Research On Google's Human Resources Management Strategy

GOOGLE'S HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
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Table of Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389838" Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc508389838 \h
3
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389839" Human Resources Management Strategy  PAGEREF _Toc508389839 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389840" Recruitment Strategies  PAGEREF _Toc508389840 \h
4
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389841" Strategies for Job Planning  PAGEREF _Toc508389841 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389842" Appraisal and Development  PAGEREF _Toc508389842 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389843" Work Environment  PAGEREF _Toc508389843 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389844" Performance Management  PAGEREF _Toc508389844 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389845" Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc508389845 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389846" Reference List  PAGEREF _Toc508389846 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc508389847" Appendix  PAGEREF _Toc508389847 \h
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Google's Human Resources Management Strategy
Introduction
Google is one of the leading companies in the world and the largest internet firm. The growth of the firm has widely been attributed to the increase in reliance on the internet for social, industrial, and automation reasons. The demand for Internet-based services has been paralleled by balanced growth and innovation in technology. However, Google has been the purveyor in innovation with their primary services being the leading web search engine. The initial public offer of the company in 2004 led to the market capitalization of the firm at $23.5 billion, which would balloon to $397 billion over the next ten years (Lombardo, 2018). The company’s valuation at IPO (Initial Public Offer) was one of the highest valuations of an online based firm along with amazon.com and Alibaba.com.
Besides the success of the IPO, there were worries among shareholders before the IPO, who were concerned about its implication. Some of the concerns included making the executives instant millionaires and the loss of the company’s culture by caving to shareholders’ demands. Another key concern was the impact on the employee’s remuneration as they anticipated the shareholders would demand a reevaluation of their remuneration, which is core to the firm’s human resource policy. In response, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders, reassured that the IPO would not change the firm’s culture and appointed a Chief Culture Officer who would also serve as the head of human resource. Their main role was to make sure that the organization does not drift from its values as the working environment evolved. Consequently, Google has defined the landscape of human resource management in the 21st century, forcing their competing global firms to evolve in human resource management as well.
The accomplishments evident in Google’s growth have centrally been driven by innovation achieved through implementation of revolutionary human resource management practices. The revolution has established outstanding human resource policies and working culture. Under the leadership of Laszlo Bock, in charge of people operations, the firm’s human resource has grown from 3,000 to 73,992 employees. Besides growth in numbers, Google has been able to attract top talented employees to their firm due to suitable human resource policies, as well as their unique working environment. The workforce has spearheaded the innovation in the firm and its subsidiaries, which ensures that the organization remains as a leading global corporation. This has been realized by adopting a scientific approach to their human resource strategies in recruitment, workplace collaboration, employee retention, diversity, and remuneration.
The essay focuses on the strategic measures employed by Google in the management of cultural differences, multinational, and global strategic approach in human resource management, with respect to recruitment, job planning, appraisal and development, work environment, and performance management.
Human Resources Management Strategy
Recruitment Strategies
The success witnessed at Google has been possible with the great approach of sourcing of human capital. Google receives approximately 1,300 applications on a daily basis but remains committed to building a high-class workforce in terms of skills, creativity, innovativeness and culture appropriateness (Zokowski, 2018). The firm, therefore, has the policy to award positions to people with great ability, besides executing tasks in creative approach while offering solutions to challenges. Further, Google’s business model is designed to create a room for employee’s personal innovations. To meet the high standards of requirements for any position’s, there is a necessity to source widely for qualified applicants (Yale Insights, 2018). Google has a great employer reputation and attracts applicants from different ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, countries, religions and educational background. Bock (2018) acknowledges the importance and the benefits of hiring diverse teams. Diversity in different teams ranges from innovators in technology, business, and organizational facilitation. With the realization of the potential of diverse teams, Google has teams made up of more than 400 internal and external entities, who specialize in recruitment for different positions in the firm.
