BHO0255 The Psychology of Work & Organisations
Assessment Two Case Study
Working for Google: ‘Doing cool things that matter’
Case study taken from:
Sutton, A. (2014). Work psychology in action. Palgrave Macmillan.
Google is one of the most well-known brands in the world. Starting with the development of a search engine so effective that ‘to Google’ became synonymous with searching the web, the organisation has expanded to include a wide range of products and offerings, including the Chrome web browser, Gmail, Google maps and YouTube. To keep the company at the forefront of the industry, Google is looking for employees who are ‘great at lots of things, love big challenges and welcome big changes’ and will be beneficial to the organisation in the long term. How do they go about finding these people?
The company used to be famous for using brainteaser-type questions during interviews, asking candidates to solve puzzles like ‘How many golf balls will fit in a bus?’ or ‘How much would you charge to clean all the windows in Seattle?’ The idea was that asking this kind of question would help them to identify people who could think on their feet and come up with creative solutions while also giving the interviewers an insight into the candidate’s problem-solving process. But these types of question have become a thing of the past as the recruitment and selection processes at Google have changed over the years.
Managing information and data is an essential component of what Google does, so it is no surprise that the change in selection processes was triggered when they analysed the data they had on people’s performance at interview and their subsequent performance in the job. The results came as a shock: the company found that the brainteaser questions were completely unrelated to the people’s subsequent job performance (Bryant, 2013). As Laszlo Bock (Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google) pointed out, those questions only served to make the interviewer feel smart! He also stated that structured behaviour interviews are the only ones that work; and this is the direction that google selection processes have moved in more recently.
Besides trying to get a handle on how people approach problems, the other important criterion that Google used to use in selection was a candidate’s grade point average from university. But again, their data crunching indicated that this was unrelated to actual job performance (Bryant, 2013), and so this criterion has become less important in the selection processes. In fact, the company now has an increasing proportion of employees who have never been to university, recognising that the skills they are looking for are not necessarily developed in formal education.
Having gone through these changes, the basic selection process at Google currently has three stages (Google, 2014b). First, a potential candidate has a conversation with a recruiter. The majority of these recruiters start on six-month contracts (though may stay longer) and the number can be increased or reduced depending on the organisation’s needs (VanderMey, 2012). Their main function is the find people who might be interested in working for Google and a lot of their work involves cold-calling potential candidates and then guiding candidates through the process.
This initial contact is followed up by a phone interview and then on-site interviews with around four or five people. The interviewers could be potential new teammates or supervisors, or they could be people the candidates might never see again. They assess candidates on four main criteria:
- Leadership
- Role-related knowledge (looking for a variety of knowledge, not just specialist knowledge)
- Problem-solving skills
- ‘Googleyness’, which includes a candidate’s comfort with ambiguity, bias towards actions and collaborative nature
Interestingly, while Google promotes a ‘scientific’ approach to evaluating the first three criteria, Sunil Chandra (Vice President of Staffing and Operations) claims that determining this last point is more ‘art’ than science (Halzack, 2013).
The final decision about hiring is made in the light of feedback from all the interviews, by people not involved in the interview. Google considers this to be a more objective approach than leaving it to the interviewers (Halzack, 2013). By having the decision made at some distance from the interview, Google is attempting to remove some of the biases that can occur.
The first attribute that is assessed in Google’s selection process is leadership. The highly skilled and technically competent staff traditionally seemed to think that the best thing a manager could do was to leave them in peace to let them get on with their jobs (Bryant, 2011). In fact, in 2002 Google even conducted a brief experiment and eliminated all the engineering management roles (Garvin, 2013). The experiment only lasted a few months before the company realised that, instead of encouraging ideas and productivity among staff, removing the managers meant that the founders themselves were continually approached to resolve conflicts and deal with routine, everyday matters. The management positions were reintroduced, although today Google still remains a reasonably flat organisation, with employees given decision-making power and freedom to innovate.
