‘If you want loyalty, you have to allow people to develop’, says HP’s Northwest Europe MD Neil Sawyer

Back in the early 2000s, Neil Sawyer joined technology giant HP as an intern on a graduate program.

Fast forward two decades, and Sawyer is now HP’s Managing Director for Northwest Europe – a leadership role that spans the UK, Ireland, Benelux and Nordics, and sees him report into HP’s Chief Commercial Officer Dave McQuarrie.

In an exclusive interview, UNLEASH sat with Sawyer to reflect on his career to date, as well as what makes HP a great place to grow and develop for its 52,000 employees worldwide.

From intern to MD at HP

When Sawyer joined HP, he was fresh out of university, and he tells UNLEASH that he “fell in love with the culture of the business”.

“I really believed in the story of HP, and what we stood for as a business”, notes Sawyer.

This is underlined by the tech giant’s 50-year old cultural document, The HP Way; “it’s about having trust and respect for individuals, focusing on a high-level of achievement and contribution, acting with integrity but building strong team relationships”, Sawyer explains.

He felt like he belonged at HP – despite being a huge business, “the company wasn’t filled with your archetypal corporate operator”. There was respect for individuals, and their unique capabilities and perspectives, and opportunities were open to all in a meritocratic way.

“If you put effort into the company, the company would put more effort into you,” Sawyer adds.

Another part of what kept Sawyer at HP past the graduate program was his colleagues – “HP is nothing without its people”.

The company is a collection of 52,000 people that are tremendously loyal to the company and its objectives, and they equally foster strong relationships and networks amongst each other.”

“Friendship matters in this company. That’s one over-riding feature that I think stands this company our from many others”, he continues.

What makes Sawyer’s insights into what makes HP special so interesting is that he is a boomerang employee – he has not just worked at HP for the past 20 years, in fact he has left and returned to the tech giant twice in his career.

He joked with UNLEASH: “I enjoyed the boomerang experience so much the first time, I thought why not give it another go?”

Sawyer shares: “I’ve never lost my love for HP, but you always want to try new experiences. You’re enticed by new cultures, and different ways of working” – Sawyer has worked in senior roles at both Samsung and Lenovo.

“I’ve been out, I’ve experienced other areas, and returned” – at HP, “there’s not a problem in exploring the world and returning back to the home that you feel more comfortable in”.

It is important to note that Sawyer is far from unique in HP for his internal mobility and boomerang story.

One standout example is HP’s business units at local, regional and global levels, before being appointed CEO in 2019.

“He is the example that always springs to mind, but there are numerous people that have been within this business for multiple decades that exude that cultural spirit”, notes Sawyer.

HP as a ‘school of talent’

While Sawyer and Lores are all great examples of internal mobility and retention at HP, UNLEASH was keen to find out how the tech giant systemizes that, so every one of its 52,000 employees can have a successful career with HP.

Sawyer explains that HP really sees itself as a “school of talent” – everyone who joins the company, whether on a graduate program, on an internship or just as a new joiner, gets a “strong grounding” for their career.

“It is a grounding based on integrity, strong rules of engagement, trust and being entrepreneurial”, he notes.

“You’re almost taught these skills from day one – you don’t lose that, and you value the culture that the skills and experiences were created in.”

Sawyer’s top tips for success here are getting the basics rights – “making sure that people feel valued”, and that you are truly investing financially in the careers they want.

If you want loyalty, you have to make sure that you can allow people to develop their career paths throughout the organization.

“Don’t try to maintain them in positions, roles or departments”, unless that’s what the individual wants. Instead, leaders and organizations must allow people to explore opportunities throughout the business and grow their skills and experiences that way.

This mirrors similar advice other employers leading the way in internal mobility, like Standard Chartered and PepsiCo, have shared with UNLEASH.

Neil Saywer, MD, Northwest Europe, HP.

As a tech giant, it is no surprise that technology plays a crucial role in internal mobility at HP.

HP uses AI to help people discover the work opportunities available to them within the organization, plus HP has switched from annual to quarterly surveys of its employees to check on their objectives, personal development goals and engagement.

“People need to feel…that their employer is interested and invested in helping [them] find the career paths and the development areas of tomorrow”, Sawyer tells UNLEASH.

This also explains why gradate and internship programs remain essential to HP’s success.

“It is about making sure we support people that are in the business today, but [also] giving people the opportunities to start their career; they’ll be our future talent base for tomorrow,” adds Sawyer.

The future of HR and AI at HP

As already noted, AI is already being used by HP from a HR perspective. UNLEASH was keen to find out HP and Sawyer’s (as MD for Northwest Europe) plans for AI in the future.

“One of the things that we are interested in at HP is understanding from HR specialists what AI can do” – what are its strengths, but also taking into consideration wider concerns around compliance and risk.

Productivity is top of mind for HP with AI – the tech giant wants to reduce the number of tasks that routine or mundane, thereby giving employees time back.

To this end, “we’ve made sure that every single employee in HP has access to Microsoft Copilot”.

This may seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference – it will help “improve as the skills, the knowledge and people’s familiarity with those tools develop over time”.

Sawyer is very clear that the AI and HR landscape will look very different over the next five to ten years – for HP, the focus is making sure that everyone with a career today has future proofed their skills for the future.

“We’re fully invested in making sure, in a world of AI, that the one that we don’t forget culturally is that we are human beings at the end of the day,” concludes Sawyer.

Relationships are key to business success – yes, technology facilitates that, “but we want to make sure that we keep fostering human interaction”.