IBM offers training to employees to learn new technologies
IBM, or International Business Machines, is a multinational technology company that specializes in producing
and selling computer hardware, middleware, and software. Founded in 1911, IBM is one of the oldest
technology companies in the world and has a long history of innovation and leadership in the industry.
Some employees in IBM’s Global Technology Services group received e-mails from the company informing
them that a recent evaluation had identified them as an employee who had not kept pace with acquiring the
necessary skills and expertise needed to meet changing client needs, technology, and markets. As a result, IBM
requires them to dedicate one day a week or up to twenty-three total days between October 2023 and March
2024 to focus on training.
During this time, the employee will take a pay cut, receiving only 90 percent of their base salary. Once training
is completed, salaries will be restored in full. Employees can either take the training or look for job
opportunities within IBM that better match their current skill set.
Employees have reacted negatively toward the program. Some feel the program with its pay cut is unfair
because their work has received positive evaluations from their managers. Also, employees noted that all
workers in their group were being assigned to the same training program regardless of their individual skill
levels.
A few employees believe that the training program is a cost-cutting exercise that is being presented as a training
program. A spokesperson for IBM emphasized that the salary cut and retraining program was not standard
practice across IBM, but affected only a few hundred employees in the U.S. technology services outsourcing
business.
The purpose of the program is to help employees develop key skills in areas such as cloud and mobile
computing and advanced data analytics. Because the program can help employees in the long term to increase
their billable hours with clients, IBM believes the salary cut is a co-investment cost shared by both the
employees and the company. IBM calculated that it will lose one day of billing clients each week that the
employees are in the training program, which matches the 20 percent of the compensation of the employees
involved. So the 10 percent salary cut actually splits the difference.
SoBU | Date Saved: July 20, 2024 | Time Saved: 4:56 PM Page 1 of
Question 1: Do you believe this program is feasible? Why or why not?
Question 2: Should employees’ salaries be reduced for the time they attend training programs? Provide a
rationale for your answer.
Question 3: What other ways might IBM convinced the affected employees to update and gain new skills?
Question 4: How you may select a candidate for a position of Hardware sales at IBM?
Question 5: What questions you may ask for the candidate for a position of Hardware sales at IBM? (Write 5
questions)
SoBU | Date Saved: July 20, 2024 | Time Saved: 4:56 PM Page 2 of
