REPORT: GOOGLES HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Student Name: Sarah Frost Student Number: 00085475T Teachers Name: Sanet Van Wyk Due Date: Sunday 6th January 2013

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 Googles 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 Truepg 9

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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 Googles 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 Googles cultural environment along with the structure of Googles Human Resource Management. The selection process for Googles recruitment will be explained along with Googles Dont be Evil motto. The report will also look into how Googles 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 Googles 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 Googles mission statement is To organise the world information and make it universally accessible and useful (Google.com)

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Cultural Environment
Its 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. Googles 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)

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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. Googles Human Resource practices reveal the impressive results of the companys approach, which helps with increasing employee productivity. (Puliyenthuruthel, 2005)

Googles 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 committees decision and the recruiter will then notify the applicant of Googles offer to start as an employee, or Googler. (Dodge, 2010)
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Social Good
Google has a corporate motto Dont 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 Googles assets), external relations with customers and partners, and the impact of Googles work on the larger society. (Google.com)

Microsoft
Like Google, Microsoft only hire smart and innovative workers, their recruitment process is similar to Googles although it is not as long and drawn out as Googles; 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 industryleading compensation and benefits programs. (Microsoft.com)

Recommendations
Much of Googles 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 companys 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

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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 products that Google offers to stay fresh and above their competitors.

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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-jobat-google-interview-questions-hiring-process.html

Elgin, B., 2005, Managing Googles Idea Factory, 2nd October 2005, viewed 28th December 2012, < http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-1002/managing-googles-idea-factory

Elmer, P., 2011 What would Larry Page do? Leadership lessons from Googles doyen, 18th April 2011, viewed 28th December 2012 <http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/18/what-would-larry-page-doleadership-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 SearchesFor Talent, 10th April 2005, viewed 28th December 2012 <http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-0410/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

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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

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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 doesand you can hold us to that.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

Since the beginning, weve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether were 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 dont have to consider how they might have been designed differently.

2. Its best to do one thing really, really well.

We do search. With one of the worlds 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, weve 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 weve 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 youre seeking an answer on the web you want it right awayand 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, weve 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 its 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

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the same vein, we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers.

5. You dont 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. Were 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, were 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 were 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 dont 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 findso its possible that certain searches wont lead to any ads at all. We believe that advertising can be effective without being flashy. We dont accept pop up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content youve requested. Weve 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. Theres always more information out there.

Once wed 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

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millions of books. And our researchers continue looking into ways to bring all the worlds 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 Googles 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 dont 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 farflung 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 cultureand that doesnt 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 employeesenergetic, 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 caf line, at a team meeting or at the gym, they are traded, tested and put into practice with dizzying speedand they may be the launch pad for a new project destined for worldwide use.

10. Great just isnt good enough.

We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint. We set ourselves goals we know we cant 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 dont know exactly what youre 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 obviousbut thats because now we have new standards for email storage. Those are the kinds of changes we seek to make, and were 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.

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More

Security
Our approach to security, and how to report a security issue. More

Software principles
Our stand against deceptive Internet software. More

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