google's hr management
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Google's Human Resource Management. A look inside the workings of Google's staff member perks!TRANSCRIPT
REPORT:
GOOGLE’S HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
Student Name: Sarah Frost
Student Number: 00085475T
Teacher’s Name: Sanet Van Wyk
Due Date: Sunday 6th January 2013
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………………………………….pg 2
Google Inc. ………………………………………………………………….pg 2
Organisational Goal and Vision…………………………………………...pg 2
Cultural Environment……………………………………………………….pg 3
Human Resources Management………………………………………….pg 3
Google’s Selection and Recruiting………………………………………..pg 4
Social Good………………………………………………………………….pg 5
Microsoft……………………………………………………………………..pg 5
Recommendations………………………………………………………….pg 5
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..pg 6
References…………………………………………………………………..pg 7
Appendix
“Ten Things We Know To Be True”………………………………………pg 9
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 2
Introduction
“Human resource management (HRM) includes all those activities associated with
attracting, developing and maintaining an effective workforce, and also terminating
the employment relationship. Successful Human Resource Management requires
good knowledge of the skills and attributes that are required by an organisation in
pursuit of its goals” (Study Guide, Pg. 54)
This report is based on Google’s Human Resource structure. Covered in the report
firstly will be a background on Google and the Organisational goal and vision. The
report will then show Google’s cultural environment along with the structure of
Google’s Human Resource Management. The selection process for Google’s
recruitment will be explained along with Google’s ‘Don’t be Evil’ motto. The report will
also look into how Google’s main competitor, Microsoft, handles their recruitment
process.
Google Inc.
Google Inc. was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; two students
whom met when they attended Stanford University together. The idea for Google’s
search engine came to Larry Page in a dream about downloading the entire web and
keeping all of the links (Elmer, 2011), Larry Page quotes “When no one else is crazy
enough to do it, you have little competition”.
Organisational Goal and Vision
The work culture and employee empowerment philosophy at Google is that the
founders; Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wanted to establish Google as a company
that was to be seen as “run by geeks”. (Vogelstein & Lashinsky, 2004) The HR
Department was to attract the smartest minds across the globe to work for Google,
this is followed with a strict hiring process which includes discovering the candidates
back ground as to which university they had graduated from Google’s mission
statement is “To organise the world information and make it universally accessible
and useful” (Google.com)
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 3
Cultural Environment
“It’s really the people that make Google the kind of company it is. We hire people
who are smart and determined, and we favour ability over experience. Although
Googlers’ share common goals and visions for the company, we hail from all walks
of life and speak dozens of languages, reflecting the global audience that we serve.”
(Google.com)
Google has made its work environment colourful and projects the image of being a
fun place to work; with free meals, gyms, spas, doctors on site, hybrid vehicles for
use, bringing your pet to work, swimming pools, sleep pods and wearing your
pyjamas to work. (Salah, 2010)
Employees of Google are also required to spend 80% of their time on the core
search and advertising business, and 20% of their time on technical projects of their
own choosing. Google’s Human Resources Director, Liane Hornsey, states;
"Employees' work structure follows a '70/20/10' model, an arrangement which,
Hornsey says, is 'hugely important to anyone who works here'. This refers to a
breakdown of the working week: 70 per cent of the employee's time should be spent
on the business, fulfilling the job role (which, incidentally, is very clearly defined -
providing absolute clarity about the job description is essential as 'good people only
fail if they do not know their role'). Ten per cent of the schedule is time to do
'whatever [the employee] wants' – time for innovation and creativity, freedom to
think. Twenty per cent of the time – or one day out of every week - she calls
'personal work', a period spent on personal development which will ultimately benefit
the company. '[Staff] can work on whatever they want to work on, as long as it's in
line with the mission [of Google]. This gives you time to develop'." (Fletcher, 2007)
Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that
focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people
who work in the organization. HRM can also be performed by line managers.
(Heathfield, 2012)
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 4
Human Resource practices at Google are called “People Operations”, this is
designed to underline the fact that the department is for the people and ensures a
strong employee-employer relationship. Google’s Human Resource practices reveal
the impressive results of the company’s approach, which helps with increasing
employee productivity. (Puliyenthuruthel, 2005)
Google’s Selection and Recruiting
Dodge (2010) states; “The Google hiring process is designed to hire the most
talented, creative, and articulate people in the world who will be the best fit for
Google”.
The recruitment process is a long and gruelling process which has been stated by
Don Dodge (Dodge, 2010) as selective as applying to Harvard or Yale Universities.
The first step is the Recruitment Screen; this is a process where recruiters screen all
of the applicants experience and education to see if there are any roles available that
are relevant to the applicant. The phone screen follows and is usually conducted by
a staff member in the same department that the applicant will be applying, this
process usually takes around 30 minutes. The on-site interview is conducted with 4
or 5 different members of staff from different levels of hierarchy; these interviews last
45 minutes each. Questions asked in these interviews range from “How many golf
balls fit into a bus” to “There are 8 balls. 7 weigh the same, 1 is heavier. Using a
balancing scale, how do you find the heavier ball with just 2 weighs?” These
questions are asked to observe thought processes and to test quick thinking ability.
