HR Issues in an Organization: Google

HR Issues in an Organization
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HR Issues in an Organization: Google
Introduction
The name Google is one of the most recognizable names in the world. Google is a technology company that offers a wide range of internet products, including the Android OS, online storage through Google Drive, email services through Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Currently, Google exists as a subsidiary of Alphabet together with other companies, including Verily Life Sciences, Calico, and GV. The move to restructure was deemed fit because of the company’s growing interest in other fields. Currently, Alphabet is the fourth largest company in the world by market capitalization (Szmigiera, 2022). As of April 2021, Alphabet was valued at $1.581.72 trillion. Further, the company’s net income in the 2020 financial year was said to be $40.57 billion, thus making it the 7th most profitable company in the world (Szmigiera, 2022). So, regarding financial performance and profitability, Google continues to excel under its parent company Alphabet. However, regarding its human resource (HR) management, the company falls short in some key areas. In the recent past, Google has struggled with several HR issues, including low employee satisfaction, bureaucracy issues, workplace harassment, increased employee autonomy, and unhappy employees.
Analysis and Synthesis
The Googlegeist survey, which is an internal survey conducted yearly by Google, indicates that Google employees are not satisfied with the company (Lodewick, 2022). With low satisfaction levels, the company will likely hemorrhage employees as turnover rates increase if the issues raised are not addressed. Google is known to operate under the philosophy of ‘happy workplace, increased productivity.’ In 2013, Google” spokesman at the time, Jordan Newman, said that the company seeks to “create the happiest, most productive workspace in the world” (Stewart, 2013). These are words that were echoed in all of Google’s campuses in the world as the company was scaling the heights of global domination. At the time, Google was a company that attracted the best in the technological industry and was also offering competitive salaries. Currently, Google is still among the best companies in the world, and from the numbers above, the company is still a major competitor in the technology industry. However, as the Googlegeist survey indicates, employees are unhappy and dissatisfied with the company. The reason for the heightened dissatisfaction was indicated to be low compensation packages and an unfair promotional process (Elias, 2022). The employees are said to view the compensation packages received at Google as unfair and lower than their counterparts in other companies for similar positions and roles. Chan, Langley, & Coulter (2022) indicate that only 53% of employees felt their compensation was fair. Aside from the above, there are also problems with promotions, with sections of the employees noting that the promotional process is unfair (Elias). These factors are likely to lower the commitment of the employees and, in the end, negatively impact the performance of the organization. Compensation and promotions are two key factors that can be leveraged to enhance organizational performance. This is in line with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which emphasizes the fulfillment of esteem needs (Badubi, 2017). The fulfillment of this need helps to enhance feelings of belonging and appreciation within an organization. In the end, the performance of the individual and, eventually, the company is enhanced.
Aside from poor satisfaction levels, there is also the problem of workplace harassment. Workplace harassment is a global problem that puts many companies on trial as their behavior and response to the problem are assessed. Google has an elaborate and comprehensive workplace harassment policy. In this policy, Google explicitly states that harassment of any kind is not tolerated. Further, the policy asks employees to speak up if they are harassed or are a witness to any form of harassment (Google, 2022). These are clear instructions that should offer motivation and a feeling of protection to the employees. However, recently, Google was in the news after reports emerged that the company was retaliating against employees who reported harassment. In 2021, Emi Nietfeld wrote an expose on Google explaining how HR was complacent in their approach to helping and protecting her from her harasser.
Workplace harassment is a major impediment to employee performance because it impacts one’s psychological well-being. Further, organizational performance is also negatively impacted because of reduced efficiency. Pradhan and Joshi (2019) note that individuals who have undergone any form of harassment show little commitment to their work, have poor morale, and have high levels of absenteeism. Further, the authors note that such employees often showcase reduced productivity levels and poor concentration while at work and are likely to make more mistakes. Workplace harassment is a factor that speaks to the workplace environment, which is classified as a hygiene factor in Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. According to Koncar et al. (2021), hygiene factors entail elements like working conditions and company culture, and these help to prevent dissatisfaction within a company. Therefore, there is a need for Google to arrest this matter early before more employees suffer harassment.
Aside from the above, Google’s HR also faces the challenge of becoming overly bureaucratic. For a long time now, Google has been known as one of the most progressive employers in the world. With its approach and apt adoption of the high-performance work system framework, Google has been able to encourage commitment and innovation. For a long time, employees at Google have been treated as partners of the organization, and this is evident in the autonomy Google employees enjoy. However, lately, the company has been accused of being overly bureaucratic, and the employees’ position as partners has been slowly repossessed. According to the Googlegeist survey, Google’s execution ratings were reduced by 7% in 2022 (Elias, 2022). The implication is that employees have to wait longer for approvals, and ideas are adopted at a slower rate than before. The lack of discretionary power in an organization could be detrimental to its progress (Olukorede & Olayiwola, 2008). In such a company, decision-making is slow, and there is a lot of oversight, which can be translated as distrust of the executive over their employees. Further, slow decision-making means execution is slow, and this greatly impacts employee performance. For employees, the chances are high that a significant percentage are questioning their contributions to the company, and this could also bring about the issue of dissatisfaction with one’s progress career-wise. For the company, the eventual impact would be heightened turnover rates as employees would choose to leave for environments that feel more welcoming of their efforts. For Google, bureaucracy is a major challenge that greatly impacts its culture, and HR ought to adopt measures to help restore its reputation as a progressive employer.
Moreover, Google faces a challenge of reducing openness. The company has been growing rapidly with new facilities opening in more countries. According to Statista (2022), the company has about135,000 full-time employees, in addition to more temporary and internship positions. The growing number of employees presents leadership challenges. Some Googlers feel that the leadership strategies used in the business are ineffective and likely to harm the company's future. Staff members are feeling a lot of pressure due to the leaders employing autocratic leadership styles. Such a leadership style is inconsistent with the organizational culture of Google. For some time, Google has emphasized technological innovation. The company has remained innovative because of the culture of openness among the workers. Such an open culture has promoted a creative mindset that has propelled the business to more tremendous success. Because of the open culture, employees need to be free to express...