In their continuing quest to identify good leadership within the company, in 2009, Google launched ‘Project Oxygen’. This project was a data-mining exercise that reviewed employee surveys, management feedback reports and performance reviews in an effort to find out what characterised a good leader at Google. The project was launched because the company realised that the best managers had the best-performing, happiest teams with the highest retention rates. Project Oxygen’s final list of good behaviours, in order of importance, were (Bryant, 2011):
- Be a good coach
- Empower your team and don’t micromanage
- Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being
- Don’t be a sissy: be productive and results-orientated
- Be a good communicator and listen to your team
- Help your employees with career development
- Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
- Have key technical skills so that you can advise the team
The interplay between good leadership and effective teamwork is recognised at Google, where collaboration is central to everything they do. The company believes that innovation comes through sharing ideas and working together, and the ability to collaborate to solve problems is an essential ingredient in the ‘Googleyness’ that they look for in new hires. This extends even to their Googlers- to-Googlers (g2g) education programme, where employees teach each other new skills and knowledge. In fact, this ‘Googleyness’ is a concept that emerges again and again when employees talk about the company, a shorthand for the culture of the organisation. Laszlo Bock (Bock, 2011) describes this culture as being created and maintained by three important components:
- Mission – Google is clear about its mission: to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since this is the driving force behind their efforts, employees get a feeling of meaning to their work and are passionate about their ultimate aim.
- Transparency – The senior executives at Google hold weekly meetings where employees can directly ask them questions. Information about the company, including progress reports, project timelines and team goals are all held on the company intranet for all employees to access. The concept is that their employees can be trusted and that open communication is vital.
- Voice – There are many ways for Google employees to express their thoughts, opinions and ideas, including surveys, direct emails to the leaders and so on. Feedback is actively sought from every manager’s direct reports and used to recognise the best and coach the worst.
In fact, Google has topped Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list since 2012. Employees say they are proud to work there and 97% say their management is honest and ethical. They also value the company’s approach to giving back to the community and supporting charities: for example, Google donates $50 for every five hours of volunteering that an employee does with an approved charity.
One of the reasons people are so keen to work at Google is the legendary list of perks that Googlers get. On their main site, ‘Googleplex’ in California, employees can enjoy free meals at the cafeterias, snacks and drinks near their offices, free use of the gym, game rooms and on-site medical staff. There are similar facilities in the London office too, with a games room, music room and a ‘coffee lab’ to help people to relax and go back to work refreshed without ever leaving the office. There is also travel insurance for employees and their families and reimbursement for training courses. Perhaps the most famous perk is Google’s ’20 percent time’ where employees can work on something unrelated to their official work projects for one day a week.
Why does Google spend so much on these benefits? One reason that the company gives is that they value their employees and want to make their lives better: the benefits are designed to take care of their employees, physically, mentally, emotionally, financially and socially (Google, 2014a). More cynical commentators have suggested that there may be two other reasons. First, by ensuring that employees have everything they need at work, Google can encourage a long hours culture – 10 to 12 hours a day is not uncommon. Second, some have suggested that spending money on these perks is actually cheaper than increasing wages.
And there’s a darker side to Google’s retention efforts too. It has recently come to light that the CEOs of Google and other tech firms like Apple had anti-poaching agreements in place with each other, as well as agreeing on salary levels (Harkinson, 2014). There agreements were so strongly enforced that, in 2007, a Google recruiter who approached an Apple employee was immediately dismissed. These illegal arrangements are currently the subject of a class action lawsuit in the USA which alleges that employees were financially damaged because they simply did not have anywhere else to go that would offer them a better deal.
Despite all these efforts at retention, however, a recent report by PayScale compared retention rates at Fortune 500 companies and revealed that median tenure at Google was just over one year (PayScale Inc., 2013). Whilst this needs to be understood in the context of the typical worker only staying with a Fortune 500 company for 3.6 years overall, Google still had the third lowest job tenure and, significantly, it was also lower than other comparable tech companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft. And this is despite Google employees having the fourth highest median salary. Some have suggested that the reason for this low tenure rate might link back to an inefficient hiring process (Lewis, 2013) that results in too many false positives.
You are expected to use APA guidelines – 6th edition for your academic writing, in text citations and your reference list.
- Introduce the reader to the relevant psychological literature (Measuring Talent, Identifying Talent and Retaining Talent).
- Based on the provided case study outline the problems or issues faced by Google prior to taking action as well as the strategy taken to address these issues.
