1. Critical Analysis of Google HR Policies

Every department must have a working policy detailing how to achieve objectives in the organization’s interest, including its workforce (Joshi, 2013). HR policies are an outcome of these working principles and rules of conduct governing the firm’s relationship with its employees. There are two perspectives from which do discuss Google’s HR policies. The first is the employee motivation perspective, which essentially focuses on how the company motivates employees and creates a comfortable working environment. According to Thomas & Karodia (2014), Google’s ability to attract a talented workforce stems from its attractive packages, which act as the pull factor. It offers employees competitive salaries, bonuses, and stock awards at regular time intervals. It also encourages and rewards outstanding performance achievement amongst the employees. The Google campus has a series of facilities, leisure and recreational activities, and benefits to promote a comfortable working environment, enhance employee wellbeing, creativity, and consequent performance (Samani et al., 2014; Aksoy, 2017). Google also offers its employees flexible work hours, work from home opportunities, telecommuting, and generous vacation policies to help maintain a proper work-life balance, reducing stress and increasing job satisfaction levels and performance (Adnan Bataineh, 2019). Finally, Google also offers employees career development opportunities by emphasizing 20% work, allowing them to dedicate 20% of their time to be creative and innovative. It an exciting feature for existing and prospecting employees, as it provides them with some level of autonomy, thus serving as an attractive tool to retain employees in the organization (Thomas & Karodia, 2014)

Read more: SAMPLE PAPER: Managing Human Capital at Google Inc.

The second perspective is that of the organization, highlighting the various mechanisms to facilitate the human resource department’s work in developing, implementing, and sustaining effective policies. Many people consider Google to be an ideal employer, given the various measures to ensure that it has a pool of talented individuals to hire from when the need arises. Google HR policy prioritizes selection and retention of the best talent, integral to its competitive and innovative potential as employees comprise its greatest strength. Its training and development programs help develop employees’ knowledge, skills, and competencies, thus overcoming weaknesses and underperformance. It also emphasizes employment development through on-the-job learning and training, which helps with creativity and morale development (Thomas & Karodia, 2014). Candidates have to undergo a tough screening process, using algorithms to identify potential talent, giving Google the power to identify and select candidates based on a more data-driven approach (Shrivastava et al., 2018). The process allows the company to proactively and successfully predict which employees are likely to become a retention problem (Thomas & Karodia, 2014). The process can be demotivating for potential candidates but serves as a standard statement, motivating individuals to work hard on achieving a dynamic work portfolio to meet Google requirements. It enhances Google’s ability to promote person-organization fit, aligned to achieve Google’s short and long-term goals. Person-organization fit positively impacts job satisfaction and employee performance (Farooqui & Nagendra, 2014). Ultimately, this helps Google hire and retain a competent workforce with the potential to innovate and help deliver quality services to Google product and service users.

  • Human Resource Policy Proposals
  • Enhancing Employee Retention

One of the observations made by Thomas & Karodia (2014) is that Google’s retention problem has a lot to do with its willingness to limit permanent jobs, reducing its ability to attract and retain experienced. In another recent report by Sela & Ben-Gal (2018), the authors found out that despite Google offering competitive salary and compensation packages and its emphasis on employee satisfaction, the employment period per job is relatively inverse compared to its peers. The average work period for Google employees is two years. The lack of permanence at Google may signify a strategic approach by the company’s human resources to adapt to changing market conditions and requirements concerning the requisite skill and competence needed to help develop Google products and services with a significant client appeal (Sela& Ben-Gal, 2018). Nonetheless, it may also serve as a challenge in attracting potential talent in the future due to the lack of job security and insufficient career progression opportunities or experience that potential candidates may expect from work engagement. 

