ADVANCED DIPLOMA

A244HRM

HRM in a Business Context

Term 2, 2012
Individual Assignment

Lecture: Jenny Yeung Total words: 2,986 words Submitted date: 29th August, 2012 Submitted by: Kim Jee-Mo (G0992368W)

CONTENTS
Introduction about Google Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Point of Google recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Other points of Google recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Procedure of the Google recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Nine steps of selecting new Google people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

List of references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Introduction about Google Inc. In the competitive environment companies are highly interested in hiring the best employees. The reason is pretty evident: new-comers help to raise the companys value, profitability and add to the total quality of the final products. Therefore, it is not surprising that all the companies pay the particular attention to the recruitment process itself. In this paper this process will be discussed on the example of Google Inc. Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation which provides Internetrelated products and services, including Internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies (Annual Report 2011). Among others, its core businesses are primarily online services and computer software, and the products and services which Google offers are very diverse: web-based products (search engines, advertising, communication and publishing tools, development resources, map-related products, statistical tools etc), operating systems, desktop applications, mobile applications (mobile web application, mobile standalone applications), and hardware. Google Inc. is run by a team rather than a charismatic individual (as it was actual for Microsoft and Apple for decades), and the bi-generational leadership mix is applied through the expertise of young (Larry Page, Sergey Brin) and old (Eric Schmidt) top managers.

Figure 1. Google Ready for Compromise (Jimmy 2010)

Today Google Inc. is one of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Founded by two former Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google Inc. had 9.737 billion USD in profit and 72.574 billion USD in market capitalization in the year 2011 (Second Quarter Results 2012). Currently it employs as many as 54,602 employees worldwide (Second Quarter Results 2012), and it was estimated that Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world (Pandia Search Engine News 2007), processes over one billion search requests (Eric 2009) and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day (Czajkowski 2008).
Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Points of Google recruitment Speaking about the hiring selection methods, Google Inc. has been renowned for its selection and recruitment of talented gifted individuals still in their early career stages. These are people who basically managed to move the company to where it is now. As a student, you can be hired by Google Inc. while you are just in college, and the company aspires to encourage its recruited employees to obtain graduate and postgraduate degrees. Unsurprisingly, it was called a recruiting machine. It detects the people it needs in their infancy at colleges or universities while doing your undergraduate degrees. Thanks to how the company values its new and old employees, it is the company which receives over the million of applications for the advertised vacancies each year. The interesting fact is that instead of processing such a huge number of applications each year manually, Google Inc. applied a highly scientific methodology to search for people it needs. In an effort to catch candidates who might otherwise slip through the cracks Google has adopted some non-traditional criteria for assessing potential employees. Instead of focusing heavily on academic achievements and previous job titles and experience, Google is seeking out employees who contain certain personality or behavioral characteristics that are favorable to success in an open job position (Young 2012). The particular features they look in their employees are leadership, creativity and innovation. They build up questionnaires specifically to search for those traits. Later on, the applicants answers receive scores depending on the level of suitability and the candidates are ranked. This intense search for the appropriate candidates is enforced with different kinds of contents and mathematical problems which it places in specialized magazines or university dorms. Google Inc. encourages smart innovative people to solve them and submit their resumes with the solutions. As usually those magazines and problems are sought by people interested in engineering, math, physics and other highly intellectual activities, Google Inc. gets the opportunity to seek people who may add value to their company. Plus, it promotes its own corporate culture among the intellectuals such engineers or mathematicians. Google Inc. has designed a system which is known as 20% time. What does it mean? It means that the corporation is eager to fund the 20% of the employees time on their own research and projects. This became one of the very attractive reasons why the potential employees choose Google Inc. It is very innovative approach, and makes the company clearly stand out. From the perspective of HR management, this particular feature of employee financing not only attracts the new employees but also keeps the retention rate pretty low, very close to zero.

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Other points of Google recruitment Another point why Google Inc. is so immensely attractive on the labor market is the fact that it has created approximately one thousand of employees when it went public and started selling its stock. Those who are not interested in working for the innovative fast growing company (but rather for money) would find this phenomenon pretty motivating. Also, one of the biggest budgets spent on the selection and recruiting processes worth mentioning. Google recruitment has a ratio of 1 recruiter for every 14 employees (14:1). That ratio surpasses the previous record of 65:1, held by Cisco during the first war for talent in the late 90s (Sullivan 2005). If we compared this figure to other companies, we would notice that the latters ratio is typically much larger and constitutes about 100:1. Sullivan (2005) also writes about the whole bunch of benefits which Google Inc. offers to its employees and draw attention practically of every applicant possible. Among them: flexible work hours for nearly every professional employee; casual dress everyday; employees can bring their dogs to work, everyday; on-site physician; on-site dental care; health benefits that begin as soon as an employee reports for work; free massage and yoga; shoreline running trails; free drinks and snacks everywhere (espresso, smoothies, red bull, health drinks, kombucha tea, etc); free meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner; three weeks vacation during the first year; free recreation everywhere, including video games, foosball, volleyball and pool tables and many more. This list is truly long and goes far beyond the office worker expectations.

