Google is a world leader in cloud computing offering the most popular search engine across the globe. The company has managed to constantly engage the best employees due to its rigorous selection process and has also managed to constantly train these employees to improve on their capabilities. The corporate culture prevalent at the company is highly conducive for innovation and is unique in that it goes against what is considered the norm in many other organizations.
The company employs a performance appraisal strategy geared towards motivating employees rather than punishing them. Performance appraisal refers to job performance measures aimed at assessing the performance of employees by their seniors according to the quantities quality as well as the time taken and costs incurred in handling the task. The report developed after the appraisal enables the employee to access proper guidance to ensure sustainable career development. It also takes into consideration any other factors. Appraisals avail information on training requirements, the basis for promotions, bonuses, or salary increments, improves communication between the employee and the employer, gives a basis for actions such as counseling and coaching, and also validates techniques used in selection developed to meet fairness (Example of a Performance Appraisal, 2010, par4).
In Google Company, there is an elaborate compensation package well developed in line with the performance appraisal. In Google, the appraisals are conducted on a periodical basis. They are conducted in two main ways. First, the employees are expected to fill out forms availed online. These forms are intended to gauge the employee’s own evaluation and opinion towards themselves even before anyone else steps in. This is critical in ensuring that the employee’s measurement for performance is in line with the organization’s measurement. The second step now involves a supervisor or manager stepping in to check on what the employee has been doing for the stipulated period.
Under this category, the employee is evaluated against an already established yardstick in order to bring out a clearer picture of the employee’s performance. It is true that the most important aspect of the performance appraisal is the contribution of the employee to the company’s business. This is in respect of the reason as to why the employee was hired by the company. Periodical analysis of the employees’ engagement in business is conducted and the level of contribution noted.
At Google, the performance appraisal is categorized into several different elements with the aim of making it as structured as possible. This is informed by the need to ensure that the growth of employees encompasses all aspects of their life and work. The first segment of performance appraisal is related to job knowledge. This is aimed at establishing the ability of each employee to apply the techniques, standards, as well as generally accepted rules and regulations. True the corporate culture at Google is considered unique especially due to the hands off approach to human resource management and the more liberalized working environment. However, there still are periodical assessments of the employees’ contribution towards the company’s goals. This assessment is aimed at identifying work related weaknesses among the employees with the aim of developing tailor made training programs which help the employees in strengthening the workforce (Golec, 2010, par4).
The second aspect of performance appraisal regards professional competence. This is aimed at establishing other soft skills availed by the workforce. This is in terms of the frequency with which the employees are able to meet set deadlines, handle large amounts of work with minimum supervision and also remain composed even when under extreme pressure. Issues of integrity also fall under this segment. However, the level of emphasis on this aspect at Google has remained low and recent revelations to employees that the company was spying on them led to a strike among the workers. This gave a big blow to the ability of the company to successfully entrench this aspect.
The most important performance appraisal aspect not implemented at Google on a continued basis is related to work product. This is related to being precise, accurate and without error. However it is clear that the recruitment process takes care of this aspect but it is clear that continued evaluation of this aspect is an important contributor to better development of the workforce. This aspect has been considered by many blue chip companies and substantial amounts of resources invested. The results are clearly supportive of the effectiveness in building a more efficient employee base (Schneider, 2010, par6).
It is clear that the performance appraisal at Google has had enormous effect on the performance of the Company. The most important factor is that the performance appraisal at Google is developed with the aim of supporting the employees as much as possible and not putting them down. This has been the most unique aspect of the appraisal system.
References
Example of a Performance Appraisal. 2010. Performance appraisal examples. Web.
Golec, A. 2010. Computers and Industrial Engineering. Web.
Schneider, L. 2010. Google – Overview, Company Culture and History. Web.