1.

Human Resource Management (Introduction of Google)

Google was first known as Back Rub. The name of the company “Google” has its origin in term
“googol” which is supposed to mean a large number 10100 and was invented by Milton Sirotta.
(Computer Hope, 2019)

Nowadays, Google is known as a search engine that started its development in 1996, due to two
PhD students of Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, within a research project aiming
to find files on the Internet. (Fitzpatrick, 2016)

At the moment, Sergey and Brin, own together 14% of its shares and they control 56% of the
stockholder. Google was incorporated as a private company, officially on September 4, 1998, in
California. Moreover, Google in 2015 reorganized its interests as a conglomerate named “Alphabet
Inc”. Since then, Google started to grow rapidly and initiated a tremendous number of acquisitions,
partnerships, services and products.
Currently, Google.com is the most visited website in the world. (Alexa, 2019)
So what does make Google be so successful and how does its search engine work?
The main goal of Google is to help users to find any information within the Internet. According to
Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s thesis, Google search engine is different from other search engines
because it pays more attention to relationship between websites. It was a significant change,
compared to other search engines, as the results shown to users depends on how often a particular
search term appears in the search engine results pages also called SERPs. With other words, Google
has the ability to calculate a site’s relevance based on numbers of pages and links pointing back to
the original site. And this is what makes Google be more convenient, easy to use, and relevant for
users. (Tower, 2019)
Furthermore, Google is one of the first engines that is trying to “read” and understand its user’s
mentality, and they describe it as: “Get me what I want, NOW!”. In the way to reach their users,
they study artificial intelligence, this is how spell correction, synonym finder, universal search was
created.
Google’s trust has continued to increase over years by:
 Constantly updating their search algorithms;
 Focusing on the user, their intent and their satisfaction.

Since Google LLC is multinational technology company it provides a wide range of Internet-
services as: Google’s Gmail, Google Docs, Google analysis, news aggregator, calendar software,
could storage for consumers and businesses, Google ads, smartphone/tablet operating system,
thermostat, computerized contact lenses, robot assistant, self-driving car, and even drones that
deliver goods to homes. (Business Insider, 2014)
2. Human Resource Management- Google
Google is well-known for its work environment but also for being very innovative. This innovative
working can be seen in Google with their ”20% work” model that allows people to spend 20% of
their working time to focus on innovativeness and just think innovatively (Stanton & Karodia,
2014). This among with its influential HR processes, or as Google Company utilizes it as people
practises, has made it a very favourable company for the employees and it is considered to be one of
the best organizational to work in a world wide scale. (Shrivastava et al., 2018; Stanton & Karodia,
2014) Google has been the best employer for years and the reason has been their resplendent HR
management that aims for empowering the employees and make them highly satisfied. (Pratap,
2019)
The interest of Google as an employer can be explained quite easily and the list of the advantages
for the new born employees is endless. Stanton & Karodia (2014) argue that Google attracts many
employees with their tempting packages. These packages include e.g. working hours that are
flexible, dental care and other health benefits, yoga and massage that are free, free food including
also drinks and snacks, free entertainment such as games like football, pool and volleyball,
generous parental leaves etc. However, the best attraction for the highly-skilled top-level employees
seems to be the company`s stock options. All the benefits, the ”20% work” model alongside with
the HR functions allow Google to not only recruit top-level employees but also to retain the best
ones that are already working for the company. They also have a compensation programme that
rewards individual performance and training programmes if someone is underperforming or has
some weaknesses which need to be settled. (Stanton & Karodia, 2014)
Opinions, inutitions and feelings of the managers have been replaced by data and analytics in the
Google company. Analytics provide HR function to be more data-driven instead of judgement-
based. The company uses extensively the analytics as a help in the HR processes and day-to-day
decision. Google is a great example of using these people analytics as a part of decision making in
the people-related strategies. Moreover, these actions have made Google to achieve preferable
business results and to gain wider insight into people operations. (Shrivastava et al., 2018)
However, in Google people are allowed to make mistakes and try something new. They value
diversity and believe that different backgrounds and experiences may lead into more innovative
approach that helps to create solutions and products that are even better than the previous ones.
(Stanton & Karodia, 2014)
Analytics help to solve issues or seek answers to questions like productivity improvement, is
employee suitable for the current job, staffing requirements, employees` individual performance,
finding possible skill gaps or critical questions related to departments or teams. There are several
different models for analytics e.g. Data mining and machine learning, contextual analytics and
predictive or prescriptive analytics. (Shrivastava et al., 2018) We are not taking a closer look of
these analytic methods in this presentation but we will introduce how they were put into practice at
Google.
2.1 People analytics at Google

