Googles mission statement is To organize the world information and make it universally accessible and useful (Google.com).

Google has the only HR function on the planet that is managed based on people analytics

2.16. Challenge of growth (very important to put in the first question) As Google continues to grow bigger, it faces the continual challenge of being able to handle successfully its open and fun-filled work culture. Kevin Werbach, assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at Wharton University said, Google has done a remarkable job in growing from a small, private company to a 28,000-person organization in just a few years, without killing its startup-like innovation culture. But, analysts are concerned that as the company grows, it is difficult for it to provide the same financial and other incentives for its employees. Googles meteoric growth also poses a threat to its intimate team culture and its ability to handle creative conflicts among Googlers. Further, Google struggles to keep its culture away from the shackles of bureaucracy while being able to stimulate its employees. Avoiding organizational lethargy from creeping in while constantly launching new products is also not an easy feat to accomplish. Hornsey believes that overcoming its growing pains is the biggest challenge faced by HR at Google ( Business Week, 2005). She added, So many companies have started off very innovative, creat ive and vibrant, but have then failed and become bureaucratic. Its always a danger when you grow. Highlighting the same, Google's human resources chief has said the runaway success of the fast-growing internet company is generating its own set of people management problems. 3. Recommendations and conclusion

Much of the company's success has been based on the fact that they have been more flexible and forward-thinking than its competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo (Ben Elgin, 2005). Managing growth with the collegiate atmosphere of the company is essential to sustain its success in the future. Google has built a culture where a well-chosen elite accommodates flexibility, shifting roles and, above all else, urgency. As Google grows in size and strength, it is a challenge to maintain the pace of innovation and convey a sense of empowerment to

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Googles engineers and product managers. There is a risk of the organization losing its dynamism and becoming more bureaucratic. Michael Ritchie (2008) advised, Google should ensure that teams remain relatively small so that bureaucratic decision-making does not slow down entrepreneurial minds. Employees should be encouraged to start independent initiatives and they should have the time and resources to pursue new ideas. Google should be careful in balancing business and pleasure activities. Although providing

freedom to engineers might attract talent and encourage innovation, but the company should not deviate from its core business strategy which directly affects the revenue (Mullaney, 2004). Additionally, while Googles willingness to launch beta versions of new products at an alarming pace excites engineers, they need to focus on seeing the larger business implications and the risk to the brand.

Continuous Innovation Requires a New Kind of People Management

The extraordinary marketplace success of Google by producing continuous innovation. And executives are beginning to learn that continuous innovation cannot occur until a firm makes a strategic shift toward a focus on great people management. A strategic focus on people management is necessary because innovations come from people, and innovations cant be maximized unless companies are capable of recruiting and retaining innovators. And even then, you must provide them with great managers and an environment that supports innovation. Google has been able to reinvent traditional HR and the processes that drive innovation.

Google has shifted to Data-based People Management Decisions

The basic premise of the people analytics approach is that accurate people management decisions are the most important and impactful decisions that a firm can make. Superior business results cannot be there unless your managers are making accurate people management decisions.

Relying on Relationships in HR Must Give Way to Data-based Decision-making

Googles success has to be attributed in large part to the fact that it is the worlds only datadriven HR function. Googles business success should convince executives at any firm that wants to grow dramatically that they must at least consider adopting the data and analytically based model used by Google. Its approach has resulted in Google producing amazing workforce productivity results that few can match (on average, each employee generates nearly $1 million in revenue and $200,000 in profit each year).

How Does the Google People Analytics Approach Reinvent HR?

HR at Google is dramatically different from the hundreds of other HR functions that I have researched and worked with. To start with, at Google its not called human resources; instead, the function is called people operations. The VP and leader Laszlo Bock has justifiably learned to demand data-based decisions everywhere. People management decisions at Google are guided by the powerful people analytics team. Two key quotes from the team highlight their goals: All people decisions at Google are based on data and analytics The goal is to bring the same level of rigor to people-decisions that we do to engineering decisions Google is replacing the 20th century subjective decision-making approach in HR. Although it calls its approach people analytics, it can alternatively be called data-based decisionmaking, algorithm based decision-making, or fact or evidence-based decision-making.

