Google HRM Practices: A Case Study Essay.

Job Analysis at Google

Question:

Discuss about the Human Resource Management Recruitment And Selection of Google.

Human resource management is an approach that aims at assisting business organisations in managing their workforce in the most efficient manner. Using human resource management functions and practices, such as recruitment and selection, career development, and performance management. business organisations are able to optimise the performance of their workforce by improving the workplace conditions and fostering better employee-employer relations.

Google is a multinational technology company that is based in America. Google specialises in internet related services and products. Some of the areas where the company operates are online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software and hardware. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996 while pursuing Ph.D. at Stanford University, California. Google is one of the top multinational companies in the world that has been ranked amongst the top companies to work for. The approximate workforce of the company was 57,100 during the second quarter of 2015.

The company does not require any introduction as it is the world’s most powerful search engine and has multiple domain names registered in different countries for offering diverse services to its users. Apart from searching webpages, the company also helps in providing information about images, maps and videos. The company has also entered the list of top 3 companies in the world in terms of value. In this report, we will discuss some important human resource management practices that are followed by the company and are helping it in growing and leading the global industry in which it is operating.

Job analysis, in human resource management, is an approach to identify and determine the job duties and responsibilities along with the person specification that are required for a particular job opening. Job analysis involves conducting a thorough research on the job conditions, requirements, roles and responsibilities. to prepare a well written document that can appeal to the candidates and help the recruiters in finding what exactly the organisation wants (Randall & Cooke, 2015).

At google, the management of workforce is not termed as Human resource management. The company uses the term people’s operations to manage its workforce and has a complete different way of managing its workforce. The organisational design of the company makes it possible to address the human resource needs of the company in the most efficient manner. Google, being a global company, has a diverse workforce and its matrix organisational structure allows human resource managers to identify links between different parts of the organisation and use the derived information in job analysis and design. To make the process of job analysis more efficient, the company uses a number of worker-oriented as well as work-oriented job analysis techniques. When the job analysis has to be done for a job in departments like research and development, product design or manufacturing, the company tends to follow work-oriented job analysis methods where the main stress is given upon the actual tasks or activities that are involved in the work. On the other hand, for conducting a job analysis for job positions in departments where greater interpersonal skills are required, the company uses a worker-oriented job analysis method in which it lays a greater focus on the human attributes that are required to successfully perform the job (Lombardo, 2017).

Designing Job Descriptions and Specifications at Google

Google is a very large organisation and because of its large size, the company has to prepare highly varied job descriptions and specifications. Even though the job descriptions and specifications for different positions can vary, the company still includes and emphasizes on certain employee attributes, such as smartness and drive for excellence. so that it can have a competitive workforce, which can fit into its organisation culture. Thus, the strategy of the company in designing the jobs on the basis of departments and including certain key personnel attributes in the job description and specification helps it in effectively designing all the jobs and finding the right fit for the organisation.

From the given information, it can be easily said that the company knows what it is doing and how to do it right. Being continuously awarded as an employer of choice apart from the fact that the company has millions of employees working for it in diverse departments, shows the capability of the company in conducting accurate job analysis, which strengthens its human resource management practices.

Talent attraction involves strategies that a company undertakes to become an employer of choice in the market. Attracting talent is an important function of human resource managers as they cannot function if they do not get the required talent to fulfil the human resource demands of the organisation. As discussed above, Google is a company that operates in multiple sectors and has job openings for almost every profession other than non-engineering professions, such as nursing and entertainment. Even though Goole’s repot and stature itself acts as a magnet for attracting talent throughout the world, the company still tries its best to attract the best people in the world.

The way in which the company treats its employees and the compensation and benefits that the company offers to its employees play an important role in attracting the best candidates throughout the world. The company offers free food, on-site messages, A-list speakers and many other such benefits to its employees along with a higher pay scale than the market. Apart from offering such benefits, the human resource management of the company shows a great obsession with employee happiness and is continuously working towards measuring and building the perfect teams (Check, 2016).