The goal is to enhance perceptions of job security and career development at Google to enhance talent retention capacities. The lack of job security leads to uncertainty about an individual’s welfare and standard of living, increasing their turnover intention to search for better employment opportunities with more stability (Abolade, 2018). One way that Google can enhance perceptions of job security at the workplace is to allow for trade unions within the organization and formally acknowledge them through inclusion in the decision-making process. A trade union is an organized group of workers within an organization, with the primary goal of negotiating with employers on behalf of their members to secure better wages and working conditions (Joshi, 2013). The decision to allow trade unions can help Google streamline human resource practices, especially through employee transition from Google, especially for those on a contractual basis. Google may have an excellent working environment and mentorship programs to help with career advancement. However, it may not be sufficient for those whose focus is on long-term goals. Employees will want to know their transition from the company will not be challenging and that the company has measures in place to help them progress even after contractual maturation. A trade union can help create job security perception during and after the contractual period, thus increasing commitment and derived value working with Google. Ultimately, these will help with security, satisfaction, and inherent wellbeing, which reduces turnover intention.

  • Effective Customer Service Practices

Human resource management that values and promotes service quality could improve overall service performance. These service-focused HRM systems focus on enhancing employee abilities, promoting their motivation, and providing opportunities to contribute to high-quality customer service (Chao & Shih, 2018). The reason behind employing talented individuals into the firm and promoting an environment that fosters creativity is for the human resource at Google to develop innovative solutions for its customers. The innovative potential of Google employees serves as the base through which the company serves its diverse customer bases globally (Thomas & Karodia, 2014). Google offers its employees training that hones customer service, communication, support for diversity, and problem-solving abilities. While these efforts may be effective in learning about the customer and how to develop customized solutions for them, it would be prudent to explore the possibility of a customer experience training program that solely focuses on developing knowledge, skills, and abilities in customer relationship management. Such a program would enhance customer knowledge when developing innovative solutions, consequently increasing customer satisfaction (Hassan et al., 2015). Training should involve developing emotional labor to help Google employees learn how to regulate their emotional responses to customer needs and wants, given the market diversity within which Google operates (Gabriel et al., 2016). 

Also, Google should adopt a strategy that helps recognize customer-focused employees to create a more competent team capable of dealing with customers and enhancing their overall experience with its products and services. Employee recognition is a powerful motivation source and increases subsequent performance (Bradler et al., 2016). As such, acknowledging competence in providing exemplary customer service and managing such responsibility will enhance the individual’s performance levels within that specialty, consequently enhancing the company’s overall customer service quality performance. Recognized people will find more purpose in their work because Google will have made it apparent that they significantly impact business operations. As such, these employees will feel useful and directly tied to Google’s success since customers are the primary goal for any business. Employee recognition within this area can also contribute to long-term retention at the workplace (Mngomezulu et al., 2015). Recognized employees will have proven their utility to Google’s operations and thus serve as significant assets to the firm. 

  • Use of Technology to Improve Interoffice Communication

Communication within and between departments is essential as it facilitates integration and activity alignment working towards the same goal (Hargie, 2016). Therefore, the human resource within a company must maintain openness and transparency, adhere to the formal channels of communication, engage in discussions regarding the information provided to facilitate insight development and feedback, and foster a positive communication environment where every individual respects others irrespective of rank or position in the company. One of the policies that Google can benefit from is moderating communication during interoffice deliberations to limit discussions on polarizing topics. The human resource will focus on instituting mechanisms that monitor and limit such discussions to prevent divisions among employee groups in the office. Polarization causes conflict and undermines the organization’s relationship-building initiatives by making the working atmosphere inhospitable, with adverse consequences for performance (González-Romá& Hernández, 2014). The diversity within Google means that people have different beliefs and values, meaning that assumptions on generally held views may offend or disrespect a coworker, consequently denting the office’s relationship-building progress. The various communication channels should focus on work-related matters, including those that enhance individuals’ wellbeing, such as showing concern for colleagues and workmates beyond the work context. 

Another HR policy that would benefit Google’s communication procedures is having employees adhere to speaking out against internal projects only after having legitimate information and confirming whether it violates the security policy around data access and leaks. These protocols stem from the fact that the current technologies available for communication can distort information or generate misleading content, which can disclose trade secrets, generate a negative public image, or promote sabotage (Sargolzaei & Nikbakht, 2017). Therefore, the human resource department must develop policies that limit divulging information before proper and thorough vetting, despite the freedom of speech and transparency allowed on the Google campus and within office intranets. Information within these networks is a significant competitive advantage for Google, and managing it well can facilitate its suitability to the overall vision and strategy. The HR policy must also engage various stakeholders to ensure that the workforce has the media literacy skills that the company can foster and formally provide through lifelong learning (Pinto et al., 2020). The requirement extends to all departments, including those not actively involved in software or program development at the campus. 

