Hewlett-Packard Reviews in Melbourne, Australia Area

Pros

So many customers have had some kind of good experience with HP that it is a great door opener for new business or discussions with business partners.
The workplace is highly flexible so suits people who are good contributors without needing a manager hanging over your sholder every minute.
With a little initiative, it is always possible to track someone down in HP who has done what you need to do before and can give pointers as to how to go about it (it may not always be a local person, but the HP intranet is vast and people are willing to help).
There is good support for training and a lot on the intranet for electronic delivery including electronic texts, etc.
There is plenty of scope to move between departments into new roles which is probably a reason for meeting people who have been at HP for 10+ years on a fairly regular basis.

Cons

HP is big, there is no course to help you navigate the HP resources or processes, so you need to be willing to ask and look for yourself.
HP is a conservative company, so salary increases are slow while cost and staff cuts in recessionary times are fast.
The processes are a pain. They are aimed at ensuring a profitable business model but can be really frustrating and eat a lot of time.
A minority of managers inevitably believe their way is better than the HP way so attempt to stamp their own mark on things like if people can move, how people are rated, etc. But this is a minority and managers regularly attend training which probably softens their approach a little - who knows what they would be like elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

There are a lot of processes which could be either be eliminated, stripped down, semi-automated or done by cheaper resources. The HP model of self service and multiple metric tracking often leaves expensive resources spending a lot of time on things which could be done cheaper, better and faster.
Simply measuring top line, bottom line and market share per BU with international comparisons would get much better results.
It would be good to see a clearly defined reason why HPIT isn't simply an MS/OS now EDS@HP service.

Pros

Work from home
HP Employee Purchase Plan

Cons

Little recognition
Miniscule bonuses even when performance and profit is good.
Going backward with respect to inflation
Management via email
Convoluted management hierarchies employees unsure who is who
Management very top heavy. Multiple vice and senior Presidents
Fix all problems yourself - essentially zero help desk internally
Middle management is a misnomer and without any power.
Morale very low. Suspect middle management is disenchanted too... it shows.

Advice to Senior Management

Be the manager your employees expect and stop being your superior's admin

Pros

Work from home
Flexible Hours
Great co-workers

Cons

15 years ago, HP was THE place to work, what has happened since then is a chipping away at everything that made it a great place, every benefit has been taken away, the supporting functions of real estate and IT have become masters, you only need to see the exodus at 5:00pm to understand the people are no longer motivated to work for this once great company

Advice to Senior Management

Leave now

Pros

Good culture with opportunity for corp[orate and personal advancement. Competitive salary and benefits. Good working conditions and work-life balance.

Cons

Poor resource allocation and poor inter-team collaboration with consequent conflicts of interest and sub-optimal client engagements. In my instance I received very poor support from my direct linbe manager when a workforce reduction program was implemented globally and I was chosen to be made redundant when there were other reps within his team who were less well performing than I was.

Advice to Senior Management

Be aware that your people are your best assett and that performant people need to be supported and maintained.