No corporation has transformed the practice of HR more dramatically and successfully in the last decade than Google. Google has changed the DNA of the HR function by not accepting that the old way is the right way. Many people are already aware of the companys radical approach to recruiting, but other aspects of HR at Google are just as dramatic and exciting. If you expect your HR function to make a major contribution to your firms bottom-line results, comparing yourself to the worlds first true "talent machine" is essential.

No foray into Google HR practices would make sense without some understanding of the impressive results the companys approach has helped produce, the most dramatic of which is employee productivity. The average Google employee generates more than $1 million in revenue each year.

Google acknowledges the huge role talent management plays in its success, the continued attraction, retention and motivation of its employees are key factors behind its success. By focusing on developing effective management practices and letting others tell its story, Google has established an employment brand that is arguably the strongest in the world. On its first try, it was ranked No. 1 on Fortunes "100 Best Companies to Work For" annual ranking. And Google recently was identified as the No. 1 choice of undergraduates and MBAs by BusinessWeek. These factors keep employee turnover below 5 percent, as thousands of job seekers apply daily. Google expects to receive more than 2 million rsums this yearnearly 6,000 a day! Google is achieving these results by using innovative HR approaches.

My Top 10 Most Powerful Illustrations of the People Analytics Approach

The people analytics team reports directly to the VP and it has a representative in each major HR function. It produces many products, including employee surveys that are not anonymous, and dashboards. It also attempts to identify insightful correlations and to provide recommended actions. The goal is to substitute data and metrics for the use of opinions. Almost everyone has by now heard about Googles free food, 20% time, and wide range of fun activities but realize that each of these was implemented and are maintained based on data. Many of Googles people analytics approaches are so unusual and powerful, I can only describe them as breathtaking. Below I have listed my top 10 of Googles past and current people management practices to highlight its data-driven approach:

Leadership characteristics and the role of managers its project oxygen research analyzed reams of internal data and determined that great managers are essential for top performance and retention. It further identified the eight characteristics of great leaders. The data proved that rather than superior technical knowledge, periodic one-on-one coaching which included expressing interest in the employee and frequent personalized feedback ranked as the No. 1 key to being a successful leader. Managers are rated twice a year by their employees on their performance on the eight factors. The PiLab the PiLab is a unique subgroup that no other firm has. It conducts applied experiments within Google to determine the most effective approaches for managing people and maintaining a productive environment (including the type of reward that makes employees the happiest). The lab even improved employee health by reducing the calorie intake of its employees at their eating facilities by relying on scientific data and experiments (by simply reducing the size of the plates). A retention algorithm it developed a mathematical algorithm to proactively and successfully predict which employees are most likely to become a retention problem. This approach allows management to act before its too late and it further allows retention solutions to be personalized. Predictive modeling people management is forward looking at Google. As a result, it develops predictive models and use what if analysis to continually improve their forecasts of upcoming people management problems and opportunities. It also uses

analytics to produce more effective workforce planning, which is essential in a rapidly growing and changing firm.

Improving diversity unlike most firms, analytics are used to solve diversity problems. As a result, the people analytics team conducted analysis to identify the root causes of weak diversity recruiting, retention, and promotions (especially among women engineers). The results that it produced in hiring, retention, and promotion were dramatic and measurable. An effective hiring algorithm one of the few firms to approach recruiting scientifically, it developed an algorithm for predicting which candidates had the highest probability of succeeding after they are hired. Its research also determined that little value was added beyond four interviews, dramatically shortening time to hire. Google is also unique in its strategic approach to hiring because its hiring decisions are made by a group in order to prevent individual hiring managers from hiring people for their own short-term needs. Under project Janus, it developed an algorithm for each large job family that analyzed rejected resumes to identify any top candidates who they might have missed. They found that they had only a 1.5% miss rate, and as a result they hired some of the revisited candidates. Calculating the value of top performers Google executives have calculated the performance differential between an exceptional technologist and an average one (as much as 300 times higher). Proving the value of top performers convinces executives to provide the resources necessary to hire, retain, and develop extraordinary talent. Googles best-kept secret is that people operations professionals make the best business case of any firm in any industry, which is the primary reason why they receive such extraordinary executive support. Workplace design drives collaboration Google has an extraordinary focus on increasing collaboration between employees from different functions. It has found that increased innovation comes from a combination of three factors: discovery (i.e. learning), collaboration, and fun. It consciously designs its workplaces to maximize learning, fun, and collaboration (it even tracks the time spent by employees in the caf lines to maximize collaboration). Managing fun may seem superfluous to some, but the data indicates that it is a major factor in attraction, retention, and collaboration. Increasing discovery and learning rather than focusing on traditional classroom learning, the emphasis is on hands-on learning (the vast majority of people learn through on the job learning). Google has increased discovery and learning through project rotations, learning from failures, and even through inviting external speakers like Al Gore and Lady Gaga to speak to their employees. Clearly self-directed continuous learning and the ability to adapt are key employee competencies at Google. It doesnt dictate; it convinces with data the final key to Googles people analytics teams success occurs not during the analysis phase, but instead when it present its final proposals to executives and managers. Rather than demanding or forcing managers to accept its approach, it instead acts as internal consultants and influences people to change based on the powerful data and the action recommendations that they present. Because its audiences are highly analytical (as most executives are), it uses data to change preset opinions and to influence.

