HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Final project report

on
HR POLICIES AND PRACTICES
At

Group 10 (Exchange Group)

Submitted By :
Saksham Kalra (190102046)
Prateek Jain (190102032)
Aditya Agarwal (190102004)
Anantha Krishnan (190101018)
Varun Jauhari (190103184)
Simran Chhabra (190103144)

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 Index
1. About the company 3

2. Human Resource management 5

3. Introduction 5

4. Job analysis and design at Google 9

5. Employee training at Google 10

6. Standard recruiting tools 11

7. Compensation structure 13

8. Challenges 16

9. Interview of HR manager at Google India 17

10. Recent stories 19

11. Recommendations 20

12. References 21

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 About the company
Google Inc., American search engine company, founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, that is a
subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet Inc. More than 70 percent of worldwide online search
requests are handled by Google, placing it at the heart of most Internet users’ experience. Its headquarters
are in Mountain View, California.
Google began as an online search firm, but it now offers more than 50 Internet services and products,
from e-mail and online document creation to software for mobile phones and tablet computers. In
addition, its 2012 acquisition of Motorola Mobility put it in the position to sell hardware in the form of
mobile phones. Google’s broad product portfolio and size make it one of the top four influential companies
in the high-tech marketplace, along with Apple, IBM, and Microsoft. Despite this myriad of products, its
original search tool remains the core of its success. In 2016 Alphabet earned nearly all of its revenue from
Google advertising based on users’ search requests.
Brin and Page, who met as graduate students at Stanford University, were intrigued with the idea of
extracting meaning from the mass of data accumulating on the Internet. They began working from Page’s
dormitory room at Stanford to devise a new type of search technology, which they dubbed BackRub. The
key was to leverage Web users’ own ranking abilities by tracking each Web site’s “backing links”—that is,
the number of other pages linked to them. Most search engines simply returned a list of Web sites ranked
by how often a search phrase appeared on them. Brin and Page incorporated into the search function the
number of links each Web site had; i.e., a Web site with thousands of links would logically be more
valuable than one with just a few links, and the search engine thus would place the heavily linked site
higher on a list of possibilities. Further, a link from a heavily linked Web site would be a more valuable
“vote” than one from a more obscure Web site.
In mid-1998 Brin and Page began receiving outside financing (one of their first investors was Andy
Bechtolsheim, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, Inc.). They ultimately raised about $1 million from
investors, family, and friends and set up shop in Menlo Park, California, under the name Google, which was
derived from a misspelling of Page’s original planned name, googol (a mathematical term for the number
one followed by 100 zeroes). By mid-1999, when Google received a $25 million round of venture capital
funding, it was processing 500,000 queries per day. Activity began to explode in 2000, when Google
became the client search engine for one of the Web’s most popular sites, Yahoo!. By 2004, when Yahoo!
dispensed with Google’s services, users were searching on Google 200 million times a day. That growth
only continued: by the end of 2011 Google was handling some three billion searches per day. The
company’s name became so ubiquitous that it entered the lexicon as a verb: to google became a common
expression for searching the Internet.