Apart from pay and perks, the work culture at Google is another important attraction for most of the candidates. The company has been successfully able to foster a positive work culture that helps in promoting happiness amongst the workforce. The management has also given an opportunity of flexible working hours to the employees rather than fixing the office hours according to the traditional 9 to 5. The company conducts frequent surveys that are aimed at gathering satisfaction feedback from the employees (Kula, 2007). Google also offers flexible holiday-time that allows the employees at Google to work when and from wherever they want. Google offices also have special areas which are known as innovative zones as well as indoor parks that can be used by employees during their break hours (Jain & Bhatt, 2015). The management of the company also lays down a greater focus on the output rather than focusing on the number of hours worked (Half, 2016). Google also has tie-ups with colleges and business schools from where it recruits potential candidates for its organisations.

Talent Attraction Strategies at Google

Google has been able to make use of some of the best talent management strategies, such as providing positive workplace environment, pay and perks. that are important needs of the employees and has been able to attract some of the top minds in the world because of such strategies (Schuler, Jackson, & Tariquec, 2011).

Google receives more than 2 million job applications every year from all around the world and hires several thousands of those candidates. The company takes an average of six weeks to secure a hire and all candidates have to undergo a screening test by their potential bosses, colleagues and hiring committee (FELONI, 2016). The company is not just efficient in attracting talented pool of employees but also has a set of selection strategies that allows it to strengthen its recruitment programs and have better human resource management outcomes.

At Google, the managers feel that passion is a crucial attribute that every potential hire must possess. Google is on a hunt for those people who are interesting and can be of certain value to the company. Google has also introduced a new term i.e. Googleyness, which is a trait that defines the ability of a person to be more than just normal or an out of the box thinker. Passing the LAX or the Googleyness test is an important selection strategy that the company adheres to. A person who is able to pass the test is the one with whom one can have an interesting conversation with, according to the company.

The management at Google also believes that interviews are the best place where they can actually get to know the candidate rather than studying their resumes. The company believes that a resume might be able to highlight important information, such as a score of 3.8 from an elite business school, but what it will not highlight is that the person has been a boring student who never had an original idea in years, which an interview can easily highlight. The company designs its interviews for half an hour at the max rather than indulging into extended conversations with candidates who have not even appealed to the recruiters since the beginning. Keeping the interviews short and to the point allows the company to gather useful information because even the candidates are aware about the time limitation. If the recruiters feel that they need more time, they can always schedule another interview or can extend the time of the interview even further but keeping the interviews short and to the point allows the company to have conversations with candidates that are more protein and less fat (Schmidt, Rosenberg, & Eagle, 2014).

Another strategy that allows the company to excel in the global industry on the basis of its human resource management practices is to take away the hiring decisions from the hiring managers. Most of the times, business organisations let their hiring managers to make the hiring decisions, who will be managing the employees only for a few months. Once the employees start moving up in the organisation ladder, who do they work for becomes more important than who do they work with. As a result, the hiring decision should not just be limited to the hiring managers alone as a hiring manager might not even have a stake in the company in the coming times. Google has set up a process where the hiring decision is made by a committee (Zacher, Chan, Bakker, & Demerouti, 2015). Irrespective of a recruiter or a selector’s position, if he or she wants to hire a candidate, it cannot happen without taking an approval from the hiring committee, whose decision is strictly based upon facts and data rather than relationships and opinions. By allowing the hiring committee to make the hiring decision, the company ensures that there is nothing that can drive a hiring decision other than a zeal to recruit the best for the company.

Employee Satisfaction and Work Culture at Google

Appointment and rejection are an important function of a human resource manager as it is important to properly extend a formal invitation to those candidates who the company believes will be the right fit in the organisation while it is also important to politely reject those candidates who, according to the company, will not be able to fit in the workplace culture or the expectations of the company.

For a candidate to receive an appointment letter from Google, there is a lengthy step wise process that the candidate will have to pass. First of all, the resumes of the candidates are screened to find a potential fit. The candidates selected from their resumes are then contacted by the recruiters and are explained about the further process and what to expect. The next step is an on-site interview of around 30-45 minutes with 4-5 interviewers, where the candidate can be asked to solve technical problems or quizzes. Once the interview is done, each interviewee submits his or her feedback which is then passed on to the hiring committee for their review. Next, a senior executive reviews every offer and the compensation committee determines a compensation and benefit plan for the selected candidates. Then a final executive interview is conducted before extending an appointment letter and if a candidate is selected, Google then notifies the candidate along with an explanation about all the details.

