'The office is not dead': Seven tech bosses on office vs WFH debate

Return-to-work is dividing tech providers large and small. With Boris Johnson urging staff back to the office, CRN summarises the contrasting approaches of seven tech firms on this thorny topic...

With the government this week launching a back-to-work campaign, how quickly - or whether at all - to return staff to offices is the white-hot topic dominating debate.

Only 20 per cent of voters in a CRN poll published on Friday said they expect to be in the office predominantly in September.

This compares with 29 per cent who expect to be in "one or two days" a week and 44 per cent who expect to be in only "sporadically". Some eight per cent expect to work from home every day.

It's the talking point that's splitting the tech world. While some tech giants aren't even opening offices until next year and are happy to let their staff call the shots, others believe a lack of face-to-face contact between their staff is stunting their creativity.

Here we round up how seven prominent tech firms - from Silicon Valley giants to UK solution providers - are approaching the thorny topic.

Dell Technologies

Headcount: 165,000

Commenter: Jeff Clarke, COO

Quote: "Here at Dell, we expect, on an ongoing basis, that 60 per cent of our workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule where they work from home mostly and come into the office one or two days a week."

Context:

Clarke firmly nailed Dell's colours to the remote working mast last week during the hardware vendor's Q3 earnings call.

In moving to a hybrid working model, Dell is clearly mirroring its customers, Clarke said, holding up recent data shows that work from home is likely to increase by 20 points across all-size companies across all sectors.

"I think that is understated," the COO added.

Like most tech companies, Dell has been a beneficiary of the mass shift to remote working, helping - for instance - a major EMEA bank move 200,000 of its 280,000 employees to work from home using VMware technology in its latest quarter.

'Why spend two hours commuting five days a week' - see next page for Capita CEO's views on remote working...