To accommodate this unprecedented mass of data, Google built 11 data centres around the world, each of
them containing several hundred thousand servers (basically, multiprocessor personal computers and hard
drives mounted in specially constructed racks). Google’s interlinked computers probably number several
million. The heart of Google’s operation, however, is built around three proprietary pieces of computer
code: Google File System (GFS), Bigtable, and MapReduce. GFS handles the storage of data in “chunks”
across several machines; Bigtable is the company’s database program; and MapReduce is used by Google
to generate higher-level data (e.g., putting together an index of Web pages that contain the words
“Chicago,” “theatre,” and “participatory”).
The extraordinary growth of Google led to internal management problems. Almost from the beginning,
investors felt that Brin and Page needed an experienced manager at the helm, and in 2001 they agreed to
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hire Eric Schmidt as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Schmidt, who previously
had held the same positions at the software company Novell Inc., had a doctorate in computer science and
melded well with the technocratic impulses of the founders. During Schmidt’s reign as CEO, Page served as
president of products, and Brin was president of technology. The trio ran the company as a “triumvirate”
until Page took on the CEO role in 2011, Schmidt became executive chairman, and Brin adopted the title of
director of special projects.
The company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2004 raised $1.66 billion for the company and made Brin and
Page instant billionaires. In fact, the IPO created 7 billionaires and 900 millionaires from the early
stockholders. The stock offering also made news because of the unusual way it was handled. Shares were
sold in a public auction intended to put the average investor on an equal footing with financial industry
professionals. Google was added to Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) stock index in 2006. In 2012
Google’s market capitalization made it one of the largest American companies not in the Dow Jones
Industrial Average.
Google reorganized itself in August 2015 to become a subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet
Inc. Internet search, advertising, apps, and maps, as well as the mobile operating system Android and the
video-sharing site YouTube, remained under Google. Separate Google ventures—such as longevity
research company Calico, home-products company Nest, and research lab Google X—became separate
firms under Alphabet. Page became CEO of Alphabet, Brin its president, and Schmidt its executive
chairman. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of products, became Google’s new CEO. In 2018 Schmidt
stepped down as executive chairman. More changes followed in 2019 as both Brin and Page left their posts
as president and CEO, respectively. However, they both remained on Alphabet’s board of directors. Pichai
became CEO of the holding company while retaining that position at Google.

Google’s strong financial results reflected the rapid growth of Internet advertising in general and
Google’s popularity in particular. Analysts attributed part of that success to a shift in advertising spending
toward the Internet and away from traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, and television. For
example, American newspaper advertising fell from a peak of $64 billion in 2000 to $20.7 billion in 2011,
while global online advertising grew from approximately $6 billion in 2000 to more than $72 billion in
2011.
Since its founding, Google has spent large sums to secure what it has calculated to be significant
Internet marketing advantages. For example, in 2003 Google spent $102 million to acquire Applied
Semantics, the makers of AdSense, a service that signed up owners of Web sites to run various types of ads
on their Web pages. In 2006 Google again paid $102 million for another Web advertisement business,
dMarc broadcasting, and that same year it announced that it would pay $900 million over three and a half
years for the right to sell ads on MySpace.com. In 2007 Google made its largest acquisition to date, buying
online advertising firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Two years later the company responded to the
explosive growth of the mobile applications market with a $750 million deal to acquire the mobile
advertising network AdMob. All of these purchases were part of Google’s effort to expand from its search
engine business into advertising by combining the various firms’ databases of information in order to tailor
ads to consumers’ individual preferences.

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 Human Resource Management
Management of human resources has become one of the most important business functions for any
company in today’s dynamic business environment. With the high level of competition and a multitude of
options available to the employees, attrition rates have grown tremendously. Companies are struggling to
attract and retain the best talent. Companies have started coming up with many innovative strategies to
attract the best talent and keep them happy at the workplace. Google is one such company that has
implemented non-conventional HR strategies and believes in providing maximum value to its employees.

This report talks about the HR strategies that Google has implemented and what their ramifications have
been. Also the reasons behind implementation of these strategies and the how they would help the
company achieve its long term goals. This report also studies the unique working environment prevalent at
Google and what keeps the employees motivated and committed to innovation. Also the very important
role of hiring and retaining the best talent available in the market, performed by the HR machinery has also
been discussed in this report.

Introduction
Google has a highly energetic and dynamic working environment. The employees, known as “Googlers” in
popular jargon know how to work hard and at the same time have fun at the work place. The entire
campus in Mountain view, CA exudes a lot of creative energy and dynamism. The office has a relaxed
environment of a college campus with no compulsory dress code or daily formal meetings of any kind. The
campus has the facilities for the employees to play games like beach volleyball, foosball, table tennis and
many others. The employees are instilled with the belief that they are superior to the competition not just
in terms of the money they earn but also in terms of their lifestyle and culture. They are taught to believe
in values of teamwork and satisfaction through creative achievements. As a result of this culture, the
employees also feel proud to be a part of the Google brand. Google has comprehensive HR policies that
help employees grow both personally as well as professionally. People of many communities and
ethnicities work in Google, who are all made to feel part of one big Google family. Also the employees have
a firm belief that they are working for the best company in the world and the work they are doing be it
either organizing information or creating advertisements is for the betterment of the society. The motto of
the company is “Don’t be Evil” and encourages the employees to strictly adhere to the ethical norms of the
company.

