Cisco NZ waits for news on staff cutbacks

Global office forecasts global redundancies of 1300 staff, but won’t say how this will affect the local Cisco branch

Technology giant Cisco will cut its global workforce by two percent, about 1300 employees, but it will not say if this will affect New Zealand staff.

Computerworld’s enquiries about possible redundancies in New Zealand were referred to senior PR manager Linda Horiuchi, who is based in Sydney. She says the company is in a “quiet period” until the announcement of its fourth quarter financial earnings next month and therefore can’t provide more information at this time. She did however make the following comment:

“We routinely review our business to determine where we need to align investment based on growth opportunities. Additionally, we continue to evaluate our organisational structure as part of our plan to drive simplicity, speed of decisions and agility across Cisco,” Horiuchi writes in an email.

“As we focus on both of these efforts, we are performing a focused set of limited restructurings that will collectively impact approximately two percent of our global employee population.”

Based on past experience, the New Zealand office may be safe from job cuts. Last July Cisco said it was cutting 6,500 jobs, or 9 percent of its global workforce, in an effort to better focus its business and reduce operating expenses by $1 billion a year.

At that time there were around 40 Cisco employees in New Zealand, and now - a year later - a spokesperson says there are now “a little over 50 Cisco employees in New Zealand.”