In an effort to develop products and services that are aligned to the firm’s vision, “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful,” diversification in terms of culture has been essential. It has enabled the firm to reach out to different cultural backgrounds by presenting their services in forms that align with their cultural orientation. Diversifying the workforce in the lines of cultural differences helps the firm to deliver services that are synonymous with the communities in terms of values, beliefs and religious orientation across the globe (Klitmшller and Lauring, 2013). As a global firm, to realize the vision of reorganizing the global information through more accessible forms, diversifying the workforce culturally helps to in incorporating different cultures while rendering services on a global standard. The diverse workforce is managed by emphasizing on the organizational values and vision. The motto of the company’s leading subsidiary, Alphabet, is “Do the right thing,” while that of Google is “Do not be evil.” While their mottos reflect the organization’s appreciation of morally upright conduct, it identifies with majority of the cultural backgrounds.
Culture also plays a key role in determining a person’s persuasion, such as dressing code. Google has an effective policy, which is accommodative of different, but decent dressing code while at work. Prospective employees who meet the qualification and level of talent desired in the organization may find it suitable to work with the firm due to their accommodative policy and diverse cultural orientation (Google, 2018). Additionally, Google has a monthly program where employees are educated on behavioral conduct and communication while at work. The educational programs make it possible for the employees to establish healthy relationships in the work environment.
Employees who are cross-cultural are treated in accordance with the firm’s policy and practices in human resource management. Google’s career appraisal programs help the employees by engaging them in educational programs to assume managerial and leadership position in the future as they build on their skills. The development of cross-cultural talent is founded on their areas of specialization by different teams, who are specialists and identify with their cultural background. Rather than develop the employees in a common organizational model, the organization is committed to making it possible for the workers to advance in their career with respect to their culture.
Managers in cross-cultural firms are required to have an understanding of the differences and similarities in culture to avert any cultural conflicts. Consequently, management of cross-cultural staff presents advanced skills, requirements and understanding of the cultural background of the respective cultures (Edwards et al., 2013). In an effort to satisfy this requirement and career development for employees, training is done as a suitable strategy to advance the managerial capacities of managers respective of their cultural backgrounds. In 2017, Google had more than 70 offices in more than 40 countries across the globe (Yale Insights., 2018). Management of cross-cultural human resource in the different offices has been implemented by integrating culture from the host company in Mountain View, California, and the locally developed talent, thus blending their cultures which enable the firm to achieve greatness with the combination of cultures (Edwards et al., 2013).
While recruitment along the lines of geographical and ethnic diversity is beneficial due to the inventive abilities, Google has also been keen to diversify their workforce by increasing the numbers of female employees. Effecting the change has necessitated the implementation of plans to help the existing employees better their skills to advance to managerial and administrative positions. In 2017, Google led international organizations in releasing press statements of the diversity of their human resource capital. Google’s workforce was made up of 39% women and 61% men (Google, 2018). There was a significantly higher margin in the percentage since women register fewer entries in the information sciences as career paths as they sign up with colleges.
Development of women in the organization has helped overcome the trend and eventually achieve commendable levels of women employees in a technology company. Other firms such as LinkedIn have followed suit, leading other global leaders in the business world to release their human resource statistics (Zokowski, 2018; Eadicicco, 2016). The motive of the press release was an effort to sensitize other corporates of all forms of biases which they should avoid during their recruitment processes. Google intends to create awareness among people of the conscious and the unconscious biases that prevail in the workplaces and the recruitment processes. Recruitment and awards of job opportunities are entirely based on their merit for the position applied for.
The recruitment process at Google is comprehensive and focuses on the talent of the applicants. The head of people operations notes that “the number one thing was to have an incredibly high bar for talent and never compromise. Larry and Sergei figured out early on that there’s a reversion to the mean when you don’t” (Bock, 2018). Consequently, the recruitment process in Google is the most important and the necessity to get the right people in the right positions lead to a comprehensive cultural and cross-cultural management. Consequently, the diversity necessitates for advanced management of the personnel, cross-cultural management and finally, comprehensive management of the work environment to eliminate any challenges that may arise in a cross-cultural environment. While the organizational policies in recruitment have been evolutionary in the management of problems in a global village, Google’s corporate values and culture are accommodating of diverse cultures and progressive moral and ethics.
