Submitted by:

Monica Xess
4645
BBS 2A
 OBJECTIVE
There is no need to introduce Google to anyone what the project encompasses is the
unconventional organizational culture Google and how it influences the recruitment
function of the HR department. Also highlight some of the key features of Google that
makes it the world’s only corporate “recruiting machine. This project also aims at
bringing out challenges faced in recruitment process by Google’s HR managers.

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 INDEX
S.NO TITLE PAGE NO.

1 Introducing Google 4–6

2 Google as a workplace 7–8

3 Recruitment @ Google 9 – 12

4 Google: the world’s first recruiting culture 13 – 15

5 Conclusion 16

6 References 17

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4
 INTRODUCING

GOOGLE’S CORPORATE INFORMATION

Public
Type NASDAQ: GOOG
LSE: GGEA

Founded Menlo Park, California (September 4, 1998)

Sergey Brin
Founder(s)
Larry Page
Googleplex, Mountain View, California,
Headquarters
United States

Area served Worldwide

Eric E. Schmidt
(Chairman) & (CEO)
Sergey Brin
Key people
(Technology President)
Larry Page
(Products President)

Industry Internet, Computer software

US$ 96.472 Billion - At market close on

Market cap
January 22, 2009

Revenue ▲31.3% US$ 21.796 Billion (2008)

Operating income ▲30.4% US$ 6.632 Billion (2008)

Net income ▲.6% US$ 4.227 Billion (2008)

Total assets ▲ US$ 31.768 Billion (2008)

Total equity ▲ US$ 28.239 Billion (2008)

Employees 20,222 - December 31, 2008

Website Google.com

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Company Overview

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally

accessible and useful.

As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
developed a new approach to online search that took root in a Stanford University dorm
room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely
recognized as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that
usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.

When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other Google domains, you'll be
able to find information in many different languages; check stock quotes, maps, and
news headlines; lookup phonebook listings for every city in the United States; search
billions of images and peruse the world's largest archive of Usenet messages -- more
than 1 billion posts dating back to 1981.

We also provide ways to access all this information without making a special trip to the
Google homepage. The Google Toolbar enables you to conduct a Google search from
anywhere on the web. And for those times when you're away from your PC altogether,
Google can be used from a number of wireless platforms including WAP and i-mode
phones.

Google's utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best known brands
almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users. As a business, Google
generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable,
cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given
page. This makes the advertising useful to you as well as to the advertiser placing it. We
believe you should know when someone has paid to put a message in front of you, so
we always distinguish ads from the search results or other content on a page. We don't
sell placement in the search results themselves, or allow people to pay for a higher
ranking there.

Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promote their products
and services on the web with targeted advertising, and we believe AdWords is the
largest program of its kind. In addition, thousands of web site managers take advantage
of our Google AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites,
improving their ability to generate revenue and enhancing the experience for their users.
To learn more about Google, click on the link at the left for the

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The Google Culture

Though growing rapidly, Google still maintains a small company feel. At the Googolplex
headquarters almost everyone eats in the Google café (known as "Charlie's Place"),
sitting at whatever table has an opening and enjoying conversations with Googlers from
all different departments. Topics range from the trivial to the technical, and whether the
discussion is about computer games or encryption or ad serving software, it's not
surprising to hear someone say, "That's a product I helped develop before I came to
Google."

Google's emphasis on innovation and commitment to cost containment means each

employee is a hands-on contributor. There's little in the way of corporate hierarchy and
everyone wears several hats. The international webmaster that creates Google's holiday
logos spent a week translating the entire site into Korean. The chief operations engineer
is also a licensed neurosurgeon. Because everyone realizes they are an equally
important part of Google's success, no one hesitates to skate over a corporate officer
during roller hockey.

Google's hiring policy is aggressively non-discriminatory and favors ability over

experience. The result is a staff that reflects the global audience the search engine
serves. Google has offices around the globe and Google engineering centers are
recruiting local talent in locations from Zurich to Bangalore. Dozens of languages are
spoken by Google staffers, from Turkish to Telugu. When not at work, Googlers pursue
interests from cross-country cycling to wine tasting, from flying to Frisbee. As Google
expands its development team, it continues to look for those who share an obsessive
commitment to creating search perfection and having a great time doing it.

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 AS A WORKPLACE

What makes working here so inspiring?

• Our 20% time program gives engineers the opportunity to pursue personal
interests in their work.

• Our work environment reflects the needs of our employees, including flexible
hours, family programs, mothers’ rooms, and transgender-friendly restrooms.

• Employee resource groups (ERGs) actively participate in building community and

driving policy at Google.

• Google’s Council on Disability meets twice annually to weigh in on accessibility

issues internally and externally.

