Recently, Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd moved their staff from their Damansara Towers in Petaling Jaya to their so called ‘campus’ in Cyberjaya despite the hardship the staff have to go through. Most of these staff affected are Indian IT professionals and as I have many friends in HP, I have been hearing nothing but complaints.
Firstly, I always thought that Cyberjaya was a well-developed and well-planned place until I took some of my Indian IT professional friends there to recce the area when news about the relocation was given. As I had never been to Cyberjaya before despite being a Malaysian, I always imagined that it would be very well-developed and having a very good public transport system.
But what greeted me was shocking. The place was like a dead town, no proper public transport system. Hardly any restaurants hence getting food was a problem. And worse of all was the transport system. How do people in Cyberjaya move around if they do not have their own transport? What was Dr Mahathir Mohamad thinking when he came up with this ridiculous idea? Didn’t he realise that for any place to be a success, the most important thing would be to have easy access to public transport and proper food which are essential?
There isn’t even a train or LRT going directly to Cyberjaya. I think the people who designed Cyberjaya should be sacked. Currently, people working in Cyberjaya have to take a train or bus from KL to the Putrajaya station and from there take a taxi to Cyberjaya as the feeder buses are few and far between and waiting for it may cause one to be late for work as you never know when it will come.
Before HP invested such a huge sum in their campus, they should have done a survey to ensure that their staff do not have to go through so much of hardship. If they want to move their staff there, they should provide transport and give the staff additional allowances. Now they would have to leave very much earlier and come back very much later as at least 2 to 3 hours in spent just on travelling (to and fro) per day.
Many of these IT professionals work on shifts and those working the night shift have also to take a risk everytime they go to work as the area of the HP campus is very isolated and lonely and anything can happen with so many snatch thieves around these days.
I understand that HP outsouces its staff intake through several private companies. One of them is the worst staff outsourcing companies to work for. HP expatriate staff employed via this company are lowly paid and when they were relocated, no transport is arranged and neither are the staff given any additional allowances. Staff employed via this company are usually given a very raw deal (I will write on this in another letter). While HP may think that the onus is on this company to handle all these staff issues, HP fails to realise that it is HP’s name and reputation which will be affected.
Going back to the HP campus, my friends who have shifted there complain that there is no water in the toilets, no canteen or food for the night shifts and even during the day when the canteen is open, the prices is ridiculous (a plate of rice and dhall cost around RM7). There is no coffee or tea facilities hence the staff have nothing to drink; the drinking water is scarce and above all, the air conditioning is freezing making it difficult for the staff to work despite wearing thick jackets.
Most of them have complained of having numb fingers and hands making it hard for them to work as they need to use their fingers for the keyboard and there is no air-cond technician to adjust the air conditioning to a bearable temperature.
I am surprised that HP being an international company can treat its staff in this shabby manner which is shocking to me. HP should emulate companies like Shell which takes very good care of their staff. They realise that unhappy staff will result in bad work performance which will eventually affect the company's performance.
Now none of the HP staff want to do standby and team leaders have problems when staff are on medical leave (MC) or go on annual leave. The bad working conditions will also see an increase in MCs. I have also been told that many staff have resigned and what is sad is that HP seems oblivious to all these.
I would like to suggest to HP the following if they wish to be a leader in the IT world :
1. First get all the staff under outsourcing company payroll to be directly under HP’s as this company is affecting HP’s reputation by giving such a raw deal to employees.
2. Cancel the contract with this company and instead set up a department under HP itself especially to recruit staff internationally. This way, HP saves a lot of money and they will be able to give a better deal to IT expatriates and locals as well. Currently from what I understand, this company pays the staff only a fraction of what HP pays them for each staff and most of what HP pays is taken by the company itself.
It is something like, 70% for the outsourcing companies and 30% to the staff. Of course this may vary from staff to staff but the outsourcing companies are definitely taking a bigger chunk of the salary paid by HP for each staff.
3. As HP is an international company, setting up this department instead of outsoucing will ensure that HP will be able to give better benefits and salaries to the expatriates, thereby ensuring long-term employment as if staff are happy. They will then usually stay and will also perform better. HP has to bear in mind that a happy staff means better performance and less staff turnover.
4. Ensure that their HP campus in Cyberjaya is upgraded to proper and decent working conditions. The canteen contract should be given to someone who is able to charge a reasonable rates for food and not exorbitant unaffordable rates. The canteen should be open 24-hours as HP has many staff working on shifts.
5. Make available tea and coffee-making facilities for the staff which is a standard for all companies even small ones.
6. Ensure that the air-conditioning is adjusted to a bearable temperature or they will have staff sleeping throughout the night instead of working.
7. Provide transport services from maybe KL Sentral to the HP campus and back.
8. Provide allowances for staff required to work at Cyberjaya. Currently some of the staff working in HP Cyberjaya are only being paid RM2,500 and mind you these are expatriates. Now they have to fork out additional approximately RM300 a month just for transport.
I am writing this letter on behalf of all my expatriate friends working in HP and hope that HP will proof itself to be a responsible employer and consider the above suggestions.
