anderson, SHRM-SCP for Fast Company . Mineral, part of Mitratech 's experiment is interesting, and it demonstrates the value of keeping people in the loop.

Why Work Four Days a Week When You Can Work Six? Greece Gives It a Shot , by Danielle Abril for The Washington Post . There’s something to be said for being different but is this really the right approach??

We Are In A Recession…An Employee Experience Recession , by ?Shep Hyken for Forbes . Good thoughts on how EX is suffering right now.?

Work Friends Can Be Hard To Find. How to Combat Loneliness in the Workplace , by Melissa Rayworth for The Associated Press . Finding ways to combat this in ways that don’t feel overly paternalistic is incredibly complex.?

Colleges Risk Equal Pay Lawsuits in Sharing Revenue With Players , by Lilah Burke and Parker Purifoy for Bloomberg Law . I believe paying players is the right thing to do but nobody said it would be easy.

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That's it for this week!?

Lance

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