A move away from teleworking in Hewlett-Packard’s internal IT operation seems unlikely to be replicated in New Zealand, though HP NZ could not give the final word on the topic as Computerworld went to press.
After decades as a champion of teleworking, HP is pulling staff back to its offices, at least in its internal IT division, says a report in the San Jose Mercury News, a newspaper local to HP’s Silicon Valley head office. The move follows the appointment of Randy Mott as CIO.
Computerworld understands that only a very small proportion of staff telework from HP NZ, and that there is unlikely to be any retreat from this position. However, this comment is not official at this time.
HP’s Auckland workforce is currently involved in a relocation, combining two sites into one, and part of this will include increased mobility of workplace within the office — not being tied to a fixed desk and using the wireless network more. “But that’s about mobility within the office, not teleworking,” says the source.
HP is in the midst of consolidating more than 85 worldwide HP datacentres into just six, as well as creating a centralised view of data for the company — factors which are being held up as part of the reason for the retreat from teleworking.
A recent Computerworld US survey found teleworking was cited as an important job factor for many people, with 36% of respondents giving it a rank of ten, or “extremely important.”