Google HR Policies: Critical and Theoretical Analysis

Success of Google: Employee Motivation Theory Perspective

Google encourages its employees to work on 70-20-10 rule where in the employees have to devote 70 % of
their time to core search and advertising work, 20% on a project of their choice and 10 % on working on
far-out ideas. The product innovations of Google Talk and Gmail have been a result of this kind of initiative.
The business benefits of the 20 % off time are very limited as far as their core search and advertising
businesses are concerned. However the HR department and the executives still continue to encourage the
employees to go for these efforts to remain motivated and committed to innovation and novelty.

The compensation policy of Google is highly rewarding with the employees getting salaries, bonuses and
stock awards at regular time intervals. Google also encourages and rewards outstanding performance
achievements amongst the employees. The Google premise has a big collegiate environment with many
sporting facilities and other benefits that the employees can avail. The whole idea behind creating such an
environment is that the employees feel very comfortable and easy working in the office and can be as
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creative as possible. In order for the employees to maintain work life balance, Google offers the employees
flexible working hour options, work from home facility, telecommuting and a generous vacation policy. This
combined with the TGIIF sessions that are held every Friday afternoon which is a get together within the
company itself. The company has a strong code of conduct and encourages its employees to report any
violation of policies and feel safe doing the same.

The HR policies are all aimed at improving employee productivity. The offices are designed in such a way so
as to provide color, lighting and a shared room to the employees. The employees are seated very close to
each other and made to share offices, thus making knowledge sharing an essential part of the everyday
culture at Google. On an average, each employee generates more than 1 million in revenue each year. This
gives leverage to the Google employees and manager to try out new things, make mistakes and learn from
their failures, which is again a great motivating factor for the employees to try out new stuff. So as a result
any employee in the company has a chance to create a new product or a feature.

Hiring & Job Design Practices: The Organizational Perspective

Google is considered by many employees to be the best place to work. The core strength of the company is
its employees. All the benefits provided by the company help it in recruiting the top employees who are
willing to spend their entire day at the work place itself. The entire HR policy of Google is based around
hiring the best talent; make them work hard and long and manage to keep them at Google for a long time.
Google also carries out various people programs in order to support the growing expansion of the Google
workforce across different countries in the world. These programs are run to explain the many virtues of
Google as an employer and also to deal with the cultural diversities of the workforce across the nations.

Google has an innovative hiring strategy and hiring the right people is one of the core pillars of the HR
policy of the company. The company has a centralized hiring team, comprising of specialists whose main
endeavor is to identify the best talent in the market and retain them. The branding team of Google also
plays a very important role in attracting the best of the professionals to work for Google.

The candidates have to go through a tough screening process. Google uses an innovative recruiting tool
that relies on algorithms to identify the potential talent rather than traditional ways of hiring like those
based on academic grades, SAT scores, degree from well-known colleges, prior industry experience,
interviews and subjective test results. This gives Google the power to identify and select the candidates on
a more data driven approach. The whole idea behind this screening procedure is to evaluate the
candidates on their innovative and dynamic skill and to check their ability to work in a flat organizational
structure with small teams as present in Google, which is also referred to as “Googleyness”.

This recruiting team is also well funded with 1 recruiter being provided for every 14 employees, which
again makes it the best funded recruiting functions amongst the product based organizations in the
country. Google has HR Business partners who perform the task of developing and implementing
innovative programs and technology in place to identify and resolve end user issues across the company
anywhere in the world. They collect and maintain important user data collected over an employee’s life
cycle which is then used to find out important traits and trends of employee behaviors and identify the
potentials problems. Google has quarterly hand holding sessions with the senior executives to celebrate
the achievement of the previous quarter and set the agenda for the next quarter. However for those who
are not comfortable of speaking up in a public forum, the company conducts regular surveys which are
kept anonymous to understand the trends and identify the problem areas if there are any. Google’s
Learning and Leadership Development (LLD) team innovative learning programs to identify and groom the
company’s existing talent. The managers perform the task of being life coaches and advise the young
employees on a lot of aspects apart from work also.