  • Create/Revise Employee Performance Appraisals

Google’s annual performance review cycle comprises two parts: a preview during the end of the first semester and a complete review between October and November – concurrent with the company’s 360-degree feedback collection process. At Google, managers will consider the following things when attributing their employee performance ratings: results attained, employee accomplishments, behavior, and how they achieved these results. The process involves a self-assessment, followed by peer-reviews that only managers can access. Google employees then have to review each other and their direct reports based on Googleyness, problem-solving, task execution, thought leadership, leadership, and presence (Homem de Mello, 2019). The review process would benefit from performance planning for both individuals and teams within the organization.

An effective performance management system requires careful planning to identify the critical action steps and objectives that will improve subordinates’ future performance at the firm. Performance planning necessitates proactive participation by managers and employees, who take the initiative and charge of the planning process, thus assuming responsibility for their performance outcomes (Presbitero & Teng-Calleja, 2017).  It is one of the integral aspects of the performance appraisal and management that allows for significant collaboration between leaders and those at the forefront of business operations to align the personal and team-based goals and objectives with the overall organizational strategy (Presbitero & Teng-Calleja, 2017). The recommendation aligns with appraisal steps provided in Joshi (2013), requiring that performance appraisal always beginning by settings performance standards and communicating them with employees. As discussed earlier, communication should involve feedback mechanisms, and performance appraisal planning allows for deliberation and feedback, playing into the process model. These aspects help set a reference point from which the company can explore whether employees have made any progress performance-wise. 

  • Job Listing
  • Secretary

The full-time secretary position at Google requires a collaborative individual with an outstanding personality, a friendly work style and ethic, well-organized, can multitask, prioritize, and take initiative to help keep the organization running smoothly. They will be part of a cohesive administrative environment, working with multiple teams and departments to meet the administrative and organizational demands that make Google function.

Responsibilities:

  • Courteously greeting customers, providing direction, and facilitating accurate and timely unit communication 
  • Answering telephone calls, taking messages, and arranging appointments
  • Typing, preparing, and collating reports; bookkeeping, filing, and managing databases
  • Event planning and facilitating team-building activities
  • Providing calendar management and workload prioritization
  • Processing expense reports, Pos, recording, and tracking equipment for inventory audits
  • Managing conference room calendars and upkeep
  • Coordinating and supporting on-site meetings and events, including room reservations, catering, and audio-video requirements
  • Managing floors, including office supply management, updating floor plans, meal scheduling, submitting facility and maintenance requests

Qualifications:

  • Able to work autonomously and achieve set goals on critical assignments
  • Can multitask, prioritize projects, and be resourceful with minimal supervision
  • Must display team-oriented and positive demeanor regardless of changes in the work environment
  • Critical thinking, excellent judgment, and problem-solving skills while maintaining high-quality standards
  • Thrive in a fast-paced environment, evidencing flexibility in the face of change
  • Minimum of three years in a high-tech environment
  • Attention to detail, accuracy, and timelines 
  • Experience supporting a larger team is a bonus

Education and Experience

  • BA/BS degree or equivalent experience
  • Marketer

Google is looking for a seasoned, dynamic marketing manager to help drive the adoption and growth of Google products and services. The candidate will play a significant role in assessing market needs and preferences, creating a vision that will guide the company’s innovative potential to develop new services and capabilities. The market will participate in key product/service launches, coordinate the creation and update of the website content, write internal communications, and help with the generation of market-oriented content. 

