Hewlett Packard (Japan)

Global expertise, local knowledge

Hewlett Packard (HP) is a global leader in technology solutions, providing products and services to consumers, businesses and institutions in every country in the world. HP in Japan provides the ability to create mobile systems technologies and to connect with pioneering technological development in Asia.

Significant competition for talent in the Japanese IT services market began pushing HP’s time-to-hire outside of policy tolerances, and created a backlog of 250 overdue requisitions across multiple business functions. The sales function had budget to hire but needed to speed up the process, whereas the consulting business needed to secure high value skills with a limited budget.

HP Japan decided to extend the existing Asia Pacific solution, provided by Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), into Japan. The HP Recruitment Centre (HPRC) was already delivering services in Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Australia. Following initial consultation, AMS placed seven recruitment consultants onsite with HP Tokyo.

The new team initially set out to understand the recruitment processes at HP, and then split into two specialist units: Sales Recruitment and Consulting Recruitment.

The Sales Recruitment Team were set the target of closing all overdue requisitions by November 2007, and to hire qualified, experienced staff faster. AMS identified key areas of improvement in the recruitment process, and streamlined it significantly. The team also developed relationships with hiring managers, candidates and recruitment agencies, significantly reducing time-to-hire.

The Consulting Team were required to reduce recruitment costs by driving low-cost external hiring, whilst securing scarce, high-end consulting skills. The team concentrated on direct hiring, creating effective sourcing strategies, and designed a candidate attraction programme including seminars, job fairs and online/offline advertising.

In all, the team saved HP Japan over US $2 million, improved speed to hire by over 50%, increased candidate quality, increased the external direct hiring by 66%, and supported key HP initiatives in the region.