On the other hand, it is also important for the company to provide proper closure for the employees who cannot fit into the company or are not good enough to work in the company. Google receives millions of applications every year and it gets hard for the company to provide one line hard answers or rejections to so many candidates. Google is likely to notify a candidate about his or her rejection through an e-mail if he or she is not able to pass the initial phone screening whereas anybody who completes the full interview loop is most likely to be notified for rejection through a phone call.

For a company like Google that has thousands of employees working in more than hundreds of offices around the globe, it is important to have human resource policies and strategies that can help the company in adhering to the legal framework of the local governments. Google takes a number of initiatives to assure that it breaks no law and its human resource management decisions are in accordance with the legal framework. Some of the strategies that the company uses to ensure adherence to legal framework in its people’s operations are discussed below:

First of all, the company’s hiring and selection strategy is designed in such a way that it cannot let any kind of biasness enter into the process. Google applicants have to undergo an extensive screening test in which they are interviewed on phone calls and personally by different people. Sometimes, the people interviewing a candidate might not even be linked to their department or subject. Further, the application of each candidate is reviewed by a hiring committee and a senior executive, which eliminates any scope of biasness or discrimination in the recruitment process (Girard, 2009).

Secondly, the company also has designed strategies that allows it to decide the compensation and benefits of the employees on the basis of certain factors and in accordance with the legislation. The company claims that its compensation plans are blind to gender or any other such demographics as the process of deciding the annual compensation for an employee starts with suggested compensations for each employee on the basis of the role that an employee plays, seniority, the campus where they work and their performance levels. The company also claims that it never provides demographical data to the team that takes decision about the compensation and benefits of the employees working at Google (TOWNSEND, 2017).

Thirdly, the management at Google has also discovered that it is almost next to impossible to get rid of unintentional discriminations that occur un human resource management. For example, Google has a ratio of almost 2:1 for male vs female employees and in order to curb this rate, the company will have to stop recruiting male candidates for the next couple of years altogether, which is also not legit. The company has started to arrange some workshops that are helping its employees to reduce their own feelings of unconscious biasness. Thus, to eliminate unconscious discrimination from the company, the company has started undertaking strategies that can help in its employees to admit and get rid of their own biases before making decisions (PINSKER, 2015).

Google is a company that hires only the best candidates, who are a few lucky ones out of millions of job applicants. For a company like Google, orientation programs become of utmost important because the way in which the company operates is a top secret and a fantasy for most the employees and Google can definitely not afford to have unproductive employees or those who cannot fit into the organisation (Silva & Opatha, 2015). Thus, the company takes a number of initiatives to strength its orientation and socialisation strategies.

First of all, the company arranges a two-week in-person training program for all the new recruits or Googlers, which the company calls them. The in-person training program lasts for two weeks and is aimed at educating the new recruits about the organisational structure, core technologies and programming practices. During these sessions, the trainers also share their personal experience with the new recruits.

Secondly, the company takes a number of initiatives to introduce the new employees to the culture of the company and provides them with enough time to get acclimatized with the norms and practices that foster productivity amongst the workforce of the company. In most of the orientation presentations, the company tries to foster a feeling of a change oriented environment in the mind of the new employees because the company operates in an industry that can undergo rapid changes in real time. Thus, it is important for the new recruits to be ready for workplace changes since there first day, which is conveyed to them through orientation presentations.

Thirdly, the company provides a wide list of points that the Nooglers are to expect or not to expect during the first week to month and beyond in the new workplace. It helps in setting the right expectations amongst the new recruits so that they can develop a better understanding of how the things go around in the new workplace.

Fourthly, the first project that is offered to a new employee is known as a starter project and is kept short so that a good introduction can be provided to the recruit in the specialised field. Apart from using checklists, in-person training, classes, intranet and rookie mailing list. the company also has a glossary which allows all the employees to speak the same language.

Fifthly, even the experienced candidates recruited by the company are required to undergo a training program that is known as CodeLabs. CodeLabs are tutorials that help the new recruits in gaining knowledge about the proprietary technology that the company uses. CodeLabs can also be used by existing employees if they want to refresh their knowledge or skills related with a particular technology and they never feel ashamed in attending one.