- Does evidence suggest that the issues were effectively addressed? Why or why not?
- Based on your critical evaluation, and in consultation with the literature, would you recommend any further action for the organisation to take in relation to these issues? Explain.
- Would you expect any potential benefits or drawbacks as a result of your recommendations?
- Would you expect these recommendations to be effective in other organisations? Why or why not?
Answer:
Introduction
The “advent of globalization and the advancements in the recent technologies as well as the innovations has drastically changed the way the various business organizations transact their business operations in the present times” (Costen, 2012). It is a reflection of this that the recruitment as well as the “human resource management” policies and the principles of the various business organizations in the present times have undergone drastic transformation (Coller, Cordero & Echavarren, 2018). Therefore, the primary focus of the various business organizations in the present times is on the processes of employee retention as well as the reduction of the rates of employee attrition. Thus, the primary focus of the various business organizations in the present times on enhancing the job satisfaction level of the various talented as well as skilled professionals so that they stay longer with the business organization concerned (Coller, Cordero & Echavarren, 2018). It is significant to note that in the present times the concepts of “employee retention as well as employee attrition” (Costen, 2012). This report will discuss about the concepts of identification as well as the retention of the talented employees through the lens of the business organization of Google LLC.
Google LLC.
The company Google LLC was founded by “Larry Page and Sergey Brin” in the year 1998 and is one of the most popular as well as widely sought after used companies of the world (Google, 2018). The company is “an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware” (Google, 2018). The company keeping in view the recent changes in the fields of technology and innovations offers a wide range of internet services to the customers and it is a reflection of this particular fact that most of the internet searches which are being performed by the individuals in the present times are being directed through the search engine of Google (Google, 2018). Furthermore, in the recent times the company has taken the help of various kinds of innovative strategies like merger and acquisition, offering of new products as well as services to the customers like Google Maps, Google Images and others to the customers (Google, 2018). It is a reflection of the varied range of services provided by the company that the official website is among the 100 most visited websites of the world (Google, 2018). The company at the current moment is the 3rd largest company of the world in terms of the revenue which it generates on yearly basis (Forbes Welcome, 2018). The headquarters of the company is located at “Mountain View, California” however following the path of globalization the company is operational in most of the countries of the world in the present times (Google, 2018). The company as per a 2017 statistics has around 73,992 employees in different parts of the world (Google, 2018).
“Measuring Talent, Identifying Talent and Retaining Talent”
The concept of talent can be defined as the natural skills as well as the aptitude of an individual (Ghosh et al., 2013). In the opinion of many people talent forms an important attribute of the character of the various individuals and it is required in every walk of life for the performance of the various kinds of jobs as well as tasks in the most effective manner (Ghosh et al., 2013). In the particular context of the business world the concept of talent forms a very important attribute. Therefore, the primary focus of the various business organizations in the present times is to have the right kind of talent in the right place at the right situation (Bode, Singh & Rogan, 2015). Furthermore, it is seen that in the resent times the various business organizations not only try to attract the kind of talented people to their business organizations but also try to retain them. In the opinion of Collings & Mellahi, (2009), “Success for a business is dependent on the organizations ability to attract, develop and retain ’talent’. Utilizing the humans within an organization can maximize the competitive advantage of an organization”. It is significant to note that in the present times various scholars have tried to measure the talent of the people and it is a reflection of this that various kinds of talent management tests are used by the various business organizations during the process of recruitment. It is a reflection of this that the company Google used to have various kinds of skills test and brainteaser to access the kind of talent which the individuals who appeared for the process of interview (Sutton, 2014). In addition to these, the various business organizations in the present times also use various kinds of psychometric tests as well as competency tests for the effective measurement of the talents of the candidates who have appeared for the interview (Bode, Singh & Rogan, 2015).
