Employee motivation is a crucial HR function that influences morale levels as does a positive workplace culture. Financial aspects of a position, including bonuses and benefits, contribute greatly to job satisfaction. However, most employees also value organizational culture and relationships in their workplace. Feeling appreciated at work can strengthen the bond between staff and the management, create loyalty towards the firm, and motivate workers to exert more effort in their roles.
Google is an exceptionally successful company whose success can be attributed to its personnel. Its employee motivation model is unique – it is not aligned with the traditional leadership theory that emphasizes results but focuses on the workforce instead. The company’s work culture reflects its philosophy of creating a happy, productive workplace. As a result, it has received many accolades for being the best company to work for, according to its over 50,000 employees (Tran, 2017). Google’s People Operations (POPs) (human resources) is dedicated to talent development using a data-driven approach. Innovative methods to increase employee morale and job satisfaction are strategic ways that firms use to improve their overall performance and achieve organizational goals.
Current Methods for Enhancing Employee Morale and Job Satisfaction
Google’s work culture and focus on people since its early days have been instrumental to its success. The company’s founders sought to create a brand anchored in the extraordinary innovation of its employees. The goal was to establish an optimal workplace modeled around SAS Institute’s principles of trust and inclusion (Tran, 2017). Consistent with this philosophy, the current work culture at Google is characterized by competitive remuneration, flexibility, openness, and freedom.
The company uses a data-based approach (people analytics) to employee motivation and engagement. Through POPs, Google collects and processes data to determine optimal ways to satisfy workers and support them to be more efficient in their roles. Google has created a culture of transparency about its corporate strategy to enhance trust in the organization and boost employee morale. According to Tran (2017), each quarter, the executive chairman discloses the launch plans, new products, and quarterly goals to all employees.
Additionally, annual staff surveys inform actions that the company takes in the next year. Weekly question-and-answer meetings with Google’s founders named ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ enhance transparency and ensures that employee voice is heard and valued. Another method is allowing workers greater discretion on when and how to complete tasks. Google’s employees have the freedom to choose their convenient hours of work. Additionally, workers are allowed one day each week to do a preferred task or pursue individual interests.
Flexibility in the project schedules, reporting time, dress code and identity symbols is another way Google enhances employee morale and job satisfaction. The office design, including wall climbing facilities and slide-type construction, provides opportunities for fun and productive engagement. Google’s relaxed but inspiring atmosphere ensures motivated personnel. Routine, monotonous tasks can lower employee enthusiasm and motivation to work. At Google, workers receive a 20% allowance for a preferred project or new challenge (Tran, 2017). The 80-20 rule ensures variety and inspires employees to pursue their career interests.
Working at Google also comes with many other benefits meant to increase morale. The staff can enjoy free meals and play volleyball in a court located near their offices. Additional benefits include a car wash, medical cover, and daily transportation to and from work. Extrinsic motivation entails flex spending accounts, paid vacations, attractive salaries, and other perks (Tran, 2017). The company is known for its unique benefits meant to satisfy the employees, including maternity benefits and reimbursement for tuition and legal costs.
Recommendations for Improving Employee Morale and Job Satisfaction
Increasing the level of employee morale and job satisfaction at Google is critical given the competitive nature of the tech industry. From aspects of research, five improvements in Google’s strategies are recommended to enhance morale and job satisfaction at the company. The first one is creating relationships built on trust to prevent the perception of being exploited among workers. Disgruntled employee walkouts over workplace issues, including the failure of POP to address sexual misconduct involving high-ranking managers, have been reported (Tran, 2017). Those filing complaints internally with the POP risk retaliation through demotion, placement in unpreferred projects, or termination. Therefore, consistent HR practices and procedures for approaching workplace issues would increase trust in the organization and motivate employees.
A second recommended strategy is promoting equity and fairness by creating a staff diversity board. Discrimination against female staff filing sexual harassment complaints can dent morale and job satisfaction. According to Schaefer (2010), showing employees respect and giving room for failure without fear of retribution makes them creative and productive. Concerns about retaliation, if not addressed, can negatively affect morale and task performance.
Equal employee benefits and rewards for contractors and other staff working for Google is another recommended improvement. Equal terms and conditions for all its workers across the globe will create a feeling of connectedness to the company and with colleagues (Zigarmi et al., 2010). Workload balance is another strategy Google can use to reduce stress and enhance job satisfaction. The company should ensure manageable tasks and competitive rates for employees, including contractors, to reduce turnover and resignations.
Rationale
The recommendations described above address the gaps identified in Google’s current employee engagement strategies. Creating trust-based relationships through fair and consistent HR practices will ensure that all workers feel valued and engaged, resulting in higher morale. A staff diversity board is recommended to help Google ensure procedural fairness in HR functions and investigate workplace issues in a respectful and unbiased manner. Equal employee benefits for contractors and workload balance would reduce workplace stress, job dissatisfaction, and turnover. Satisfied, motivated employees perform optimally in their roles, and their values and attitudes are aligned with corporate strategic goals, which leads to improved organizational performance.
Methods Google Uses to Support Change
At Google, change is a continuous process, and employees are attuned to it. The company has developed a four-phase framework to guide change internally. It includes identifying the need for change (why), a vision for the desired transformation (what), key stakeholders impacted (who), and execution plans (how) (Tran, 2017). The first approach is establishing the necessity of the transformation and its alignment with organizational or project mission. Here, the problem to be resolved is identified along with related threats and opportunities. The input and specific individuals needed are also named at this stage.