Staff motivation (need to be included in first par of assignment to show employee engagement and commitment) Googles approach to motivation and performance management also is unique. Googles primary motivation mechanisms are constant change, rapid decision-making and an atmosphere that not only encourages ambitious ideas but expects them. By limiting bureaucracy and providing approvals for employee ideas in days rather than months, Google maintains employee passion and energy. The company also supports this culture with an array of whats been called "outrageous benefits," including free gourmet meals, company movie day, purchase grants for hybrid cars and free Wi-Fi-enabled shuttles that carry employees to work. Rounding out this unique performance environment is an unusual attitude about performance management. Because every hire has been extensively screened, Google believes that all employees have high potential. So if someone does fail, Google managers take the attitude that theyre to blame, not the employee.
One of the main reasons behind the stellar success of Google is its highly motivated employees. Financial and operational performance of a company is directly linked to its effectiveness in motivating employees. Employees are the most important of all the stakeholders because they implement the strategies of the organization; the employees manage the operations of the company; they act as the interface of the company with the customers and last but not the least, employees innovate and create new products and services for a company like Google.. Highly motivated employees are not only more content but are also more productive. They create more value for the company. Google has effectively applied theories of motivation for enhancing the morale of its employees. Other company can take a lesson from it.

Recruitment and Selection Google is one of the most diverse places to work at as it has people of different backgrounds working there. Google is one of the biggest recruiters in the market because it is always in the need for new employees. It has the lowest turnover rate for an organization and is able to retain its employees for a longer period of time. It is estimated that Google receives more than 1500 cvs a day as it is one of the hottest places to work for. Googles main goal is to get employees who can adjust in a culture which is full of collaboration, innovation and openness.

External Recruitment The main bulk of the employees come to Google via External recruitment. Google advertises for most of its jobs through the internet or on other job websites. Google uses the traditional methods of using professional recruiters to hire new employees. They also have special links with universities to recruit the best of their talent through an internship program. They are able to get the best talent before other people spot them. Google also uses its own job site to recruit employees as well as going to Job fairs to recruit people. They have also used innovative ways such as linked in to find prospective candidates online.

Internal Recruitment There are a number of jobs at Google which cant be filled by external candidates. It is easier to choose a candidate from within the organization as the cost will be lower and it will take less time for the position to be filled. Employees can find out about job listings within the corporate intranet or through notice boards or through word of mouth publicity at work. They can also be nominated by their peers or managers for certain open posts.

