HP tight-lipped on regional job cut impact

A majority of the 14,500 job cuts worldwide will be in the areas of finance, human resources and IT, and HP expects workforce reductions across the Asia Pacific to fall in similar areas. How employees in Australia and New Zealand will be impacted remains unclear, with HP confirming that specific numbers will not be provided.

“Decisions by region and country will be taken based on an all-rounded view of our present and projected business strategies and needs,” says Cecilia Pang, vice president of corporate marketing for Asia Pacific & Japan. “We will not be able to share any specific country or region numbers.”

The overall plan is aimed to help HP “simplify structure, reduce costs and place greater focus on customers”, and will also involve a restructuring of its support facilities and modifications to its retirement benefit programs. HP expects the $US1.9 billion in annual savings to be in full force by 2007, composed of $1.6 billion in labour costs and $300 million in benefits savings.

The job cuts will be accompanied by a simplification of HP’s corporate structure, which will involve the embedding of sales and marketing directly into the business units in order to provide a tighter link with customers. As a further part of its efforts to streamline the company, HP will dissolve its Customer Solutions Group and merge its functions across several other sectors of the company.

CEO Mark Hurd claims these measures are part of HP’s efforts to continue expanding and cut operational costs. “Our objective is to implement these measures smoothly, with as little disruption to our business as possible,” he says. “Great companies grow and reduce costs. We will do both.”