The identification of talent is another significant factor which the various business organizations take into consideration in the present times (Cloutier et al., 2015). It is significant to note that during the various kinds of interviews and recruitment sessions the primary focus of the various business organizations is on finding out the individuals with the maximum amount of talent (Cloutier et al., 2015). Therefore, with this primary purpose the various business organizations take the help of various innovative kinds of interviews in a bid to find out the level of the talent of the individuals who are appearing for the process of the interview as almost all the business organizations in the present times try to recruit the individuals with the maximum talent (Laddha et al., 2012). Thus, in the present times various kinds of interviews have emerged like structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews with the inherent purpose of finding out the individuals with the maximum talent. Furthermore, in addition to these, the various business organizations in the present times also take the help of various kinds of behavioral interviews as well as situational interviews in a bid to get the candidates with the maximum potential (Laddha et al., 2012). Therefore, with this particular inherent aim the company Google used to ask various kinds of brainteasers and also check the average university grades of the candidates who used to appear for the interview process to get selected to work for their organization (Sutton, 2014). In addition to these the various kinds of situational questions asked by the various interviewers during the selection process are also a reflection of the inherent desire of the business organization to recruit the people with the maximum talent.
The retention of the talented individuals within a particular business organization is one of the significant aspects which the various business organizations need to take into consideration in the present times (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). It is a reflection of this that the various business organizations in the present times take the help of various kinds of innovate methods in a bid to retain the talents employees within the framework of the organization (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). Therefore, with this particular purpose in view the business organizations in the present times offer various kinds of rewards as well as recognition to the employees. The various kinds of rewards provided by the business organizations not only enhances the satisfaction level of the employees towards their job but also helps the organization concerned to motivate the employees concerned to perform in a much better manner (James & Mathew, 2012). It is significant to note that this is one of the most commonly used techniques by means of which the various business organizations try to retain the talented employees related to them. The company Google also uses the same kind of strategies in a bid not only to retain the talented individuals belonging to them but also to provide them with better kind of job as well as economic opportunities (Sutton, 2014). It is significant to note that the focus of the majority of the business organizations in the present times is on the concept of employee retention as the business organizations have already invested a considerable amount of resources on the training as well as the development of the employees and therefore if the employees leaves the business organization then that would be a considerable loss for the concerned organization (James & Mathew, 2012).
“Problems faced by Google”
The company Google is not only one of the largest ones of the world but also one of the most popular ones of the world and therefore it is natural that the company would require a large workforce to manage the workload in an effective manner. It is significant to note that in the initial days the company Google used to take the help of various kinds of traditional methods for the purpose of interviews as well as interview (Sutton, 2014). The company during the process of the interview used to access the various candidates on the basis of the answers which they used to provide to the brainteasers and the other tricky questions asked by the interviewers (Aruna & Anitha, 2015). Furthermore, the candidates were also selected on the basis of the average of the grades which the concerned used to get in their university as well as colleges. However, it was seen that after the process of recruitment the employees were not being able to perform as per the expectation level of the organization which they had formed depending on the answers provided by the candidates to the brainteasers and other kinds of questions (Sutton, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that the process of selection as well as recruitment used by the company was not in synchronization with the quality of work which the organization was expecting the employees to deliver. Therefore, the company Google was forced to modify its recruitment as well as selection strategies for the recruitment of the new employees. The company therefore at the present moment during the process of selection as well as recruitment takes into consideration the four attributes of the employees like leadership skills, “Role-related knowledge”, “Problem-solving skills” and Googleyness (Sutton, 2014). The concept of “Googleyness” refers to the policy of the company by means of which the company recruits the individuals who have a high level of comfort towards ambiguity, who are not “bias towards actions” and have a very collaborative nature (Sutton, 2014). It is a reflection of this particular new strategy which the organisation uses for the process of recruitment that has enabled the organisation to develop a coherent as well as effective workforce within a very short time.
Evidence
The change in the strategy of the company for the recruitment as well as the selection process was brought about the evidences as well as the practical examples which the company within their own organisation. For example, the company saw that the employees recruited by them on the basis of their level of talent as well as intelligence were not being able to perform as per the “needs and the requirements of the organisation in the most effective manner” (Garner, 2012). Moreover, it was seen that a person who had performed well in the interview tests as well as brainteasers developed a boastful nature and this adversely hampered the not only the work environment but also the performance level of employees in an adverse manner (Sutton, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that the new strategy implemented by the company was in synchronisation with the needs of the company and also was justified by the evidence.
