Google’s: Recruitment, Selection, Retention

Google’s success is based on its high quality human resources. The firm generally
emphasizes brilliance and excellence among its employees. Google’s human resource
management also includes carefully chosen strategies, methods, and techniques for
recruitment and selection, and for the retention of high quality workers. The firm’s
recruitment practices and selection process ensure an adequate workforce. The
retention programs at Google are designed to retain excellent employees. These
programs also attract employees to the firm. The company is now one of the best
places to work. This popularity and positive perception indicates the success of the
firm’s human resource management in recruitment, selection, and employee retention.

Google’s Recruitment Practices

Sources: Google’s human resource management uses a mixture of internal and
external recruitment sources to maintain the adequacy of its human resources. The firm
uses promotions, transfers, and trainees/interns as the main internal recruitment
sources for HR needs. On the other hand, the external recruitment sources at Google
include educational institutions and respondents to job advertisements. Most of these
ads are available through the Careers section of Google’s website. Through these
recruitment sources, the company facilitates a continuous influx of qualified workers,
while matching these employees’ capabilities with human resource needs.

Methods: Considering the combination of internal and external recruitment sources,

Google uses indirect methods and direct methods of recruitment. The indirect methods
are more significant to the company. These indirect methods include advertisements on
the company’s website. However, Google’s human resource management also uses
direct methods in the form of contacts with potential interns and future employees
through academic institutions. This combination of direct and indirect recruitment
methods is aligned with the mixture of internal and external recruitment sources to
satisfy Google’s human resource requirements.

Overview

At its first level, the recruitment process of Google seems to be similar with those used
by other organizations. Initially, the candidate passes a phone interview where general
issues related to his/ her curriculum are checked. If this interview is successful then a
meeting with one of the firm’s managers is arranged. The rest of the recruitment
process has a series of unique features: successful candidates are asked to participate
in a series of interviews and projects so that they verify their knowledge in regard to the
role involved. Also, through these activities the firm’s managers are able to check a
candidate’s leadership and team-working skills but also his ability to respond quickly to
emergent tasks and to unexpected problems. The recruitment process of the firm, in all
its phases, is monitored by ‘independent committees of Googlers’, so that subjectivity in
evaluating a candidate’s skills is guaranteed.

When you interview at Google, you’ll likely interview with four or five Googlers. They’re
looking for four things:

Leadership: We’ll want to know how you’ve flexed different muscles in different
situations in order to mobilize a team. This might be by asserting a leadership role at
work or with an organization, or by helping a team succeed when you weren’t officially
appointed as the leader.

Role-Related Knowledge: We’re looking for people who have a variety of strengths
and passions, not just isolated skill sets. We also want to make sure that you have the
experience and the background that will set you up for success in your role. For
engineering candidates in particular, we’ll be looking to check out your coding skills and
technical areas of expertise.

How You Think: We’re less concerned about grades and transcripts and more
interested in how you think. We’re likely to ask you some role-related questions that
provide insight into how you solve problems. Show us how you would tackle the
problem presented--don’t get hung up on nailing the “right” answer.

Googleyness: We want to get a feel for what makes you, well, you. We also want to
make sure this is a place you’ll thrive, so we’ll be looking for signs around your comfort
with ambiguity, your bias to action and your collaborative nature.

How the organization’s recruitment process has changed over the years?

In the past Google has emphasized on online tests, as a critical part of recruitment
process. Candidates who managed to reach the highest score in the relevant tests were
most likely to be hired. However, through the years the firm’s senior managers realized
the importance of other factors, such as character, leadership, team-working ability and
negotiation skills, when having to evaluate the appropriateness of a candidate for
Google. As noted by L. Bock, the ‘vice president of the firm’s people operations’ the firm
has decided to focus on a candidate’s personal skills and characteristics rather than on
his professional or educational background. Indeed, today, about 14% of the firm’s
employees have not graduated from college; still, these employees have managed to
meet the requirements related to their roles. Also, the score in online tests is no more
considered as the key criterion for hiring a candidate; rather, a series of interviews is
employed for evaluating a candidate’s ‘cognitive ability’.

One of the firm’s senior managers in Australia noted that Google’s employees need not,
necessarily, to have exceptional academic or professional background; but they have to
‘be smart’. The identification of a candidate’s ‘Googliness’, i.e. the alignment of a
candidate’s skills/ characteristics with the firm’s culture, has also become a critical part
of the firm’s recruitment process. The particular potential of candidates could not be
effectively diagnosed through online tests, a fact that led to the elimination of most of
these tests from the firm’s recruitment process. Interviews, as indispensable part of
Google’s current recruitment process, help the firm’s managers to identify individuals
who can respond to the demands of the firm’s roles.