Selection Methods: Phone Interview and On Site The selection process at Google is such that prospective candidates are short listed before they are to be interviewed. They are subjected to a phone interview to determine their technical skills and proficiency as well as to see if they should be brought in towards the next round of face to face interviews. If the candidate is successful he/she is evaluated on site to test the core skills and see if he/she is competent. This is also followed by another round of interviews. The prospective candidate is interviewed by both the management as well as potential co workers. Recruitment and Selection Recruitment at Google is the first and foremost step in the overall HR processes. With the reputation and promise that Google holds for thousands of technology professionals who want to make Google their second home, more than 1300Resumes are received each day by Google. Hiring the right people is a key HR philosophy at Google the median age of employees at Google is 27 years, making it the youngest workforce across the industry. However, the retention rate, and the turnover data at Google proves that the organization has been successfully16 able to attract, retain, and motivate the most difficult crop of employees the Y generation cybergeneration professionals who are prone to changing their affiliations quicker than they change their clothes. Google hosts many external events throughout the year which reflect a combination of their excellent recruiting practices and their awareness of the internal culture they want to maintain. They are explicitly seeking to attract the kinds of people to the company who will be successful in their open, collaborative culture. Training and Development Google employees are offered tremendous opportunities to learn and grow. Professional development opportunities offered to all employees include classes on individual and team presentation skills, content development, business writing, executive speaking, delivering feedback, and management/leadership. Free foreign language lessons, including French, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin are also sponsored by Google. Given the prominence of

engineers at Google, particular attention is paid to providing unique development opportunities for this group. An Engineering training group, engEDU, provides orientation and training classes, mentoring, career development, and tutorial services all programs built by and for engineers. Google has also expanded its global learning and development team during the last year and is creating new leadership development programs to help develop and support Googles future leaders. In a survey, 92% of employees indicated that they are provided T&D to further them professionally, and97%17 indicate that they are given the resources and equipment to do their job. It is mandatory for all employees to undergo T&D sessions for a minimum of 120 hours/year, which is about three times the industry average in North America of 43 hours/year. This shows the amount of effort, time and money that Google invests in its employees to keep them abreast of the professional and technological advancements.

Training and development Take its approach to development, unique by any standard. Rather than emphasizing traditional training, the development effort is decentralized. Development leaders at Google state that "training courses are a tiny piece of what we do." As an organization, Google can shift the burden of learning to employees because it focuses on hiring individuals who already demonstrate a love for self-directed learning. Its essential that Google hire people who learn rapidly and can innovate. The work at Google changes so quickly that few employees end up doing what they were initially hired to do. To provide time for learning, Google utilizes a 70/20/10 time allocation model that leaves as much as 30 percent of an engineers time to his or her own discretion. Ten percent of work time is allocated for "innovation, creativity and freedom to think," while 20 percent is for "personal development that will ultimately benefit the company." Google also emphasizes development through on-the-job learning by coordinating continuous movement across projects. Additional employee development occurs through new-hire mentors, frequent departmental "tech talks" and an amazing on-site speaker series that has featured former news anchor Tom Brokaw and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Innovation and Creativity There is a strong culture of innovation and experimentation at Google with engineers encouraged to take 20% of their time to develop new product or service offerings, or to provide enhancements to current offerings. Innovation from inside the firm is the norm for most engineering based software development companies. What is unique at Google is the support provided by the company, the collaboration among engineers working on each

others projects, and the final set of results that Google is able to achieve with the creativity and expertise of its engineers. Social Good Google has the informal corporate motto Dont be Evil, which reminds its employees that commitment to be ethical is part and parcel of being a leader at Google. 99% of the employees indicate18 that, Management is honest and ethical inits business practices. The standards of conduct that Google employees adhere to concern internal business practices(respecting each other, protecting confidentiality, protecting Googles assets, etc), external relations with customers and partners, and the impact on of Google's work on the larger society19. Compensation Structure Google stands out as being one of the most sought after and yet one of the most underpaying20 employers in the industry. However, the HR strategy fits perfectly with the business model and vision at Google wherein employees are attracted not to the short term monetary returns from work, but rather to the support system that could help them create anything. So the work hives at Google have day care and elder care centres, have spa and hair salons, car wash and oil check facilities, and virtually everything that a technologyobsessed geek would like to worry least about, in form of an all inclusive liberal benefits package, but the actual takeout cash component is negligible. The innovative Stock Option system at Google ensures that all employees get compensated21 competitively thanks to the remarkable equity growth of the company. So strong is the work culture and employee committed bent upon technology solutions rather than tangible compensation that Google became the first company where the Board of Directors requested for a reduction22 in their salaries and compensation because they felt they were getting paid more money than they needed. All the employee sagreed on the sentiment, and in 200506, the employees formally demanded a wage cut themselves. During the same period, the turnover23 was 1.43%. HR Strategy influencing Business Strategy: An alternate view The fact that Google provides a 20% off time to employees for their creative pursuits is an HR practice that has reaped them rich rewards. However, the business implications of such rewards are very limit edxiv as compared to their flagship search engine and online advertising services. Notwithstanding, the HR department and the executives still continue to encourage employees for investing effort and time into such projects the basic idea is that the employees remain motivated and committed to innovation and novelty. The employees get a day every week where they can work on their own, and on the rest of the work week, get back to their official job description of writing complex algorithm and semantic programs for their search engine and Adwords services. The recruitment, on its part, becomes much