Recommendations
The recruitment as well as the selection process used by the company is a very innovative one and it can be said that the process used by the company is a very one for the concerned company. However, the company can make some more amendments to the strategy in a bid to make their recruitment process a bit more effective. The company can also take some forms of written tests just like the ones used by the company Tesco and others (Taylor, 2014). Furthermore, during the interview process the company can look for the candidates who are more willing to work in the team environment of the company and work in rotational shifts. It is significant to note that the company Google operates on a global basis and therefore it requires the help the of the employees at all times and thus the candidates who are willing to work round the clock would be of added advantage to the organisation.
Benefit
The company following the above mentioned recommendation is likely to gain in a significant manner and it would help it to recruit more talented candidates for the process of their business. Furthermore, the above recommendations are likely to help the company to build an effective team who would be willing to work in rotational shifts as per the needs of the organisation.
“Effectiveness of the recommendations for other organisations”
The above mentioned recommendations would be effective for the other business organisations as well it is seen that in the present times most of the business organisations are operating on a global basis and therefore the above mentioned recommendations would be helpful for them as well.
Conclusion
To conclude, the employees form an important part of the business organisations and therefore the focus of the various business organisations in the present times is on the recruitment of the talented as well as skilled employees. Thus, during the selection and the recruitment process the companies try to analyze the skills as well as the talent of the individuals and offer them jobs on the basis of that. It is a reflection of this that the recruitment process used by the various companies has undergone transformation in the present times.
References
Aruna, M., & Anitha, J. (2015). Employee retention enablers: Generation Y employees. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 12(3), 94. Retieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/09362190102d0520c943b8de0e97d3c9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=546310
Bode, C., Singh, J., & Rogan, M. (2015). Corporate social initiatives and employee retention. Organization Science, 26(6), 1702-1720. Retrieved from https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.2015.1006
Cloutier, O., Felusiak, L., Hill, C., & Pemberton-Jones, E. J. (2015). The importance of developing strategies for employee retention. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 12(2), 119. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/028159d66e5109e0b1feb88a055c816f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=39006
Coller, X., Cordero, G., & Echavarren, J. M. (2018). Recruitment and Selection. In Political Power in Spain (pp. 83-102). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-63826-3_5
Costen, W. M. (2012). Recruitment and selection. The Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management: Short Entries, 379-387. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118364741.ch74
Forbes Welcome. (2018). Forbes Home. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/companies/google/
Garner, E. (2012). Recruitment and Selection. Bookboon. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CXJhSc6PTTYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=recruitment+and+selection&ots=JS2OSkXJtV&sig=KXuqYHvRa2kNzkd2H-eOQjHj1TU#v=onepage&q=recruitment%20and%20selection&f=false
Ghosh, P., Satyawadi, R., Prasad Joshi, J., & Shadman, M. (2013). Who stays with you? Factors predicting employees' intention to stay. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 21(3), 288-312.Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJOA-Sep-2011-0511
James, L., & Mathew, L. (2012). Employee retention strategies: IT industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 9(3), 79. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/d6d01dae2181983b4c69f5bef1265d00/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=546310
Laddha, A., Singh, R., Gabbad, H., & Gidwani, G. D. (2012). Employee retention: An art to reduce turnover. International Journal of Management Research and Reviews, 2(3), 453. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/df7ea8ba257ef468936376067f93955b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2028922
Our company | Google. (2018). Google Home. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/about/our-company/
Sutton, A. (2014). Work psychology in action. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hz4dBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Sutton,+A.+(2014).+Work+psychology+in+action.+Palgrave+Macmillan.+&ots=8kX2Ct4VGQ&sig=dCWyDv1lX5oxn6DorFCgZgFIMrw#v=onepage&q=Sutton%2C%20A.%20(2014).%20Work%20psychology%20in%20action.%20Palgrave%20Macmillan.&f=false
Taylor, S. (2014). Recruitment and selection. Strategic Human Resource Management: An International Perspective, 10(6), 139-14. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ogOIAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA139&dq=recruitment+and+selection&ots=yLsT7zZzbL&sig=DU2eq-dfSARViSj3GYMdve6AjgY#v=onepage&q=recruitment%20and%20selection&f=false
Terera, S. R., & Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 481. Retrieved from https://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/view/1925
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