In choosing the vision for the change, Google considers expected strategic priorities, the desired state, risks, and contrary views before moving on with it. The individuals impacted are involved from the onset to promote buy-in. Those who will lead the change are identified and potential resistance is addressed before executing the change. During the implementation stage, the focus shifts to sustaining the transformation and evaluating success. This method enables Google to avoid disruptive reorganizations during a change.
Moving to the cloud can pose challenges related to technological upgrades and culture. Google used a cloud adoption framework centered on people, technology, and processes. The approach also included four themes: continuous learning, effective leadership, efficient upscaling, and security (Turner, 2017). The people dimension entailed top-down support from leaders to ensure adequate resources for the change. Additionally, collaboration within teams, transparent communication, clear expectations, role clarity, and performance evaluation were considered.
Key Result Areas in HR Morale
Google’s HR team has set key metrics to support its goals of creating a motivated, productive workforce. They include absentee rate, training and development, employee retention, demographics, benefit costs, employee engagement, reported grievances, and the number of employee suggestions. Google included these metrics in its HR processes to guide data-driven HR decisions through its people analytics tool. They are useful indicators of the corporate culture, diversity, and employees’ overall engagement – a crucial consideration in retaining talented, motivated staff to compete effectively in the tech industry.
Google has performed well in most of its HR metrics. The average monthly absentee rate has been reduced to 4.0%, against a target of 2.5% through flexible schedules. Training and development hours per employee yearly have been increased and the turnover rate maintained low using a retention algorithm that proactively addresses the concerns of staff intending to leave the company. Racial diversity is high at Google but gender inclusion is low – 19.5% gender difference. Hiring and promotion of women engineers have been implemented to bridge this gap. Google has also made great strides in improving benefit costs, employee engagement, staff suggestions and ideas, and management of grievances to enhance staff morale.
Effectiveness of Organizational Efforts in Achieving Positive Change
Technology is a fast-moving field and based on research and personal experience, Google has managed major changes quite effectively. The elements of Lewin’s model can be seen in the company’s model of change, which has ensured a smooth transition into new organizational processes. According to Baran et al. (2018), organizations should devise ways to reduce resistance and effectively manage change. Evidently, Google researched the ADKAR and Lewin’s models and adapted some of the ideas in its four-phase framework.
In planning for a change, including moving to the cloud, the company considers three critical factors to achieve a successful transition. First, Google prioritizes the people component of this process in its initiatives, such as software upgrades. The biggest barrier to effective change management is the failure to involve employees. At Google, leaders and managers are given a big role to inspire change and ensure adequate resources for projects. Effective communication of targets, roles, and expectations during regular meetings also helps minimize resistance, as all employees are involved in creating solutions.
Second, Google clarifies the case for change to all stakeholders from the onset. It helps eliminate uncertainty and ensures that people focus on the benefits of the change. The desired outcome or future state is also made clear, which inspires confidence in individual and collective capabilities to manage the transition. Third, the execution plan is clarified to managers and employees, ensuring that they all understand a tested change. The outcome is an increased adoption rate due to minimal anxiety and resistance.
Recommendations
For Google to improve its response to change, it must address negative employee attitudes and management issues that arise in its interdependent divisions. One recommendation is providing effective structured or informal training to equip staff with skills to work efficiently during and after the transition. Micro-learning modules or on-the-job mentorship are key delivery methods Google can use to train employees (Baran et al., 2018). The approach would create champions for change and reduce resistance.
Another recommendation is adopting a support structure for employees with difficulties adjusting to the new environment. Counseling services can help people deal with the emotional effects of the change or restructuring. An open-door policy would also ensure that staff concerns and anxieties are handled. Negotiation and agreement are recommended for managing a change related to workplace policies at Google. Negotiated agreements can help avert resistance from key individuals or departments.
Conclusion
Google’s HR function has revolutionized employee motivation and engagement and change management. The company recognizes the significance of people in the attainment of its strategic objectives and goals. As a result, Google has created an organizational culture centered on nurturing talent, which is the source of new ideas and competitive strength in the market. Through its people analytics tool, the company has identified optimal ways to improve employee morale and job satisfaction. It uses strategies such as transparent and open systems, flexible schedules, cultural freedom, and competitive remuneration to enrich the workplace environment and motivate its workforce. Its evidence-based four-phase framework has enabled Google to manage change effectively. It has set clear HR metrics for morale and job satisfaction to reduce turnover that would hurt its competitiveness and performance.
References
Baran, B. E., Filipkowski, J. N., & Stockwell, R. A. (2018). Organizational change: Perspectives from human resource management. Journal of Change Management, 19(3), 201-219. Web.
Schaefer, J. (2010). How to improve employee morale. Rural Telecom, 29(3), 40-42.
Tran, S. K. (2017). GOOGLE: A reflection of culture, leader, and management. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 2(10), 1-14. Web.
Turner, A. (2017). How does intrinsic and extrinsic motivation drive performance culture in organizations?. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1337543. Web.
Zigarmi, D., Houston, D., Diehl, J., & Witt, D. (2010). Employee work passion: A new look at engagement. Chief Learning Officer, 9(6), 32-35.