more diverse with more and more talented minds looking to work for a company which would encourage and pay them for trying to build up a tool which may or may not come out right. This is a very peculiar case of a business strategy being an output of a deliberate28 HR strategy. The Challenge of Recession Recession poses the unique challenge to the HR department. Google as an organization is better equipped to handle the recession than most of its competitors simply because the employee satisfaction and commitment at Google is seen much beyond the compensation structure and promotion race voluntary turnover at Google is much less than the industry average, and layoffs that have occurred during the current and last quarter have only affected the contractual part time workers. Moreover, Google is expected to release a host of products over the next 2 quarters, and has already invested millions of dollars into acquiring the necessary hardware and satellite systems indicating the confidence Google has in the relative immunity of its business model to recession.

EMPLOYEE EVALUATION

An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons: On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role is usually that of:

Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and designing it for particular organizations and environments. Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and

staff representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be appraised. Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example: o Defining targets for achievement; o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives; o Introducing self-assessment; o Eliminating complexity and duplication. Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be used. Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will carry out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle situations of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.) Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on training/job exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.

Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else). Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal attempts to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation). Most managers approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form of motivation.

Overall results of its effective HR practices through people commitment

Google is a company that was conceptualized in a dorm room by two Stanford University college students, 24-year-old Larry Page (Larry) and 23 year old Sergey Brin (Brin), in 1996 (Iyer Davenport, 2008) and has morphed into one of the greatest technological powerhouses in operation today
Now, Google, based in Mountain View, California, is the world's most popular search engine. The company is not just known for its innovative breakthroughs in the technology front, but is also known for its unique culture and innovative human resources (HR) policies. Today, In a survey conducted by BusinessWeek magazine, Google was the most sought after company by college students, MBAs, women, engineers, and diverse individuals. Google ranked 1st on the 10th annual '100 Best Companies to Work For' list of Fortune, a wellknown international business magazine.

HR practices at Google is named 'People Operations', which is designed to underline the fact that it is not a mere administrative function, but ensures the building of a strong employee-employer relationship. Google's HR practices clearly reveal the impressive results of the company's approach, which help in increasing employee productivity growth and expansion.

Google moved into the No. 3 position among the most valuable firms in the world. Google is clearly the youngest firm among the leaders; it has surprisingly been less than a decade since Googles IPO. Most on the top 20 market cap list could be accurately described as old school, because most can attribute their success to being nearly half a century old, having a long established product brand, or through great acquisitions. Googles market success can instead be attributed to what can only be labeled as extraordinary people management practices that result from its use of people analytics.

The 'Best Place to Work For' culture at Google is to really attract and motivate the employees or if it is with a business motive. All these have enable Google (1) through its employees to differentiate itself from its competitors in knowledge-based industries; (2) to attract the best-knowledge workers and retain employees in a competitive environment; (3) through its innovative HR practices and the 'Best Place to Work For' culture at Google

Recruitment & Selection: Applicant Tracking System 4 rounds of interviews Evaluation on googlyness With a ratio of about 1 recruiter for every 14 employees (1:14), Googles HR has emerged as one of the best-funded recruiting functions among product-based organizations.

HR PRACTICES Training & Development: Mandatory for all employees to undergo T&D sessions for a minimum of 120 hours/year, which is about three times the industry average in North America of 43 hours/year.

Performance Management: Performance reviews Twice a year Consists of a self-assessment, a set of peer reviews, and if one is applying for a promotion, reasons for why should be promoted to the next level.