Responsibilities:

  • Create product marketing deliverables
    • Product overviews
    • Product and service pages on the website
    • Product/solution presentations
    • Product/solution-centric white papers and contributed articles
    • Client case studies
  • Enable pre-sales and sales teams
    • Guide on convenience when finding and consuming content
    • Help with demo creation
    • Educating sales teams on products or services provided
  • Provide insight into competitive enterprise services from a strategic and technical perspective to help evolve product and service portfolio 

Qualifications:

  • A minimum of five years’ experience within a high-tech setting, preferably in services
  • Product marketing experience in launching new products/services and driving customer adoption
  • Ability to craft compelling messaging and differentiation
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills 
  • Strong cross-functional collaboration who can influence various teams across Google
  • Strategic thinking and planning ability, following through to implementation while paying attention to detail
  • Thrive in a fast-paced environment and can deal with change
  • Results-oriented attitude and great desire to get things done

Education and Experience

  • Bachelor’s Degree required, MBA a plus
  • Operations Manager

The operations manager will ensure the health, improvement, measurement, compliance, and tools used by Google stakeholders. Their work is to solve process challenges for the company, building relationships with various key stakeholders to ensure process improvements to enhance Google quality assurance. The candidate will also be responsible for having a deep understanding of market performance and various aspects influencing shifting market dynamics to help the company with its competitive landscape. 

Responsibilities:

  • The operations manager will provide inspired leadership for the organization
  •  Make important planning, policy, and strategy decisions
  • Develop, implement, and monitor operational procedures and policies by Google
  • Oversee financial planning, budgeting, implementing, reporting, and auditing
  • Help promote the company culture
  • Liaise with senior stakeholders regarding firm performance
  • Help with compliance by ensuring that all legal and regulatory documents are signed and conform to rules and regulations provided 
  • Relationship management by building alliances and partnerships 
  • Supporting employee communication with management 
  • Identify and help address issues affecting the company and long-term sustainability

Qualifications:

  • A minimum of three years’ experience in any of the fields mentioned above
  • Experience in leadership, operations, and management fields 
  • Understanding general finance and budgeting
  • Ability to build relationships and consensus between stakeholders
  • Capacity in leading change, dealing with ambiguity, and providing innovative solutions
  • Detail-oriented with the ability to generate solutions from available information
  • Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills

Education and Experience

  • Master’s Degree in operations, business, supply chain, finance, IT, or related field
  • Health, Safety, and Well-being Guide

At Google, we are committed to helping colleagues operate at optimum capacity, both physically and mentally. Health and safety are central to how Google does business as it requires employees to be creative without much distraction. It is the reason why the company has invested so much in promoting a healthy and comfortable working atmosphere while promoting the development of productive interpersonal relationships by all employees. The company’s vision is that no employee will incur damage or get hurt while working for the company. Beyond the safety paradigm, the company acknowledges its role in supporting its colleagues’ health and wellbeing to make Google a healthier place to work. The following are some of the guidelines to follow to help the company work towards this objective;

First Aid at Work

Managers will assess the first aid risk, and every department has a facility to help with first aid response when the need arises. Each department has a first aid kit and individuals trained at providing first aid for minor injuries. The company places first aid notices in all departments, and high-risk areas like staircases, identified by a white cross on a green background. These first aid notices contain information and guidelines regarding the nearest first aid kit’s location in the case of an emergency. The company includes a comprehensive first aid procedure for injuries and ill health for all sites on the company website resource page in the case that there is no responder immediately present or employees are not within company premises.

Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences

Incident prevention is the key to maintaining a safe and healthy environment, according to Joshi (2013). Google finds it imperative to provide training regarding health and safety protocols for more severe incidents and report any suspected instances to the immediate supervisor. Google encourages its employees to report any situation presenting a challenge to them or their colleagues for immediate medical assistance. The health and safety executive is responsible for handling reports and cases involving more serious incidents. All reports must be in line with the Google-approved reporting procedure detailed in the staff handbook containing terms of conduct.

Violence, Abuse, and Unreasonable Behavior

Google emphasizes showing each other respect on all levels, irrespective of rank, or position. It does not tolerate any form of misconduct or behavior deemed unacceptable, abusive, threatening, or violent to other employees, supervisors, managers, volunteers, customers, service users, or any other stakeholder. A list of potential misconduct behaviors and unacceptable utterances at the workplace is available in the staff handbook – even though not comprehensive. The company takes all accusations seriously and warns of letting go, probation, or placing the individual on the violent persons list should evidence suffice of a potential violation of rules and regulations in place. The unreasonable and violent behavior reporting system within the company premises is available for all employees to use when reporting any unacceptable behavior – all reports are anonymous. Anyone suffering a serious assault has an obligation to report to the authorities, and managers will provide assistance and support to the victim during this difficult time. These measures help individuals operate at optimum conditions while enhancing the working atmosphere and relationships among members. 

