Intel is trimming its IT staff by as much as 10% in an effort to make its internal operations more efficient.
“We’re in a very competitive environment and need to stay agile and efficient,” says Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. He confirmed the layoff plans after being asked about an anonymous blog posting that described the process being used to cut workers based on assessments of their skills.
The blogger, who calls himself Intel IT Guy, noted in his blog, titled Intel Perspective, that the company is calling the layoffs a “redeployment” internally.
“We are going through a skills assessment process for each employee, scoring them, comparing scores and then determining which skills we can most afford to lose,” the blogger wrote. He says the goal is “to ensure that we’re legally defensible and identifying people objectively”.
But, he wrote, “No matter how we slice it, we will have to redeploy good people to hit our numbers. We’re past the point of trimming the fat.”
Mulloy declined to discuss the specifics of the blogger’s comments. But he says that workers can remain employed for up to two months while they look for other jobs within Intel.