Strategies for Job Planning
Planning at Google is driven by data analysis and forecasting. Comprehensive internal analysis of data generated from the operations is done to establish the areas where there are surplus employees and where shortages are anticipated. The analysis also gives insights on the expected changes in business and the possible changes that are likely to be witnessed in the organization’s human resource (Lombardo, 2018). A qualitative approach is used in the analysis, factoring in a variety of factors which make it possible for the organization to determine the possible outcomes of the different scenarios that may occur with the changes in business and implementation of strategies.
The surplus and shortage dynamics in the firm are experienced in the production subsidiaries such as Chromecast, cable television and google fiber internet. The management of the interplay of demand and supply in human resources does not affect the corporation’s subsidiaries in services and innovation. The production of hardware products and infrastructure is strategically managed by ensuring the future needs of the employees are estimated for recruitment in due time. Additionally, in order to avoid idle human capital, the people operations’ department has a highly functional algorithm that organizes and schedules the implementation of projects efficiently to realize maximum benefit from the human resources.
As established, the organization is ranked as one of the best places to work globally. The chief in charge of people operations commented that “There’s no one kind of a Googler, so we’re always looking for people who can bring new perspectives and life experiences to our teams. If you’re looking for a place that values your curiosity, passion, and desire to learn, if you’re seeking colleagues who are big thinkers, eager to take on fresh challenges as a team, then you’re a future Googler” (Singh, 2012). Developing such an attitude in the management of human resource ensures the organization has highly talented and advanced pool of labor to choose from, which makes it possible for Google to select only the most suited employees. While hiring, again the algorithm is employed to establish the most suitable employees for a respective position. Algorithms make a range of selections, who are then interviewed by a panel to identify the most suitable employees for the established positions.
The intensive and expensive strategies in the management of the workforce are purposed to ensure there are no possibilities of employing average employees but the talented ones only. Before and post recruitment phases are therefore proactive to ensure that only the most talented and culturally fit for the firm are hired. During recruitment, they are undertaken through an all-around cultural sensitization and self-awareness 11-week program to make sure they acclimate to the new environment quickly. Merging of the scientific approach to management of the demand and supply human resource management with the teams in people operations ensures that the selections made by the algorithms are allocated to the suitable position. Recruits in human resource and business functions are determined mainly by the people operations management, while the engineering employees are largely determined by the recruitment algorithm.
The job design and description are flexible due to the organizational matrix structure. Managers in human resource find it easy to identify linkages in different organizational functions, improving their process of job analysis and design. The methods employed in the analysis are a combination of worker and work oriented process. They are employed concurrently with job positions analyses. Work-oriented methods are employed when accessing jobs in innovation, research, and production. Worker-oriented methods of job analysis are applied to assess jobs which involve interpersonal skills. As a large international firm, the organization is required to foresee the management of jobs necessitating for a succinct definition of roles and responsibilities in each job description to avoid redundancy of responsibilities. Additionally, it optimizes the human resources in the organization.
The intensive resource investment in the process of recruitment is to make sure the hires made are retained in the organization for a long-term. The management of the recruitment process is long-term oriented. The hiring process is prolonged than usual, so that all factors are considered before any hires are done. Bock (2018) articulated the importance of the intensive recruitment process in an interview, “So what happens is people lose their focus on the absolute value of the talent, and they often get sidetracked with things like the urgency of a role. And as soon as you start allowing your teams to do that, then you start hiring people who are just below the current bar.” The practice is contrary to the traditional philosophy of management, where the management would increase the employee turnover to bring new talent. Google invests in the development of the employees, thus raising their employee retention rates.
Bock (2018) identifies that managers are often forced to make impromptu hirers, which are short-term oriented to meet the immediate demand. However, the costs incurred by performing such decisions eventually result in an average workforce, which in turn affects the performance of an organization negatively (Lombardo, 2018). In light of this fact, Google is committed to making changes in these cultures by forecasting its human resource demand and supply. It enables the firm to avoid any impromptu demand for human resources, which eliminates the need to make an impromptu decision by the human resource managers. They are also in a position to meet the demand that results from changes in the business. Additionally, the reliance on data analysis in job planning optimizes the efficacy of human resource operations.
To avoid bi...