Interview feedback is reviewed by recruiters and if the applicant is successful they
will be passed onto the hiring committee; the hiring committee consists of senior
managers and directors, the hiring committee reviews all of the feedback submitted
and if the consensus is to hire the applicant then the next level for review is the
executive review. The executive review is senior level management; if the applicant
is successful they are then passed on to the compensation committee. The
compensation committee are to determine the rate of compensation which is fair
according to the applicants experience, education and job role. The final executive
review is then to approve the compensation committee’s decision and the recruiter
will then notify the applicant of Google’s offer to start as an employee, or ‘Googler’.
(Dodge, 2010)
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 5
Social Good
Google has a corporate motto “Don’t be Evil”, this motto is to remind employees that
commitment to be ethical is part and parcel of being a leader at Google. 99% of staff
indicates that “Management is honest and ethical in its business practices”. The
standards of conduct that Google employees adhere to concern internal business
practices (respecting each other, protecting confidentiality, protecting Google’s
assets), external relations with customers and partners, and the impact of Google’s
work on the larger society. (Google.com)
Microsoft
Like Google, Microsoft only hire smart and innovative workers, their recruitment
process is similar to Google’s although it is not as long and drawn out as Google’s;
“People are what make Microsoft the unique, innovative and the progressive
company that it is. To ensure we invest in this critical asset, Human Resources
employees identify, hire, and grow our people and develop and run our industry-
leading compensation and benefits programs.” (Microsoft.com)
Recommendations
Much of Google’s success has been based on the fact that they are more forward
thinking than other companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft (Elgin, 2005) Google
has built a culture where “well chosen” elite performers are hired to fulfil the
company’s vacancies; as Google grows in size and gains more business the biggest
challenge for Google is to keep the ideals of a small business so that the staff do not
feel like “just another number”
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 6
Conclusion
As the report states; Google has a great Human Resources structure that keeps their
staff happy and wanting to come to work. Google will have to keep this culture
happening to continue to attract and keep the current level of talent that they are
currently hiring. The ‘70/20/10’ work structure should be kept in place for Google to
keep current staff members free thinking, which will enable the product’s that Google
offers to stay fresh and above their competitors.
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 7
References
Dodge, D. 2010, ‘How to get a job at Google, interview questions, hiring
process’, 14th September 2010, viewed 28th December 2012,
<http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2010/09/how-to-get-a-job-
at-google-interview-questions-hiring-process.html
Elgin, B., 2005, ‘Managing Google’s Idea Factory’, 2nd October 2005, viewed
28th December 2012, < http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-10-
02/managing-googles-idea-factory
Elmer, P., 2011 ‘What would Larry Page do? Leadership lessons from
Google’s doyen’, 18th April 2011, viewed 28th December 2012
<http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/18/what-would-larry-page-do-
leadership-lessons-from-googles-doyen/
Fletcher, S., 2007, ‘Google: Recruiting and Developing Top Talent’, 1st
February 2007, viewed 28th December 2012
<http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/164452
<https://www.google.com.au/intl/en/about/company/philosophy/ , viewed 28th
December 2012
Heathfield, S.M, 2012, ‘What is Human Resource Management?’ viewed 28th
December 2012,
http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm
Hornsey, L 2012,’Best Practice HR Tips’, Meet The Boss, 23rd November,
viewed 28th December 2012,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRsJbpppvEU
<http://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/au/applyoverview.aspx, viewed 28th
December 2012
Puliyenthuruthel, J. 2005 ‘How Google Searches—For Talent’, 10th April 2005,
viewed 28th December 2012 <http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-04-
10/how-google-searches-for-talent
Salah, G 2010, ‘Google Office Around the World’, 11th March 2010, viewed
28th December 2012,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB5utwRnfH4&NR=1&feature=endscreen
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 8
Vogelstein, F. & Lashinsky, A. May 2004. “At Google, Beware the IPO
Aftermath” Fortune 17th, Vol. 149 Issue 10, p32-34.
William Blue College, 2012, Study Guide, Pg. 54
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 9
Appendix
Ten things we know to be true
We first wrote these “10 things” when Google was just a few years old. From time to time we revisit
this list to see if it still holds true. We hope it does—and you can hold us to that.
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether
we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take
great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or
bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement
in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it
offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications,
we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been
designed differently.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
We do search. With one of the world’s largest research groups focused exclusively on solving
search problems, we know what we do well, and how we could do it better. Through continued
iteration on difficult problems, we’ve been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous
improvements to a service that already makes finding information a fast and seamless
experience for millions of people. Our dedication to improving search helps us apply what
we’ve learned to new products, like Gmail and Google Maps. Our hope is to bring the power of
search to previously unexplored areas, and to help people access and use even more of the
ever-expanding information in their lives.