Selection Process at Google

The most significant criteria used in Google’s human resource management for the
selection of applicants are smartness, creativity, drive for excellence, and alignment with
the organization. The firm does not use work experience as a major criterion for
selection. These criteria are based on the firm’s goal of maximizing innovation to
support its broad differentiation strategy.

There are different processes used for the selection of applicants at Google. However,
in general, the company’s selection process involves background checks, preliminary
screening, on-the-job tests, and interviews. Google’s human resource management
uses different procedures and steps for the various positions in the organization. For
instance, on-the-job tests are generally used for positions that are more frequently filled
through absorption of interns and trainees.

We collect feedback from multiple Googlers: At Google, you work on tons of projects
with different groups of Googlers, across many teams and time zones. To give you a
sense of what working here is really like, some of your interviewers could be potential
teammates, but some interviewers will be with other teams. This helps us see how you
might collaborate and fit in at Google overall.

Independent committees of Googlers help us ensure we’re hiring for the long
term: An independent committee of Googlers review feedback from all of the
interviewers. This committee is responsible for ensuring our hiring process is fair and
that we’re holding true to our “good for Google” standards as we grow.
Google’s Employee Retention Programs
Google’s compensation packages are the main HRM tool that the company uses for
retaining high-quality human resources. The company’s compensation packages are
competitive and above average. For example, Google provides high salaries and
wages. In addition, employees get free meals and other incentives and benefits. The
typical design of the company’s offices emphasizes fun and creativity, which attract and
retain creative and innovative workers. Google’s human resource management uses
coaching and mentoring to retain and develop employees with leadership potential.

Google’s: Training
Google’s human resource management practices cover effective employee training
programs, as well as performance management to maximize human resource
capabilities. The company uses appropriate needs analysis to design training programs
aimed at supporting an innovative workforce. The training programs and their results
are regularly evaluated to ensure that they meet Google’s human resource needs.

Employee Training at Google

Needs Analysis: Google’s HR management uses different types of needs analysis,
such as organizational analysis, work analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. Organizational
analysis identifies new human resource needs based on the firm’s current situation. For
example, in developing new products and investing in new businesses, Google
conducts organizational analysis to determine the corresponding human resource
requirements. Work analysis determines the specific requirements to fulfill work tasks.
Google applies work analysis on new jobs, or when an organizational restructuring has
just occurred. Cost-benefit analysis determines the practicality of training programs and
activities. Google’s HRM objective in using this type of analysis is to maximize the
benefits achieved through training programs.

Program Design: Google’s HR management uses a combination of the relational

model and the results-oriented approach for training program design. The relational
model focuses on the relationship of the company with employees. Google maintains
positive internal relations to foster employee participation in creative and innovative
processes. The results-oriented approach focuses on training outcomes. For example,
in implementing a training program, Google uses this approach to facilitate employees’
learning. Thus, the relational model optimizes relations among employees, while the
results-oriented approach ensures that Google’s human resources are effective.
Delivery: Google’s human resource management delivers training programs in various
ways, such as discussions, simulations and on-the-job training. Discussions enable
Google to maintain rich communications involving employees. With rich
communications, training programs also benefit through maximum feedback from the
trainees. The company uses simulations to facilitate creative responses. Simulations
empower Google’s employees to understand the details of work tasks, projects, and
products. The company’s HRM uses on-the-job training to maximize the transfer of
knowledge to new hires or interns. Many of these interns are absorbed into Google’s
organization.

Evaluation: Google has summative and descriptive purposes in evaluating training

programs. The summative purpose is to determine the effectiveness of the program in
developing human resources. The descriptive purpose of evaluation is to understand
the effects of the training on employees. Google’s human resource management uses
evaluation variables like trainees’ learning and reactions, and the results of training
programs in terms of changes in human resource knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Conclusion
Being hired in a popular workplace, such as Google, is a critical perspective for
candidates in the global job market. The success of Google, as an employer, is closely
related to the organization’s culture. Indeed, in Google employees have the potential to
be creative, to take initiatives and to continuously increase their personal and
professional skills. Fair rewarding is also highly evaluated in Google, as a practice for
showing the recognition by the firm’s of employees’ efforts and commitment. The
limitation of traditional recruitment techniques such as online tests and the emphasis on
communication and discussion with candidates, as achieved through interviews, have
helped Google to build a strong and proactive relationship with its employees.