Figure 2. Google Dublin recruitment at the VU (Antonio 2011)

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Procedure of the Google recruitment Overall the Google recruiting procedure takes four steps: 1) online application; 2) language test; 3) first interview; 4) later interview. At the first step you are just asked to fill the online form and attach your CV. Based on whether your qualifications meet the minimum requirements, Google Inc. will contact you to inform how to proceed further. Within a week or so, if recruiters see that your application is OK, they contact you with the guidance how to sit the language test. Despite the fact that this test is called a linguistic test, it is not actually so. Apart from testing the ability to communicate fluently in English, it tests the quantitative ability of your mind since it offers the numeric problems to solve. It might also have something to do with job specific tasks, such as research or navigation. If the applicant gets the score set as a minimum requirement, she or he moves on to the second stage. Officially, the first interview takes a half an hour. Unofficially, it takes considerably less. This interview is conducted just to get acquainted with the applicants personality. The questions are asked concerning the candidates background and the interest and the depth of acknowledgement with the Googles products. At this stage, if the candidate is a foreigner the interview can be conducted by phone. The second interview is conducted in person. Nevertheless, at exceptional cases the candidates can be interviewed by phone (say, if again the candidate is a foreigner or physically is unable to be present). At this stage your personality is tested whether it complies with the image of an ideal candidate which Google Inc. seeks. The questions asked are very diverse, and many who describe this interview as intense finding it to be the most suitable word. The psychological tests can be also applied, and then the interviewers objective is not to estimate the candidates knowledge but to scrutinize the behavior.

Figure 3. 15 top MBA employers (Grace 2012)

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Nine Steps of selecting new Google people R.D. Gatewood and H.S. Field (2011) give the definition of an employee selection process. According to them, selection process is the "process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment. Official web-site for North Dakota State Government identifies nine steps in the effective selection process at the organization of any type and level. According to it, all these nine steps should be paid attention to properly in order to make the process efficient:

Step 1.
Learn as much as possible about the laws which can potentially have impact on the selection process (scrutinize such documents as human rights acts, equal pay acts, employee right acts, etc. in order to prevent abuses and prohibit any further kinds of

Step 2.

discriminations);

Analyze the position which needs to be filled and determine which skills (performance factors, indicators, working conditions, etc) are required for the applicants to perform well in case they do get the job (this step is the most important since it lays the foundation to the following steps);

Step 3.
Create and place the advertisement (announcement) of a chosen type (choose the right medium, channel, etc.);

Step 4.
Consisting of two sub-steps: create application screening criteria (firstly, for CV or document competition) and interview screening criteria;

Step 5.
Rank the applications received and screen them, offer an interview to the top-ranked;

Step 6.
Conduct the designed interviews;

Step 7.
Select the candidates you find the most appropriate for the job;

Step 8.
Arrange orientation date on which the workers could gather and be informed on gen eral issues concerning the work;

Step 9.
Arrange the probationary period for the new employees.

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Now let us turn to the detailed discussion of all these steps. Step 1 instructs to learn as much as possible about the legislation which may be both favourable and unfavourable in the relation to the recruitment process. It is important to note that in the USA, for example, the laws are governmental and state. For example, such law as the Equity Pay Act of 1963 is the governmental law while Nepotism and Veterans Preferences are clearly the initiatives of the state. In general, step 1 implies searching for all the factors which may lay restrictions on the selection process. This step is a required prerequisite because afterwards you may not wish to get involved in mistakes corrections which were not previously counted for. Step 2 instructs to get a wide description of the job positions and create the specific list for every job position. This list should include: a job title, whether this is a full-time or a part-time job, geographic location, agency and division, possible salary and the bonuses, incumbent duties and responsibilities, add secondary duties and responsibilities which may be levied, preferred background and qualifications to hold the position, etc. This step will allow seeing more brightly what kind of person the company is seeking and who is actually needed. Also, it will reveal at early stage whether the job requirements give grounds for discriminative attitudes, and if yes, get rid of them before entering the next stage. Step 3 embodies the movement to the practical matters. What a recruiter needs to do next is to decide how and where to allocate the announcements to inform the job-seekers. These may be specialized magazines, gazettes and newspapers, TV-advertisement. Depending on whom you are going to attract domestic or perhaps international workers, the decision to allocate the advertisement will be highly relevant. The very effective source of attracting attention of potential workers is, of course, the Internet. The specialized webpages with high number of visitors per day would be an excellent opportunity for this purpose. However, the question arises what to include in the vacancy description in order not to lie about it but make it sound in a way so that everyone would like to contact the recruiter. In addition, it should be pretty informative so that the employees were not forced to call and ask the details. Any vacancy description should include: the job title and the status of the job (full-time, part-time, temporary, freelance, etc); salary range (since it is not always necessary, it may be better to write upon the results of interview); minimum work experience and any other relevant qualifications required; summary of the job position (duties, responsibilities, etc); statement why working for the company will be beneficial for the employee and why this experience is different to holding similar positions at other companies; finally, contact information such as phone number or electronic mail to send resume.