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Google HR Policies: Practical Implications

Employee Motivation Factors

Google has got huge financial strength at its disposal. It spends a lot of money on providing its employees
with a lot of benefits which are not comparable to any other company in the world. This makes it a highly
motivating work place for any employee. Google has a very flat organizational structure where in the
employees can go and talk to the executives and other team members and share their ideas and thoughts.
Google has pushed very hard to remove the bureaucratic boundaries that normally exist in such a big
company. This is also explains the fact as to why there is no dress code of the company and also no formal
meeting structure that the employees need to follow. The young work force that the company has also
proliferates such an environment. This is also one of the major reasons why so many talented young
people want to work with Google. Google has been successful in building a brand over the years that has
made it the most lucrative company to work, for the employees, not only in terms of compensation but
also in terms of attaining one’s creative pursuits. It has been constantly cited as one of the best companies
to work for in the world in many surveys over a period of time. So for any other company to emulate the
same feat would be a huge task both in terms of financial capability and also in terms of brand value.

Hiring & Job Design Practices

The hiring process that Google follows is also very innovative and non-conventional. In a normal
conventional company the process would involve interviews, academic background check, work experience
in the industry and so on, but not in Google. Google has come up with a very innovative hiring procedure
based on algorithms making the entire process of hiring very scientific and data driven. However there are
criticisms for this kind of process also as it goes on for months and is very inconvenient for the applicants,
but it has been very fruitful to Google from a business perspective as it has been able to hire the best of
the talent from the industry. Such a long hiring cycle again might not be feasible for any other company in
today’s day and time. Also the applicants are ready to wait for months despite the inconvenience because
working with Google is such a lucrative proposition in itself. However it’s difficult to imagine that the
applicants would be ready to go through such a long and a tedious hiring cycle for any other company.
Moreover it is not only the HR department that is involved in the hiring process in the case of Google; it’s
the entire company that gets involved as the application first needs to be approved by the team that has
the opening. So it’s the entire machinery of the company that is involved in the hiring process. Google can
do this because of its flat organizational structure. Other companies however would have to remove the
bureaucracy in their system and create small team structures in order to implement something on similar
lines.

Conclusion

Google is one of those companies that puts its employees at the core of their strategy and looks at the long
term benefits that they would bring to the shareholders and their peers. In fact, in 2008 when Google
began cutting its employee perks, its employee productivity and stock prices both fell. This shows a direct
correlation between gaining and retaining outstanding employees with innovative ideas and the overall
company growth. The company’s success has been based on the fact that they have been innovative,
flexible and dynamic in their functions. Managing growth by keeping the same collegiate environment in
the future will be essential to company’s success. As Google grows in shape and size, the challenge for the
company will be to maintain the same level creative activism and sense of empowerment amongst its
employees. Google is having problems finding the right talent in its other offices worldwide especially in its
South Asia operations. The employees must be encouraged to work in a more entrepreneurial manner and
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they must be provided adequate resources and finances for the same. Google is one of the few companies
where in the employees know that they will be paid for their innovative efforts irrespective of the fact
whether the product that they are working on, may or may not come out right. This is a highly motivational
factor for the employees to remain committed to innovation. This is also an example how a HR strategy of
a company is directly linked to its business strategy.

