Google World

Aaron Bennett
Google has a unique approach to everything that it does and its approach to Human Resources

Management is no exception. “Ranked by Fortune Magazine as the best of the 100 best companies to

work for,” (Book 712) Google seems to be excelling at Human Resources by taking an unconventional

route to getting the job done just like their business decisions. One of Google’s methods is to correlate

personal traits from employees’ survey answers to actual performance and then using the collected data

to screen job candidates.

Recently, Fortune Magazine released it’s “100 Best Companies to Work For 2007″ and Google’s

Mountain View, California campus was number one. Their employees are exceedingly loyal. “A

team of wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” says one employee. They’re even more than willing

to work all nighters without question.

Google emploeyees work very hard but their work environment is catered to keep them happy

and also have the kind of environment where people can think of new ideas. Free meals from 11

on-site gourmet restaurants and snack rooms all over, complete with cereal, candy, fresh fruit,

cappucino makers, the works, An on-site fitness center, complete with weigh room, lap pool,

personal trainers and massages. Five on-site doctors and, you guessed it, all free, Game rooms

that include pool tables, foosball, ping-pong, and arcade games. Rock-climbing walls, beach

volleyball and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. Engineers can spend 20% of their

time at work on independent projects. Employees can bring their dogs to work, so long as their

co-workers don’t mind, the dogs are not aggressive, are free of fleas and the owners clean up

after them. Pajama day, TGIF parties every week and charity events on-site, Six weeks paid

sabbatical available for every 6 years an employee works there (537 employees took sabbaticals
last year). Free car washes and oil changes on-site. If an employee wants to buy a hybrid

vehicle, Google will give her $5,000 toward it. They also provide free Wi-Fi enabled coach

buses from five Bay area locations. Free on-site salons and barber shops. A $2,000 reward for

referring new employees. Google will reimburse up to $500 in takeout for the first 4 weeks of an

employee’s maternity leave. Available resources to study 4 foreign languages: Madarin,

Japanese, Spanish and French. Free on-site laundromat and dry cleaning. On-site childcare.

Motorized scooters for on campus travel in style (and speed). A founders award, up to millions

of dollars (literally), for new program ideas and designs.

Google receives an average of 1,300 resumes a day (up to 1.1 million a year) for an average of

only 2,229 available jobs a year. And Google doesn’t pay for all of these incentives out of their

allotted administrative expenses. It all comes out of the company’s profits, which were over $6.1

billion in 2005.

Mamy businesses can learn from google’s practices, and I believe the most important one is to

make the work environment somewhere people atleast are comfortable and feel positive about

their job as well as the company. In the end,even after spending much more money Google has

made it worth it by producing record profits. The employee loyalty and productivity which

Google gains from the HR policies they follow are truly making a difference.