The Google Way

This article on Google’s hiring and employee treatment came to me
via a feed from systematicHR – Thanks!  As s/he mentions on the post it
is over a year old but I thought I’d add my two cents.  Below is an
edited version of the article with my responses below each of the
Google policies.

Hire by committee. Virtually every person who interviews at
Google talks to at least half-a-dozen interviewers, drawn from both
management and potential colleagues. Everyone’s opinion counts, making
the hiring process more fair and pushing standards higher.

Not only that – the applicant also gets to see the
culture in action helping to eliminate the issue of dissatisfaction
after they are hired.  By meeting more members of the team they will be
working with the applicant gets an idea if they can work at Google while Google
is getting an idea if the applicant can work at Google.  Good idea.

Cater to their every need. As Drucker says, the goal is to "strip away everything that gets in their way."

In the full article they talk about laundry facilities
and other perks.  I’m not sure if every company has the war-chest
necessary for this but the Drucker quote should be your guide.
Managers must take the time to truly listen to the employees and hear
what is causing them from fulfilling their destiny.  How much of a
manager’s review is based on the barriers they bring down versus the
policies they enact?

Pack them in. Almost every project at Google is a team project,
and teams have to communicate. The best way to make communication easy
is to put team members within a few feet of each other. The result is
that virtually everyone at Google shares an office.

This is a change for some oldsters who based their
advancement on the square footage of their office.  Sometimes the
physical trumps the verbal.  Does your business environment communicate
your values?  How many organizations say every employee is important
but there are floors the rank and file can’t access?  Some employees
are more equal than others… as Orwell would say.  Employees figure
this one out pretty quickly.  Walk the talk.

Make coordination easy. Because all members of a team are within
a few feet of one another, it is relatively easy to coordinate
projects. In addition to physical proximity, each Googler e-mails a
snippet once a week to his work group describing what he has done in
the last week.

Do you employ the technology that enables faster
communications?  And if you do are employees trained to use them?  Many
companies have installed elaborate communication and collaboration
tools (Notes, Sharepoint, etc.) but they go largely unused due to lack
of training and incentives to mainstream their usage.

Eat your own dog food. Google workers use the company’s tools
intensively. The most obvious tool is the Web, with an internal Web
page for virtually every project and every task.

This one is somewhat business-specific but you can
create ways for your employees to experience your company from a user
perspective.  If your employees can’t experience your business easily
then how can they understand their customer.  Get creative – even if
you have them "intern" at one of your customer’s plants, locations,
etc. to give them the customer point of view.

I also posted here on how Google was using it’s search algorithm expertise
to develop an algorithm to pick who to interview in the first place.  That’s really eating their dog food.

Encourage creativity. Google engineers can spend up to 20 percent of their time on a project of their choice.

I have a sister who’s company requires they spend 20% of
their time contributing to the knowledge capital for the company.  Do
you allow your employees to work on new ideas when they can?  Do you
require it?  Is innovation a line item on their performance review?  Do
you allow your employees to recognize people who contribute to the
innovation process?

Strive to reach consensus. Modern corporate mythology has the
unique decision maker as hero. We adhere to the view that the "many are
smarter than the few," and solicit a broad base of views before
reaching any decision. At Google, the role of the manager is that of an
aggregator of viewpoints, not the dictator of decisions.

The typical organization is based on recognizing and
rewarding singular contribution.  Creating team awards and
demonstrating that collaboration and teamwork are reinforced behaviors
is step one in creating a culture of consensus.

Don’t be evil. Much has been written about Google’s slogan, but
we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management.
We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a
company full of yes men.

This one has to be your own.  What is the sentence that will summarize your raison d’être?  Do you live it?

Data drive decisions. At Google, almost every decision is based on quantitative analysis.

How competent are your employees in this area?  Take stock and see if training is in order.

Communicate effectively. Every Friday we have an all-hands
assembly with announcements, introductions and questions and answers.
(Oh, yes, and some food and drink.) This allows management to stay in
touch with what our knowledge workers are thinking and vice versa.
Google has remarkably broad dissemination of information within the
organization and remarkably few serious leaks. Contrary to what some
might think, we believe it is the first fact that causes the second: a
trusted work force is a loyal work force.

Can’t do this too much.  The single biggest problem we
find in organizations is the lack of communication – or more accurately
- lack of knowing you’re not communicating.  Many times the management
thinks they are communicating but they are just publishing – no one is
listening, retaining or understanding.  How many times do you quiz your
audience on the important things you think they know?  Try it – you
might be surprised.