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 Job analysis and design at google
Google’s human resource management involves different strategies to address the workforce needs of this
diversified business organization. This diversification imposes significant challenges to human resource
managers of the company. Nonetheless, there are certain HRM approaches that are generally applied to
different areas of Google. For instance, in human resource planning, Google’s HR managers focus on the
effective use of forecast information to minimize the surplus or shortage of employees, and to establish a
balance between the supply and demand for qualified employees. Google’s job analysis and design
approaches are also varied because of the different types of jobs in the different businesses of the
company.
Organizational Design. Google’s organizational design enables the company to flexibly address human
resource needs. The interconnections in the firm’s matrix organizational structure allow human resource
managers to easily identify cross-linkages among different parts of the organization and use this
information for the processes of job analysis and design. Thus, Google’s organizational design facilitates
and optimizes human resource management activities, particularly in job analysis and design.
Methods of Job Analysis. Google uses a combination of worker-oriented job analysis methods and work-
oriented job analysis methods. However, the company emphasizes the use of work-oriented job analysis
methods in jobs like those in research and development, as well as jobs in product design and
manufacturing. Google emphasizes the worker-oriented job analysis methods in jobs that require
significant interpersonal skills, such as human resource management positions.
Job Description & Specification. Because of the large size of the organization, Google has highly varied job
descriptions and specifications. The job descriptions and specifications for positions in product
development, for instance, significantly differ from the job descriptions and specifications for positions in
human resource management. Nonetheless, Google emphasizes certain characteristics in all employees,
such as smartness and drive for excellence in all job positions throughout the organization.

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 Employee training at google
Needs Analysis:
Google follows 3 types of need analysis methods:
(i) Organisational 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.
(ii) Work analysis - 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.
(iii) Cost-benefit analysis - 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.

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 Standard recruiting tools
• Employee Referral – Without any industry leading features, but the company’s strong brand
coupled with its highly enthusiastic workforce makes up for the weaknesses in the program.
• College Recruitment – Google hires a large number PhDs on the premise that they enjoy exploring
areas that no one has explored. To accomplish this, they have developed a network of direct
relationships with over 350 professors at major schools. In addition, Google has an outstanding
internship program that has a very conversion rate to permanent hires.
• Professional recruiting – Google also effectively uses networking groups like LinkedIn and other live
professional events to recruit top performers.
• Recruiter training – Google is one of only a handful of companies that requires most newly hired
recruiters to go through extensive recruiter training prior to starting.
Every year more than 2 million applicants apply to secure a job at Google. Thousands of applications are
filed each year for every vacant position. The main focus of Google’s recruitment policy is to have the right
person in the right position. It does not officially reveal its number of recruiters but sources say that more
than 400 internal and external recruiters were working for hiring new Googlers in 2009. These recruiters
are well paid professionals, many of them external recruiters, to recruit new candidates. In 2012, the
number of new recruits Google hired was more than 8000. Recruiters focus on hiring staff that is highly
talented and culturally compatible. Culture plays an important role when it comes to hiring new people.
How culturally compatible you are with Google decides how well you will perform once you are inside. The
role of culture and cultural compatibility has also been highlighted by research. The more culturally
compatible are the employees, the higher will be the overall productivity of an organisation.

However, the recruitment process is not so straightforward. Instead, the applicants have to be through a
lengthy and complicated process. The budget for recruitment at Google is also high. Productivity matters
at Google and so there is a lot of investment behind hiring each new employee. It tests several things
before recruiting. To some, it may appear too complicated but then things are complicated inside
technology companies and it is also why their turnover rates are higher compared to other industries.
Surviving the pressure is not possible for everyone and in this sense Google is not wasting money by
spending on recruitment. The way Google does it has also become a lesson for other players in the
industry.

Recruitment is not only the HR function’s job, but the entire organisation is somehow involved. Another
key focus of Google’s recruitment strategy is diversity. It has partnered several organizations to make its
selection process a success and to bring a highly diverse workforce together. Diversity is not just an HR
concern, instead something visible in all aspects of Google’s business. Google itself notes, “There’s no one
kind of Googler, so we’re always looking for people who can bring new perspectives and life experiences to
our teams. If you’re looking for a place that values your curiosity, passion, and desire to learn, if you’re
seeking colleagues who are big thinkers eager to take on fresh challenges as a team, then you’re a future
Googler”. Google has created an efficient recruitment system composed of skilled people. The recruitment
team has members in roles like recruiting research analysts, candidate developers, process coordinators,
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candidate screeners and several others. Handling such a high number of applications as Google receives
each year is not an easy task and requires a lot of planning and coordination.

