Google- a global worldwide search engine designed for quick research. One of the main reasons that it has maintained a position in the top 100 companies to work with in Forbes, is because of its Human resource policies and practices. The main Human Resource Department at Google is in its headquarters in Mountain View. Google uses the 70/20/10 model. This enables its employees to work to the best their abilities and pushes for creative thinking. Google employees feel that their opinions and ideas are valued. Therefore Google should continue to use these policies. However, since its investment base is increasing it should make sure that its policies are always transparent.
The chosen reference organization that will be used as a framework for the SLP discussion is “Google”. Google is on the 4th place of the Fortune List of Best Employers for 2010. The main goal of Google is to provide the fastest and most effective search engine in the world. As the Co-founder of Google, Mr. Larry Page says; Google tries to establish the perfect search engine. Google determines the value of the various web addresses, by viewing the postings of individuals on visiting web sites. It uses several techniques to assess the importance of websites. Example: PageRank™ algorithm. This assesses the rank of a particular website based on the rankings of different visiting web sites. As per statistics, Google has approximately more than 12000 employees.
They are located in Google offices in various parts of the world. The head quarters of Google are at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043. Since Google is a dot net company, providing a search engine, it is not very labor intensive. Therefore it does not have a union. However in 2007, Google was caught spying on their employees. When this happened the employees went on strike. However this was dismissed, when Google said, that they would increase the salary of the employees by 10%. Therefore the first unofficial union called Goonion was formed (Jean-Pierre,2007).
At Google, the Human Resource Management team is called the people operations team. HRM fits on the organizational chart of reporting relationships, under the CEO Eric Schmidt. Miss Liane Hornsey is the vice president of operations in Human resource Management (Organizational Chart Google,2010). A Human resource management position also comes under the head of the legal development, and is under the director of leadership and development.
The human resource management units at Google are in relation to the HR strategies, processes and the employees. The HR management team has to cater to all the people related problems. It makes sure that its employees are highly motivated and are able to work to their full potential. At the same time, the main task of the HRM department is to ensure that the business model at Google is delivering the best services it can offer. The people operational team at Google is situated in their various headquarters. Their offices are built in wide spaces and the employees are given ample room for creativity and innovation. They use a system of custom built tools, to look for the necessary job data, on their employees or future employees.
Their job responsibilities are as follows: To provided operational HR support to various HR Business Partners in the region and to manage operational projects as well as to start new value added projects for Google. They also hold programs for their stakeholders, deal with various policy changes, train external groups on people operation processes and increase their knowledge base by sharing information.
The first and most important step in the Human resource process at Google is that of recruitment and selection. Google receives approximately 2500 resumes a day. The company hires employees showing maximum potential. Their main aim is to retain these employees, so that they will bring increased revenue to the company in future. Google also hosts many internal and external events that boost the skills of their employees. This gives new recruits a fair idea of what is expected of them in the future. These events also show new recruits the corporate culture of Google.
The next big step in Google is that of Training and Development, which is done on a continual basis, so that Google stays on top. In this fast moving industry, Google has to keep ahead of other search engines like Yahoo and Msn. For this reason, it is essential that all of Google’s employees undergo at least 120 hours of training and development per year, as compared to other organizations, which demand about approximately 43 hours of training and development. The employees at Google are also made to attend classes on content writing, executive speaking, delivering feedback, and are made to attend different Language classes. At Google they really do invest in their employees (Anurag, 2009 ).
The HRM system at Google is very well integrated into the business plan. HR director Liane Hornsey says that Google follows a 70/20/10 model. In this model the employees spends 70% of his time on Business, 20% in whatever the employees wish to do, as long it is inline with the mission and vision of Google and 10% of their time in building their personal skills which will benefit the company in a few years.
This shows that Google’s approach to creativity is highly innovational. Any person in the company is capable of making new products, because this strategy forces creative thinking in an employee. Another example of HRM systems at Google is in “crowd sourcing” it’s product strategy. Here, they let the market decide which product offerings are the best. Google’s policies create a feeling of appreciation in its employees (John, 2007).
Google’s Human resource policies might change in the coming years, as the world comes out of Global recession (Anurag, 2009). The Number of employees may increase if the company continues to use the current system of increasing its business base. Google should make sure that it does not change its 70/20/10 model, as it is this model that is enhancing creativity, which in turn is leading to faster growth. The fact that there are no Unions in Google is also a good sign. Google could also collect ideas from its customers (John, 2007).
For that, they would need to make their management techniques and innovations, easier to understand, by the external observers. Another point Google should keep in mind is that, since it’s expanding, its investment base is increasing. Therefore it should keep market dynamics in mind and make sure that there is transparency in its policies always (Anurag, 2009).
References
Anurag, G. (2009). Strategic Hr planning at Google Inc: Scribd. Web.
Jean-Pierre, K. (2007). Google Employees Go on Strike: WordPress. Web.
John, I. (2008). HR for Innovation/Google: STRATEGIC-HCM.BLOGSPOT.COM. Web.
Organizational Chart Google: The Official Board. (2010). Web.