For six consecutive years, Google has managed to land the top spot on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. This billion dollar company is famous for offering lavish perks which include gourmet food, laundry services, haircuts, sleeping stations called EnergyPods, etc. Another _____ ______ (perk) is that Google offers the spouse of a deceased Googler half of their salary for ten years and their children a $1,000 monthly payment until they reach the age of 19. In addition to these benefit, they also have upgraded their parental-leave policies in response to realizing that mothers were leaving at higher rates—the result was a 50% reduction in attrition for working moms.( source fortune) All of this is possible through their unique and distinctive Human Resources practices and management philosophies.
However, Google did not begin by being the number one company to work for, through many adjustments and implementations they made that achievement possible. Google began in 1995 at Stanford University when the creator Larry Page, who was considering graduate school there, was assigned to Sergey Brin to guide him around campus. In their first encounters they had many differing opinions on various topics but surprisingly ended up in a partnership by the following year. Page and Brin eventually went on to create “a search engine which used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web”. (source) This search engine would originally be named Backrub but was then changed to the now infamous Google. Page and Brin decided to rename their search engine as a play on words of the word Googol which is the mathematical expression for 1 followed by 100 zeros which was a suitable representation of Page and Brin’s “mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful””. Throughout the upcoming years Google managed to attract a lot of attention from Silicon Valley investors and finally with the help of a $100,000 investment from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim in August 1998, Google Inc. was officially born.
Furthermore, nineteen years later Google is now one of the World’s Most Valuable brands with an estimated worth of approximately 102 billion dollars. (source forbes) However, maintaining this status is not an easy _____ (feat) and that is why Google ensures that they have the most equipped and knowledgable staff behind them. Google does this through their unique management philosophy. The former Senior Vice President of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, describes Google’s distinct management practices in his New York best-seller Work Rules! This book is basically a guide on how Google manages to maintain its elite status as the best company to work for. Google is known for having a “high freedom” approach which means that it gives its employees latitude to make decisions on their own. Since Google focuses on emphasizing the power of individuals rather than hierarchy it takes away some of the pressure employees have to impress managers in hopes of promotions, bonuses, etc., and allows them to fully focus on their work. Consequently, managers at Google are somewhat different from those of other companies in the sense that they are denied certain abilities most managers might have, these include: whom to hire/fire/promote, an employee’s salary increase, final design of a product, etc. These decisions are left to be handled by a group of peers, committee, or an independent team. (source book) By stripping managers of these responsibilities it allows them to better help their team through inspiration and assistance with any problems. “As one software engineer, Eric Flatt, puts it, “We are a company built by engineers for engineers.” And most engineers, not just those at Google, want to spend their time designing and debugging, not communicating with bosses or supervising other workers’ progress.”
Although, this approach is very helpful in Google’s success it is not the only factor which helps it remain number one. Google also spends an immense amount of time in hiring their employees. Since they find that it is much more efficient to hire an employee which will immediately provide great results rather than to train one who will eventually provide adequate results, Google focuses on spending more on recruiting rather than training. With an average of about 2 million applicants a year Google uses a rigorous and data-driven hiring process to ensure that the candidates selected are a right fit for their company or ambitious original thinkers. They do this by following what Bock says is the four rules to hiring exceptional employees. The first is to set a high bar for quality. This means before you begin recruiting you should first decide what it is you are looking for and as a group determine what great looks like, meaning you should look for candidates who are better than you. Secondly, you should find your own candidates. Don't use outside sources like job search websites or recruitment firms to help find people who are eventually going to be the backbone of your brand. Next, assess candidates objectively. Since Google is such a massive company it is very simple to assign a group of people in charge of hiring. This group of people should include a variety of employees including peers and subordinates who should ensure that they are actively participating in the interview process by taking notes which they can refer back to once a candidate has been selected. Once candidates have been examined and fit the criteria of being a flexible, collaborative, well-rounded and most of all “Googley” applicant, you should lastly, give candidates a reason to join. Bock adds that if a candidate was ever hesitating on becoming a member of Google, Jonathan Rosenberg, former Senior Vice President of Products would hand them a stack of fascinating resumes ranging from CEOs, inventors, and athletes and tell them they would be working with those incredible people. This technique was bulletproof and companies need to find a way to make candidates feel that working with their company will make a difference and help employees see the remarkable people they will get the opportunity to work with. Once these candidates have finally finished the interview and recruitment process they can officially be known as a Googler.
Although, once these candidates have been recruited and trained they also focus extensively on monitoring performance management. They do this similarly to how they hire people by also following a set structure of guidelines. First you begin by setting goals correctly and measuring performance. Googles are rated by their managers on a five level scale ranging from needs improvement to superb. Next is to gather peer feedback. Managers and Googlers select a group of peers which may include employees of lower levels. These people are asked to review a certain Googler on how they could change or something they could do more often to better their performance within the company. Third is to use a calibration process to finalize ratings. Within this step, a group of managers comes together to review these peer reviews together. This process is included to ensure there is no bias from any manager since an explanation for their rationale must be given. Lastly is to split rewards conversations from development conversations. Due to the fact that annual reviews are held in November and pay discussions typically occur approximately a month later, Google hopes that because of this employees will improve not only for a higher salary but for the improvement of the company.
Ultimately, what is it that makes Google the number one company to work for? Google and its management teams have strived to ensure that its employees have a comfortable and relaxing environment to come to work to. In addition to surprise trips, parties, healthy bonuses, stock options, massages, and many other luxuries, Google offers their employees flexibility within the company to work on projects which interest them or moving departments. Through these practices employees are more motivated and inspired to put all their energy and efforts to help a company which cares for them.