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 KRT Archives
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. Mott confirmed he's sending IT workers into offices, but he would not discuss the details. He added that employees who are working side by side in the same office ``are the most effective in terms of accomplishing the task and the goals at hand.'' Some experts agree even high-tech communication tools, from instant- messaging emoticons to video-conference calls, can't match in-person interaction. ``There's a certain synergy when people are together in a room,'' said Avramidis, the management association executive. A small fraction of HP's top-performing IT employees still will be able to telecommute. The others need to start packing. HP has offered to pay some relocation expenses for IT employees who live more than 50 miles from a designated office, according to an IT employee who qualifies for a relocation package. That employee, who has worked at HP for about 20 years, said that's not enough to move her family from the East Coast to the office designated for her in California. And she cringes at uprooting her children and forcing her husband to find a new job -- especially as more layoffs loom at HP. ``Why is HP telling us we can't do this when everybody else is saying, `Please do'? That's kind of bizarre,'' said the employee, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retribution. ``I like my flexibility. The only reason I've stayed with HP this long is because I've been telecommuting.'' Contact Nicole C. 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