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 Compensation structure
Compensation for “Googlers”, as employees of this global company are known, is made up of a fixed
segment (normal salary) and a variable segment (bonuses). The average salary of a Google employee is $
128,000 €/year, or around $10,700 per month. For bonuses, Google offer:

Bonuses

Performance Collective
Peer Bonuses
Bonus Bonus

 “Peer Bonuses”

These are bonuses of 150 dollars, which the employees can transfer to one of their colleagues. The only
criteria: the extent to which the employee has contributed to Google’s development.

 Performance Bonus

This bonus is defined based on three variables: the employee’s job position, their performances (or results
obtained) and a multiplier rate that can be 15% or more of the fixed payroll. As a result, Google CEO
Sunday Pichai received a bonus of 200 million dollars in stock options on February 2016, which was
awarded in recognition of the 45% rise in Google’s revenues in 2015.

 Collective Bonuses

These bonuses are awarded periodically to all Google employees, based on the various bonus programs in
operation throughout the multinational’s various divisions. In 2007, all employees received a vacation
bonus of 1000 dollars.

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The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method was developed as a motivational and management strategy
by Google HR. The concept was introduced to Google by John Doerr at a time when this globally-renowned
company was still just a humble start-up.

Compen’gEmployees

The method consists of:

1. Defining an objective that is linked to a full set of key results. These key results must number no
more than 4 - 6. Above that, it becomes too difficult for the employee to achieve them, and they
risk abandoning certain targets or burning out in mid-flight.
2. Defining a grading scale for these results in order to assess the extent to which the objective has
been achieved. At Google, the grading scale for key results ranges from 0 to 1.
3. Evaluating key results in order to determine the extent to which objectives have been achieved.
The ideal grade aimed for is around 0.6 or 0.7 per result. A grade of “1” indicates that the results
were too easy to achieve. Less than 0.5 indicates that the employee has set themselves objectives
which were impossible to obtain, or that they need to improve their productivity.
4. Rewarding employees according to their performance, based on the percentage of achievement of
the OKRs.

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15
 Challenges
• The persistent problems companies in IT industry face are attrition, confidentiality and loyalty.
Google is also going through a similar phase.
• Turnover rate is high so HR in technology companies is really a challenging area.
• Gen Y’s loyalty is difficult to obtain and maintain.
• Apart from it, several more things are complicated inside the tech companies including the work
itself. Executives who have been with Google since the beginning have started feeling that the
organization is undergoing a stagnation phase. They are moving out to start their own ventures.
• Some employees believe that there is no innovation happening at Google and hence they are
looking to work at startups.
• Even after working for so many years, there is no change in the designation for many employees,
although there is a hike in salary. But employees believe that it’s unfair.
• In countries like India, employees feel that there is a lack of transparency and office politics is
prevalent. Promotions are not merit based. There is a limited scope to move around various teams.

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Q1. For how long have you been working for Google India?
A1. I have been associated with the organisation since past 2 years 4 months. It has been a great journey
for me since then. I have learnt a lot working for this organisation plus the brand name which you get while
working for Google is an achievement in itself.
Q2. Was it a Campus Recruitment or you applied through an Open Drive?
A2. I was placed at Deloitte from campus. Later, I switched to Google, were I was getting a better pay and
designation. One of my MDI seniors was already working at Google. So, he recommended me when there
was an opening in the company. Luckily, I got selected.
Q3. Can you please let us know something about the compensation practices which Google follows?
A3. To begin with, we put together our remuneration plan with respect to hard information and research.
The decisions the company makes arise from conclusions derived from research. We achieve this by
conducting surveys and talking to its employees. This methodology gives us the certainty that the
progressions we make to the remuneration plan lead to more prominent employee motivation.
Besides, we have a commitment to pay ouremployees as competitively as could be expected under the
circumstances. Google routinely conducts assessments to discover how its rivals pay their representatives.
In the past, we set the pay rates of our employees at the ninetieth percentile. Google guarantees that it is
consistently among the ten best paying organizations in any job group.
We recently made a decision to become the best paying company amongst our peers. Therefore, we
implemented a ten percent salary increase for all our employees. This notwithstanding, Google
understands that money is not sufficient to motivate high performing employees. However, it also believes
that uncompetitive pay is a loophole that its competitors can use to poach its talented employees.
Apart from that, to provide compensation and benefits, we have a compensation committee within the
organization as part of human resource department that sets parameters for salary increase, bonuses and
stock awards.

