Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) is to initiate a second wave of corporate restructuring this week by transferring hundreds of employees from existing business units to a newly set up “talent pool.”
“Asustek does not plan to lay off employees. The idea of a talent pool is to make the organization more flexible,” spokesman Nick Wu (吳長榮) said by telephone yesterday, dismissing market speculation that it was planning to axe a large number of employees to cut costs.
The company at the end of May announced the first phase of its corporate restructuring to boost growth, after reporting that first-quarter net income dropped to a 23-quarter low of NT$4.66 billion (US$152.74 million).
It spun off gaming PCs from its notebook computer division to form a new business unit, in a bid to allocate more resources to speed up its development.
It also gave chief operating officer S.Y. Hsu (許先越) more power to oversee the notebook and desktop computer businesses. Hsu had tendered his resignation earlier in May, but was persuaded to stay on.
According to Asustek’s latest restructuring plan, its three business units — PC, mobile and gaming — are to propose by tomorrow a list of employees that they plan to retain based on their operating scale. Employees who are not on the list are to be relocated to the talent pool.
Asustek has more than 16,000 employees globally, including 9,000 in Taiwan, Wu said.
The hundreds projected to be relocated to the talent pool would account for a small percentage of the company’s total employees, Wu said.
The talent pool is to be divided into at least four teams — software, hardware, quality control and management — which will lend support to existing business units.
It will also provide support to the development of new business, such as the development of artificial intelligence-related technologies, Wu said.
Asustek expects the first and second phases of restructuring to be completed and show their effect after three to four quarters, he said.
The company hopes that the changes this year would increase its operating efficiency and speed up its lead time from design to final shipment, it said.
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