Based on article written by Shrivastava et al. (2018) there are few methods of people analytics listed
below.
1. The Pi-Lab. Decision scientists, psychologists and researchers have invented organizational
practises by evaluating previous academic research and the aim is to cover the decisions by
science and data that are made in the HR.
2. Project Oxygen. Detailed qualitative analysis with surveys and questionnaires gathered from
employees about what kind of expectations they have towards management and how it
should be put into practice. This helped the company to identify eight behaviours of a good
manager.
3. Algorithm-based people management. Mathematical algorithms to help hiring and make
better decisions. These algorithms help recruiters to find better applicants that might have
been missed before. The algorithms consider possible future employees` e.g. behaviour,
personal details and attitudes.
4. Collaboration through analytics. Google used analytics to realize that new innovations are
enhanced by three factors; teamwork, fun and discovery. These factors are kept in
consideration e.g. in canteens where people have to wait longer for the food so they will
have collaborate with each other. Workplaces are also developed based on this. They are
built so that there are groups of people so they have to interact with each other.

2.2 Working environment

Google focuses on continuous learning by providing its` employees education and possibilities for
growth. Like mentioned in previous paragraph the company provides training programs. These
programs can be related to e.g. content development, management or presentation skills. Google
also allows people to participate in free classes for different cultures and foreign languages.
Engineers are also taken care of by providing them individual training with a mentor, programs
designed from engineer to another.
Google`s learning culture is so strong that they have set a limit for mandatory training per employee
and every employee has to train or develop themselves 120 hours per year. Moreover, further
education for engineers is provided by Stanford MS program. It allows employees a 5 years of leave
and compensation up to 150 000 US dollars if they are willing to educate themselves even further.
(Pratap, 2019)
But why Google`s working atmosphere is so great? It can be proved by five dimensions that Google
value, based on the report provided by Great Place to Work Institute (2007):
1. Credibility. Open and accessible communication, coordinating material and human
resources with competence and integrity in carrying out vision with consistency.
2. Respect. Appreciation towards employees and supporting their development, collaboration
with employees and caring about their personal lives and considering them as individuals.
 3. Fairness. Equity-balanced treatment for all in terms of rewards no favouritism in
promotions or hiring, and no discrimination allowed.
4. Pride. Pride towards personal job and individual contributions, pride towards work done by
one´s team or group, pride towards products and standing in the community.
5. Camaraderie. Allowance and ability to be oneself, atmosphere that is welcoming and
friendly and having a sense of being a family or a team.
Google has an atmosphere where employees` suggestions are being really heard and valued. When
Google comes up with new products those are firstly launched internally and employees have a
chance to take part in product development. Thus, company allows employees to spend 20% of
their working time outside their own responsibility area. Company´s atmosphere highlights a
feeling of dedication and personal belonging. (Pratap, 2019)

2.3 Recruitment at Google

Google focuses on finding the best employees and talents that are globally available. They have a
strong relationship with many universities. This way they can hire a lot of PhD´s from the
universities before the others. Company also believes in professional networking by using events
and social media to hire the top performers. Moreover, Google uses brainteasers and contests to
attract potential employees and they are investing a lot of time, money and effort to train their
recruiters. (Sullivan, 2006) Google also has a referral bonus programme for their employees. Thus,
the employees that recommend candidates are awarded with money if the new born employees stay
within the company for 60 days. (Stanton & Karodia, 2014)
Google has an recruitment system which includes a lot of skilled people. This recruitment team is
an efficient complex that includes recruiting research analysts, screeners and developers for the
candidates, process coordinators and many others. Google receives more than two million
applications every year. Thus, recruitment requires a lot of coordination and planning. (Pratap,
2019) However, Google spends a lot of time and effort on recruitment. Sullivan (2006) argues that
Google has a record on amount of recruiter per every employee (14:1). Previous record was held by
Cisco in the late `90s by 65:1 and the average number in larger companies with all HR professionals
is about 100:1. This recruiter focuses on talented people who are culturally matching because the
culture has very essential role at recruitment. Your performance at Google can be evaluated
beforehand by the fact how culturally compatible you are with the company (Pratap, 2019).
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