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Q4. While researching about Google, we came to know about Peer Bonuses which Google gives to its
employees. Can you please shed some more light on the same?
A4. Basically, this system works on Google Credits. Any employee can give certain credits to any other
employee if he or she feels positive about the his/her performance. These credits are automatically
redeemed and added to the pay of the employee every month. This system has helped us in making a
motivated workforce and at the same time a more trusted environment.
Q5. What practices you people follow at Google to foster a healthy and vibrant culture at your
workplaces?

A5.We track the happiness levels of our employees and try to make them happier.This aspect explains the
unconventional office practices at Google. Webelieve that if our employees are satisfied with their working
environment, they are likely to remain with us. The importance of this aspectis that the employees feel
rewarded simply for being employees. This works by giving them ongoing satisfaction as Google
employees.

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 Recent stories
There’s something eating at Google employees.
Roughly one dozen employees of the search giant have resigned in the wake of reports that the Mountain
View, Calif., company is providing artificial intelligence to the Pentagon, according to a report on Monday.
The employees resigned because of ethical concerns over the company’s work with the Defense
Department that includes helping the military speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically
classifying images of objects and people, Gizmodo reported.

News of the Google-Pentagon agreement, which involves the controversial Project Maven, surfaced
roughly three months ago.Many of the employees who quit have written accounts of their decisions to
leave the company — and their stories have been gathered and shared in an internal document, the
contents of which multiple sources have described to Gizmodo, which first reported on the Google exits.
Google executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business
decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers’ objections than they once did, according to
several of the exiting workers who discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo.

Google is helping the DoD’s Project Maven “implement machine learning to classify images gathered by
drones,” according to the report. “Some employees believe humans, not algorithms, should be responsible
for this sensitive and potentially lethal work — and that Google shouldn’t be involved in military work at
all.”
Started nearly 20 years ago, Google has been known for its “Don’t be evil” motto. The company has
promoted an open culture that encourages employees to challenge and debate product decisions,
according to the report.That had changed, according to some employees.

Google is routinely rated as one of the best places to work. With a median salary over $160,000, generous
benefits packages and perks like free gourmet food, massages, and music lesson, it's no surprise why so
many employees consider working at Google.
So why would anyone ever want to leave?
Few interviews were conducted of Ex-googlers to find out why did they leave their Job.

NAME FORMER POSITION AT REASON

GOOGLE
Liz Wessel Product Marketing She felt that she is not doing a good job anymore.
Manager
Tyler Breisacher Software developer Due to Google’s sponsorship of a conservative political
conference
Krystal Brick Product Marketing Because she wanted the liberty that’s why chose to be
Manager an entrepreneur.
Daren Makuck Software engineer He wanted to feel more ownership at work
Libby Leffler Account Strategist She wanted to move into more opportunities and learn
skills which she wasn’t familiar with.
Michael Lynch Software Engineer Because of company’s internal politics and difficulties
faced to get the promotions.
Jose llorens Creative Lead He left because he felt that he was working with stable
pay for one of the uncertainity.

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 Recommendations

Based on these interviews and the reasons which people had for leaving the job at Google we recommend
few options google can implement:
1. Google needs to improve its recruitment strategy and increase the effectiveness of its
retention plan.
2. Google might need to innovate further its working atmosphere to match employees’
expectations fully.
3. It can work on employee recognition programs to enhance employee motivations,
satisfaction and employee productivity and improve organisational performance.
4. A new policy aimed to avoid a recurrence of controversial posts by first giving employees
who administer the mailing lists the right to moderate the conversations which take place.

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