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

Step 4 and 5 say that the recruiter should clearly identify on which criteria to reject job-seekers CVs or to offer an interview. In general, the resume screening should be done by people independent from the interview process but highly acknowledgeable about the position itself. To accomplish this, all the candidates need to be ranked based on job-specific criteria (years of work experience, level and relevancy of education, extracurricular activities, certification, etc), and the best in the rank should be given the chance for an interview. CVs should be analyzed in detail. The hiring personnel should note the following details: the overlapping dates (when employee, for example, works at two jobs or study at two universities); the missing dates (gaps in dates) during which the applicant maybe was not employed; the frequency with which the applicant changes her jobs; the salary the applicant wants to receive (if it is too high it just may mean that she does not possess the industry information concerning compensation standards); the longevity of education (how long it took to graduate: was it higher or lower than average?); the overall feeling (is CV difficult to read? Is it overburdened with the information? Does it include irrelevant information? Or maybe it is too short and the applicant is not willing to disclose some topics in full?). Step 6 is an interview itself. Here, asking the questions, the recruiter has an opportunity to see what type of person is the one applying. Indeed, interview is vital in a selection process. It allows evaluating the applicants knowledge capacity, skills and personal traits necessary for the job. In order to set up an interview several arrangements should be made in advance. First of all, the environment or, in other words, a place where to conduct it should be chosen right. It can be official or unofficial; it can be a conference room in the office or a street restaurant. Such things as distractions (reduce external noises by closing the door) or seating arrangement (should the table separate the interviewee and the interviewer?) must be planned in advance. Secondly, the interviews are divided into structured, semi-structured and unstructured depending on how the interviewer is going to arrange the meeting with prepared already questions or asking questions impromptu. Finally, the interviewer should not forget about the time. Since there is no the universally unambiguous time horizon for conducting interviews, the only determinant should be the answer to question whether the time is enough to collect all necessary information. While some interviews may take as little as 30 minutes, on others the interviewer might spend as much as one hour.

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

The step 7 is choosing right people based on scoring you should have assigned the interview participants. Before offering a place, the pluses and minuses of such a decision are to be weighed. After the decision is made, the applicants should be notified via the contact information provided. If the pool of applicants is not too large, the unsuccessful applicants should be also notified. Then it would be wise to conduct the orientation day in order to prevent any misconducts or lack of efficiency due to mere routine. Finally, to check whether the candidates indeed correspond to all the requirements for the job, the managers should allow for at least one month of probationary period. During this time, the employer may not enjoy all the benefits being the full-time member of the companys team, but if she proves herself worthy, she will obtain this status upon a successful completion. The most important aspect of any business is recruiting, selecting, and retaining top people (Smith 2010). This is indeed so since companies human resources are vital for its growth and development. In the end, who drives the company if not its people?

Figure 4. Google receives 75k job applications (FnF Desk 2011)

