HP cuts back on telecommuting

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 4, 2006 11:42:55 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] HP cuts back on telecommuting
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Posted on Sat, Jun. 03, 2006

HP cuts back on telecommuting
SOME KEY WORKERS WILL HAVE TO COME TO OFFICE OR FIND NEW JOBS
By Nicole C. Wong
Mercury News
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14732974.htm>
Hewlett-Packard, the Silicon Valley company known for pioneering  
flexible work arrangements four decades ago, is canceling  
telecommuting for a key division of the company.

While other companies nationwide are pushing more employees to work  
from home to cut office costs, HP believes bringing its information- 
technology employees together in the office will make them swifter  
and smarter.

The decision shocked HP employees and surprised human resource  
management experts, who believe telecommuting is still a growing trend.

``It's usually cheaper to have people operating in their own space  
than in your own. There's obviously something not going right or not  
to their liking for them to want to regroup or to change,'' said  
Manny Avramidis, senior vice president for global human resources for  
the American Management Association.

The architect of the HP division's change, Randy Mott, is regarded by  
Wall Street as a mastermind of operational efficiency based on his  
days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores and Dell. Since  
joining HP as CIO in July, Mott's philosophy on building a strong IT  
workforce starkly contrasts with that of competitors, who encourage  
telecommuting to retain skilled workers who desire better work/life  
balance.

Mott said by bringing IT employees together to work as teams in  
offices, the less-experienced employees who aren't performing well --  
which there are ``a lot of'' -- can learn how to work more effectively.

In an office, ``you're able to put teams together that can learn very  
aggressively and rapidly from each other,'' he said.

An HP spokesman would not comment on whether HP is planning to scale  
back telecommuting in other divisions. Workers said there are more  
than 1,000 IT employees, but HP declined to discuss the number.

IT workers generally support their companies by keeping computers and  
databases running and building Web sites and applications. Some can  
do their jobs without talking to co-workers more than once a day. And  
the more interactive IT jobs at HP typically involve early morning  
and late-night conference calls with colleagues around the world.

By August, almost all of HP's IT employees will have to work in one  
of 25 designated offices during most of the week. With many thousands  
of HP IT employees scattered across 100 sites around the world --  
from Palo Alto to Dornach, Germany -- the new rules require many to  
move. Those who don't will be out of work without severance pay,  
according to several employees affected by the changes.

Mott's changes underscore HP's determination to free itself from what  
new executives view as cumbersome costs and an outdated corporate  
culture.

Flexible work arrangements began at HP in 1967 as a core part of the  
company's widely respected management philosophy. In the book ``The  
HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company,'' HP co-founder  
David Packard wrote: ``To my mind, flextime is the essence of respect  
for and trust in people. It says that we both appreciate that our  
people have busy personal lives and that we trust them to devise,  
with their supervisor and work group, a schedule that is personally  
convenient yet fair to others.''

Sun Microsystems, an HP competitor, now allows about 17,000 employees  
to work from home, including 83 percent of its IT staff. And an April  
survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows the number  
of employers now offering telecommuting as an option to combat  
surging gas prices climbed 50 percent compared with eight months  
earlier.

Working from home also has been catching on over the past five years  
as technologies -- such as high-speed and wireless Internet access --  
have made it easier for colleagues located anywhere to collaborate.

But one of HP's former IT managers, who left the company in October,  
said a few employees abused the flexible work arrangements and could  
be heard washing dishes or admitted to driving a tractor during  
conference calls about project updates. The former manager, who  
declined to be identified because he still has ties with HP, said  
telecommuting morphed from a strategic tool used to keep exceptional  
talent into a right that employees claimed.

[snip]

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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