Sixthly, every new recruit in Google is assigned a mentor who has proven successful in the company and has undergone a certified course that increases their knowledge related to typical newly hired nerds. The company tries to maintain informal relation between a Noogler and a mentor and the interaction between them can last for months. There have also been instances when an entire team of Nooglers has been taken out on lunch by a mentor just to get acquainted and ask questions from each other.

Lastly, all employees working in the company, whether new or old, are required to send Weekly snippets in which they write very short bullet points that can describe the work that they have done in a particular week. Further, these snippets are used by the employees at the end of every quarter to conduct a self-assessment and set goals. The company also asks Nooglers to formulate certain goals during the orientation period and expects them to fulfil at least 70% of their gaols (Dye, 2016).

High employee turnovers can be a great distress for any business organisation, even if the company is as large and big as Google. Google has been finding it tough to retain its employees even though it offers them with a lot of perks and pay because the talent in which Google invests has a kit if potential and is either leaving the organisation to start their own business or is being hired by competitive companies, like Facebook. Some retention strategies that are used by Google to keep its employees engaged and committed to the company are discussed below:

First of all, the company uses a number of human resource management systems and algorithms that collect and analyse important information and data in the best possible manner. The capabilities of the company’s system allow the human resource management team to have a more sophisticated approach towards workforce management and bringing down the chances of the unexpected to an absolute minimum .

Secondly, the company understands the importance of retaining employees and its efforts to retain employees can be seen right from its recruitment and selection procedures. The company leaves no stone unturned to find the right fit for the right job. The company believes that it is better to reject a good candidate than to recruit an unfit candidate, which sooner or later will add to the employee turnover rates.

Thirdly, the company actually values its employees by showing it to them rather than just mentioning it on paper or in media statements. Google believes that the employees of the company, who have named themselves as Googlers, are everything for the company. The employees working at Google are considered to be the most valuable assets and are given ample freedom along with a healthy work life balance (Matsangou, 2015).

Fourthly, the employees working in Google enjoy best in class pay and perks and even enjoy certain welfare activities which are aimed at providing them some fun time during the working hours. Some of the Google offices even have volley ball courts, bowling lanes, climbing walls and many other arcade activities, which provide an excellent environment for the employees to work and enjoy in. Google also offers certain best in class perks to its employees, such as napping pods and hammocks for the workers, which can help in boosting cognition levels and reducing stress. The company also offers its employees to visit on-site masseurs so that they can relax and minimise their stress levels while there are on-site doctors that are there to help the employees with any problems related with their health. The company leaves no stone unturned to show how much it values its employees. Google gifts $500 to the new parents whenever a Google baby is born, which is a class apart benefit enjoyed by Googlers. There are several bicycles placed around the workplace and electric cars that the employees can use throughout the day and during lunch breaks. Google also offers free food to all of its workforce (Das & Baruah, 2013).

Fifthly, Google also believes in its employees as the managers allow their team members to communicate with each other and spend time together so that they can generate new ideas. The company also allows its employees to work on a personal project outside of their allocated duties for up to 20 percent of their working week. Google also offers career development opportunities to its employees as it really believes in providing job enrichment to the workforce (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). The company assigns a number of tasks to the workforce and provides them complete ownership of the projects. The employees are able to work on a single project right from its beginning to its end and are able to understand the impact that their actions can have on a project and on the organisation on the whole.

Lastly, one of the most obvious strategies that Google uses to retain its workforce has been lying behind its ability to stay as an employer of choice over a large period of time. Google receives around 2 million applications every year while only a few thousand lucky applicants are able to find their way to the company. The feeling of being associated with a company like Google is also an important factor that helps the company in retaining its workforce (Bamberger, Biron, & Meshoulam, 2014).

Conclusion

It is said that when the competition gets tough, only the tougher gets going. Google is one such company that is relatively young but has still been leading the industry because of its ability to perform. In a time where there is severe competition in the market and companies are fighting a neck-to-neck competition with each other, Google is investing billions of dollars in the management of its human resources and human resource management practices that are best in class.

From the recruitment strategy of the company to employee retention strategies, everything defines perfection and is something that can be a learning for many companies. Google is able to attract and recruit some of the best minds in the world, provide them with the best working conditions, offer them with some of the best perks and above market salaries and provide them with a million reasons to stick to the company. The human resource management practices designed and implemented by Google are setting an example of how a company can achieve market competencies by investing correctly in its human resources.

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