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

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The Googles selection methods are the following (Vine 2011): - the competition of resumes (CVs) (this is the most basic recruitment method during which the resumes are looked through and the candidates with the potential fit in education and experience are chosen); - the phone screening (during the phone screening the recruiter contacts those people who he believes are potentially able to hold the position of an interest); - the on-site interview (which is conducted for 4-5 people and lasts about 45 minutes per each candidate); - the hiring committee review (the committee which consists of senior executives and managers reviews the applicants background and makes a decision concerning whether he is eligible or not). Of course, none of those selection methods dominates the others just when it is used separately. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. To start with, making a choice based on the resumes might be a good starting point for any recruitment campaign because it allows to understand in general who is the applicant and whether he possesses the minimum required skills. Nevertheless, it cant be the only one selection method because it misses a lot of the applicants characteristics. Thus, it often does not include the personal traits and features of the applicant, or if includes, they are too subjective because the applicant himself is the person who has indicated them in the document. The phone screening is the convenient way to ask the applicant about some points which raise questions. If there is a need to align or elaborate something without the physical presence of the applicant, the phone call might be the best opportunity to do this for a minimal cost. In addition, the phone call might be used for those applicants who are just on the borderline between being accepted or rejected. Nevertheless, the considerable problem is that the only voice of the applicant is heard, and his appearance, ability to communicate in person, postures and gestures, psychological strength none of these can be directly assessed. Some professions may require those vital characteristics of the applicant, without which being effective is merely impossible, and for this reason the other method of assessment is mandatory the on-site interview. The on-site interview is arranged, as written, for the period of 45 minutes. During this time the range of questions varies from the technical (as simple as where did you study?) to more artistic and unexpected (How many golf balls can fit into the school bus? or How many piano tuners are there around the world?). The advantages of seeing the one you communicate are abnormal. The recruiter can draw some conclusions about the person he speaks to. How he looks and how he behaves may mean a lot but at the same time they mean nothing at all (say, the recruiter may discriminate based on personal dislike of specific
Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

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appearances). Furthermore, asking the unusual odd questions is the other important element of the Googles interviews. They allow evaluating the level of non-standard thinking of the applicant which is extremely important for those positions which require a lot of decision making. Peoples intelligence is better measured with their ability to think and produce rather than to remember and process. Finally, the one more selection method is the review of candidates by the executive committee. It is important in the sense that while recruiters are good at finding people, executives are good at choosing among available. Senior managers are frequently people with many years of experience and rich background, and those factors play a defining roles in making a right choice. Source: Infographic: Job Vine (2011). Details on Googles Hiring Process. Retrieved from http://designtaxi.com/news/350816/Infographic-Details-on-Google-s-Hiring-Process/

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

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List of references Antonio, T (2011) Google Dublin recruitment at the VU [Online] Available from < http://www.mobypicture.com/user/thonis/view/9159887 > [22 Aug 2012] Chris, Y (2012) Google's Approach to Employee Selection [Online] Available from < http://www.therainmakergroupinc.com/employee-selection-articles/bid/80333/Google-sApproach-to-Employee-Selection > [22 Aug 2012] Czajkowski, G (2008) Sorting 1PB with MapReduce. Official Google Blog. Google, Inc. [Online] Available from < http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/sorting-1pb-with-mapreduce.html > [22 Aug 2012] FnF Desk (2011) Google receives 75k job applications [Online] Available from < http://www.facenfacts.com/NewsDetails/4538/google-receives-75k-job-applications.htm > [22 Aug 2012] Gatewood, R.D., and H.S. Field. (2011) Human Resource Selection. 5th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press. Google Inc. (2011) Annual Report 2011 [Online] Available from < http://investor.google.com/pdf/2011_google_annual_report.pdf > [22 Aug 2012] Google Inc. (2012) Announces Second Quarter 2012 Results. [Online] Available from < http://investor.google.com/earnings/2012/Q2_google_earnings.html > [22 Aug 2012] Grace, W (2012) 15 top MBA employers [Online] Available from < http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/pf/jobs/1205/gallery.top-MBA-employers/index.html > [22 Aug 2012] Jimmy, P (2010) Google Ready for Compromise [Online] Available from < http://www.topnews.com.sg/content/21937-google-ready-compromise > [22 Aug 2012] John, S (2005) A Case Study of Google Recruiting. [Online] Available from < http://www.ere.net/2005/12/05/a-case-study-of-google-recruiting/ > [22 Aug 2012]

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

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Kuhn, E (2009) CNN Politics Political Ticker... Google unveils top political searches of 2009. [Online] Available from < http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/18/google-unveils-top-political-searches-of2009/ > [22 Aug 2012] North Dakota State Government (2010) Management: Recruitment and Selection. [Online] Available from < http://www.nd.gov/hrms/managers/guide/selproc.html > [22 Aug 2012] Pandia Search Engine News (2007) Pandia Search Engine News Google: one million servers and counting [Online] Available from < http://www.pandia.com/sew/481-gartner.html > [22 Aug 2012] Smith, G (2011) How to Interview and Hire Top People Each and Every Time. [Online] Available from < http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/hiretop.htm > [22 Aug 2012]

Individual assignment | A244HRM Human Resource Management in a Business Context

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