Well-Being and Stress

The company has an on-premise therapist to help employees currently experiencing psychological stress that affects their work productivity. Google recommends employees to talk to friends, family, or coworkers regarding any potential stressors, seeking help from a general practitioner (GP), or conducting regular exercises and proper dieting as preventive measures. The employees’ mental wellbeing falls under the company’s responsibility to keep employees safe, so their on-site therapist and office are readily available. 

Fire and Emergency Precautions, Policies, and Procedures

Google has made necessary provisions for frequent assessment of the premises to help prevent fire and bomb risk, update the protocols on evacuation and fire fighting in the event of a fire. It also provides training and information regarding fire and emergency drills, information regarding fire personnel’s appointment, and the purchase, fitting, and evaluation of fire/bomb detection and extinguishing systems. The staff handbook compiles a list of fire and emergency procedures as well as the fire risk assessments.

Health and Safety Training 

Google has a corporate training plan, which the human resource department is in charge of coordinating. The training program includes several health and safety courses, details of which are present within the staff handbook. From time to time, Google finds it necessary to conduct specific training needs related to health and safety as identified by employees through suggestions. The company emphasizes that employees utilize the feedback channels available to contribute to health and safety development. These will take place either through internal or external courses.

References

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Adnan Bataineh, K. (2019). Impact of work-life balance, happiness at work, on employee performance. International Business Research, 12(2), 99-112.

Aksoy, H. (2017). How do innovation culture, marketing innovation and product innovation affect the market performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Technology in Society, 51(4), 133-141.

Bradler, C., Dur, R., Neckermann, S., & Non, A. (2016). Employee recognition and performance: A field experiment. Management Science, 62(11), 3085-3099.

Chao, M., & Shih, C. T. (2018). Customer service-focused HRM systems and firm performance: evidence from the service industry in Taiwan. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(19), 2804-2826.

Farooqui, M. S., & Nagendra, A. (2014). The impact of person organization fit on job satisfaction and performance of the employees. Procedia economics and Finance, 11(14), 122-129.

Gabriel, A. S., Cheshin, A., Moran, C. M., & van Kleef, G. A. (2016). Enhancing emotional performance and customer service through human resources practices: A systems perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 26(1), 14-24.

González-Romá, V., & Hernández, A. (2014). Climate uniformity: Its influence on team communication quality, task conflict, and team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(6), 1042.

Hargie, O. (2016). The importance of communication for organisationaleffectiveness. In Psicologia do Trabalho e das Organizações. (pp. 15-32). Axioma.

Hassan, R. S., Nawaz, A., Lashari, M. N., & Zafar, F. (2015). Effect of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction. Procedia economics and finance, 23(12), 563-567.

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Mngomezulu, N., Challenor, M., Munapo, E., Mashau, P., & Chikandiwa, C. T. (2015). The impact of recognition on retention of good talent in the workforce. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 4(4), 372-379.

Pinto, C., Carvalho, M., Martins, S., Barga, M. I. (2020). How misinformation and disinformation affect the organization and its employees’ performance in the digital era. Bobcatsss Conference. At Paris.

Rahman, W., & Nas, Z. (2013). Employee development and turnover intention: theory validation. European journal of training and development.

Samani, S. A., Rasid, S. Z. B. A., & bt Sofian, S. (2014). A workplace to support creativity. Industrial Engineering & Management Systems, 13(4), 414-420.

Sargolzaei, E., & Nikbakht, M. (2017). The Ethical and Social Issues of Information Technology: A Case Study. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 8(10), 138-146.

Sela, A., & Ben-Gal, H. C. (2018, December). Big Data Analysis of Employee Turnover in Global Media Companies, Google, Facebook and Others. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on the Science of Electrical Engineering in Israel (ICSEE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Shrivastava, S., Nagdev, K., & Rajesh, A. (2018). Redefining HR using people analytics: the case of Google. Human Resource Management International Digest.

Thomas, S., & Karodia, A. M. (2014). Human Resources Practices at Google in Terms of Some Management Perspectives: Exploring the Entrepreneurial Spirit. Nigerian Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 62(1102), 1-13.