Citi CEO gets blunt in performance memo; Dell cautions ahead of major workflow change

Greetings, comms pros! Let’s take a look at a few stories from this week and see what we can learn from them.

1. Citi chief urges employees to keep performance high — and that job cuts may come

Citi CEO Jane Fraser cautioned employees that the old way of working at the bank isn’t going to cut it anymore. In a memo obtained by Bloomberg, Fraser wrote that every employee needs to adopt a more “commercial mindset” in 2026 while not settling for anything less than top-flight performance.

We are not graded on effort. We are judged on our results. And I expect to see the last vestiges of old, bad habits fall away, and a more disciplined, more confident, winning Citi fully emerge in 2026. That evolution is a direct consequence of the higher expectations that we’ve set and the standard required to meet them consistently.

As part of the bank’s effort to get more efficient, Citi plans to cut up to 20,000 jobs over the coming years. Fraser addressed this in the memo:

Over time, we can expect automation, AI and further process simplification to reshape how work gets done — some roles will change, new ones will emerge and others will no longer be required.

Fraser’s language in the memo is about as direct as it gets — it’s time to step it up. Telling employees that they’re “not graded on effort” makes it abundantly clear that expectations are changing and employees are going to be held to a higher standard going forward. From an internal comms perspective, the message succeeds most in its clarity. It leaves little room for interpretation by the audience and ensures the audience that old ways of working are getting left behind in 2025.

But this memo alone can’t handle the entire burden of changing Citi’s work culture overnight. It’s meant to set the tone for the comms that will follow. It’ll be on internal communicators to reinforce Fraser’s directives through messaging to drive the point home that things are changing and some jobs are going away — and it’s all for the good of the organization.

2. Dell COO alerts staff that workflow changes lie ahead

Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke told his colleagues that the “biggest transformation” in the company’s history lies ahead, with the organization slated to adopt “One Dell Way” in order to modernize. Clarke’s memo, obtained by Business Insider, said that the changes are aimed at breaking down silos and standardizing processes. Over the more than 40 years of its existence, Dell has developed multiple methods for development and sales processes. That’ll all come under one set of standards starting May 3.

For years, our strong functional orientation meant we built many variations of fundamental processes—multiple ways to develop, multiple ways to market, multiple ways to sell, multiple ways to service.

That won’t cut it in an AI-driven world. We need one way—simplified, standardized and automated—so we can be more competitive and serve our customers better.

This requires a mindset shift, from thinking and operating function-first to company-first. In some cases, that may mean we may make a choice that isn’t optimal for a particular function, but it speeds up decision-making or improves quality for the company as a whole. That’s the trade-off, and it’s the right one. We’re optimizing for Dell, not for individual functions.

Clarke also said that employees needed to leave their old workflows in the past.

Standardized processes and an enterprise platform mean no more workarounds, no holding onto old ways of working. Instead, we get seamless data flow, fewer repetitive tasks, faster decision-making and more time for work that drives real impact.

This is a comprehensive change, not a gradual transition. Once we start operating in the new way on May 3, we won’t go back.

Clarke’s language is absolute — he makes it clear that the new processes are the way forward and employees need to prepare. Additionally, Clarke’s memo positions the issues at hand as system problems rather than issues with how employees are working. This allows internal communicators to make the narrative in the coming months more about unifying workflows as opposed to correcting employee behaviors. This provides an avenue for internal comms to address the adjustments while providing an avenue to adapt in time.

In addition, the memo presents standardization as something that’ll help Dell be competitive as opposed to new rules for the sake of rules. When communicated as something that’ll help people improve their work and make the company stronger, change can be adopted more easily.

3. Report: Erroneous employee handbook changes leave Hawaiian Airlines backpedaling

According to a report from Hawaii News Now, a recent revision of the Hawaiian Airlines employee handbook was shared online, one bullet point about removing Hawaiian language words from the company’s lexicon. This caused major concern among employees and customers alike, with some attributing the change to the airline’s 2024 acquisition by Alaska Airlines. The point read:

In an effort to align our language to be inclusive for our entire employee population across the entire U.S., the Hawaiian words have been removed.

Outcry, both internally and externally, forced Hawaiian Airlines to respond. Theysaid that while some policy names might change in the handbook, Hawaiian language words will remain. It added that it remains committed to preserving Hawaiian identity and cultural practices.

When your employee policies intersect with a sense of identity, clarity is an imperative. Internal communicators need to take extra care when drafting a message that has cultural resonance like this one — getting it wrong can take an internal issue and quickly make it an external one, too. Communicators must collaborate across internal and external lines to anticipate how their draft messages will be received by all relevant audiences — even those outside of the internal target group.

4. How about some good news?

• Scientists found the wreck of a medieval cargo ship off the coast of Denmark.
• Google’s former CEO plans to fund a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope himself.
• Rare mountain gorilla twins were born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Ragan Training is an excellent place for communications professionals to find inspiration and valuable resources.
• You should be rewarded for your work. Find out how to earn an award here!

Have a great weekend comms all-stars!

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.