3. Fast is better than slow.
We know your time is valuable, so when you’re seeking an answer on the web you want it right
away–and we aim to please. We may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is
to have people leave our website as quickly as possible. By shaving excess bits and bytes
from our pages and increasing the efficiency of our serving environment, we’ve broken our own
speed records many times over, so that the average response time on a search result is a
fraction of a second. We keep speed in mind with each new product we release, whether it’s a
mobile application or Google Chrome, a browser designed to be fast enough for the modern
web. And we continue to work on making it all go even faster.
4. Democracy on the web works.
Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to
help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the importance of every
web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including our patented
PageRank™ algorithm, which analyzes which sites have been “voted” to be the best sources
of information by other pages across the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually
improves, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted. In
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 10
the same vein, we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes
place through the collective effort of many programmers.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
The world is increasingly mobile: people want access to information wherever they are,
whenever they need it. We’re pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions for
mobile services that help people all over the globe to do any number of tasks on their phone,
from checking email and calendar events to watching videos, not to mention the several
different ways to access Google search on a phone. In addition, we’re hoping to fuel greater
innovation for mobile users everywhere with Android, a free, open source mobile platform.
Android brings the openness that shaped the Internet to the mobile world. Not only does
Android benefit consumers, who have more choice and innovative new mobile experiences,
but it opens up revenue opportunities for carriers, manufacturers and developers.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
Google is a business. The revenue we generate is derived from offering search technology to
companies and from the sale of advertising displayed on our site and on other sites across the
web. Hundreds of thousands of advertisers worldwide use AdWords to promote their products;
hundreds of thousands of publishers take advantage of our AdSense program to deliver ads
relevant to their site content. To ensure that we’re ultimately serving all our users (whether they
are advertisers or not), we have a set of guiding principles for our advertising programs and
practices:
o We don’t allow ads to be displayed on our results pages unless they are relevant where
they are shown. And we firmly believe that ads can provide useful information if, and
only if, they are relevant to what you wish to find–so it’s possible that certain searches
won’t lead to any ads at all.
o We believe that advertising can be effective without being flashy. We don’t accept pop–
up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you’ve requested.
We’ve found that text ads that are relevant to the person reading them draw much
higher clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly. Any advertiser, whether small or
large, can take advantage of this highly targeted medium.
o Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a “Sponsored Link,” so it does not
compromise the integrity of our search results. We never manipulate rankings to put our
partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank. Our users
trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.
7. There’s always more information out there.
Once we’d indexed more of the HTML pages on the Internet than any other search service, our
engineers turned their attention to information that was not as readily accessible. Sometimes it
was just a matter of integrating new databases into search, such as adding a phone number
and address lookup and a business directory. Other efforts required a bit more creativity, like
adding the ability to search news archives, patents, academic journals, billions of images and
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 11
millions of books. And our researchers continue looking into ways to bring all the world’s
information to people seeking answers.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
Our company was founded in California, but our mission is to facilitate access to information for
the entire world, and in every language. To that end, we have offices in more than 60
countries, maintain more than 180 Internet domains, and serve more than half of our results to
people living outside the United States. We offer Google’s search interface in more than 130
languages, offer people the ability to restrict results to content written in their own language,
and aim to provide the rest of our applications and products in as many languages
and accessible formats as possible. Using our translation tools, people can discover content
written on the other side of the world in languages they don’t speak. With these tools and the
help of volunteer translators, we have been able to greatly improve both the variety and quality
of services we can offer in even the most far–flung corners of the globe.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
Our founders built Google around the idea that work should be challenging, and the challenge
should be fun. We believe that great, creative things are more likely to happen with the right
company culture–and that doesn’t just mean lava lamps and rubber balls. There is an
emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute to our
overall success. We put great stock in our employees–energetic, passionate people from
diverse backgrounds with creative approaches to work, play and life. Our atmosphere may be
casual, but as new ideas emerge in a café line, at a team meeting or at the gym, they are
traded, tested and put into practice with dizzying speed–and they may be the launch pad for a
new project destined for worldwide use.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.
We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint. We set ourselves goals
we know we can’t reach yet, because we know that by stretching to meet them we can get
further than we expected. Through innovation and iteration, we aim to take things that work
well and improve upon them in unexpected ways. For example, when one of our engineers
saw that search worked well for properly spelled words, he wondered about how it handled
typos. That led him to create an intuitive and more helpful spell checker.
Even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, finding an answer on the web is our
problem, not yours. We try to anticipate needs not yet articulated by our global audience, and
meet them with products and services that set new standards. When we launched Gmail, it had
more storage space than any email service available. In retrospect offering that seems
obvious–but that’s because now we have new standards for email storage. Those are the kinds
of changes we seek to make, and we’re always looking for new places where we can make a
difference. Ultimately, our constant dissatisfaction with the way things are becomes the driving
force behind everything we do.
Privacy
Our Privacy Policy, tools and more about managing your information on Google.
Sarah Frost 00085475T 6/01/2013 Page 12
More
Security
Our approach to security, and how to report a security issue.
More
Software principles
Our stand against deceptive Internet software.
More