Employee Resource Groups

At Google, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) get a great deal of company support
and draw their membership from across the globe. Google ERGs create networks within
the company that reach across functional and national boundaries to strengthen the
company’s retention programs. They provide valuable feedback about the workings of
Google’s HR programs and policies, as well as provide valuable opportunities for
personal growth and professional development. We are proud to be recipients of awards
honoring us for our inclusive work environment, including:

• HRC Corporate Equality Index 100% Rating (2007, 2008, 2009)

• The Times UK "Top 50 Places Women Want to Work" (2007, 2008)

• Fortune Magazine's #1 on 100 Best Companies To Work For (2007, 2008)

Other international groups, like the Gayglers (Googler’s GLBT employees), help us
connect with the communities in which we work (and play), worldwide. To learn more
about how Google values an inclusive work environment, visit the official Google blog
series, Interface, with submissions from our employee resource group members.
Our Employee Resource Groups include: Asian American Googler Network, Black
Googler Network, Gayglers (the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] affinity
network), Google American Indian Network, Google Disability Network, Google Women's
Network, Google Women Engineers, Female Googler Leadership Community, Hispanic
Googler Network, Indus Googler Network, Mosaic (cross-network groups)

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Equal Opportunity

At Google, we are committed to a supportive work environment, where employees have

the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Each Googler is expected to do his or her
utmost to create a respectful workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation,
bias and unlawful discrimination of any kind.

Equal Opportunity Employment Statement

Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and qualifications directly related
to professional competence. We strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment of
any kind, including discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion,
veteran status, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or
expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sexual
orientation or any other characteristics protected by law. We also make all reasonable
accommodations to meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.

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 RECRUITMENT @

Google was ranked by Fortune magazine as the best place in the U.S. to work, and it
has reached another zenith by becoming the most popular Web site. It's even become a
verb in the dictionary.

Googles culture:

Googles culture could be characterized

as one that is team-oriented, very
collaborative and encouraging people to
think nontraditionally, different from
where they ever worked before--working
with integrity and for the good of the
company and for the good of the world,
which is tied to our overall mission of
making information accessible to the
world.

Recruitment @ Google:

As one of Silicon Valley's hottest

companies, Google has become a
beacon for job seekers. In just a few
short years, the interest has helped the
company amass an arsenal of what is
arguably among the world's top
technology minds.

Getting hired in Google is a trick millions are working their minds on.

Google hires nine new workers a day. In less than two years, the number of employees
has more than tripled to 4,989.

Google’s Hiring mantra:

Rather than search for one particular skill set, Rasmussen explained, all Google asks of
potential employees is that they be "smart". Google normally hires workers as
generalists, unlike other companies that tell new hires more precisely what their role will
be.

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Google-y is defined as somebody who is fairly flexible, adaptable and not focusing on
titles and hierarchy, and just gets stuff done.

So, we put a lot of focus in our hiring processes when we are interviewing to try to
determine first and foremost does the person have the skill set and experience potential
to do the job from a background standpoint in addition to academics and credentials. But
also are they going to be good culture or team fits. Team-building and bonding is one of
the essential feature of a job at Google.

Why is Hiring a major challenge for Google:

Hiring is a major challenge is the main challenge of Google.

• Growth of Google:
The growth spurt is being fueled by a gangbusters-like online advertising market
and Google's boundless ambition, including new initiatives in everything from
wireless Internet access to video downloads. Therefore it’s [manpower] probably
our scarcest resource. Even though it is growing at quite a phenomenal pace, it
is always short of engineers and we always want to find more.

• Growing number of applicants:

Every month, aspiring workers deluge the popular Mountain View search engine
with up to 150,000 resumes, equivalent to a stack of paper at least 50 feet high.
And the firm claims to read each and every one.

• Competition:
Competition for the best and brightest is fierce. Rivals Yahoo Inc., in Sunnyvale,
and Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., plus startups, are trying to reel in many
of the same job applicants, igniting occasional bidding wars.

• Resorts to using poaching often resulting in lawsuits:

Google's also hiring superstars. These include Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's
founding fathers,Kai-Fu Lee (a former Microsoft executive and expert in
technology that turns speech into text),and Louis Monier, founder of the early
search engine AltaVista, has an undisclosed technical role. Secrecy is
sometimes critical. If tipped off, companies from which Google is trying to poach
could start a bidding war or retaliate against a potential defector.

• Heavy expenses to lure workers and retaining them by offering perks no

other organization thinks of providing:
To lure workers, Google offers perks, including free cafeteria meals, free use of
laundry machines, a child care center, a free annual one-night ski trip (resort
destinations vary depending on office location), dog-friendly offices and an on-
site doctor. Engineers can devote 20 percent of their time to projects of their
choice. In addition to posting job openings in newspapers and online, Google
recruits at universities, offers computer science students free pizza, hosts a
software programming competition, and invites technology clubs to hold their
meetings at its headquarters. Last year, the company won attention for
publishing a booklet of 21 problems, called the Google Labs Aptitude Test.

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 Readers of several technology magazines were asked to mail in their answers
and promised that Google would get in touch with them if they scored well.
Extensive college hiring program, among other efforts was incorporated by
Google.

• Workforce diversity:
Another problem it faces is with respect to workforce diversity. This diversity
leads to differences in culture and the way they behave and several other
aspects causing difficulty for the HR mangers to motivate people of different
backgrounds.

Googles recruitment is Disruptive Recruitment in the sense that:

Google, through its branding, PR, and recruiting efforts, has made itself so well known
and attractive to professionals from every industry and university that they have
essentially changed the game of recruiting forever. If you know anything about
technology, you know that people in the field use the term “disruptive technology” for
technologies like Apple’s iPod, which has almost overnight changed the entire
technology and entertainment marketplace to the point where everyone must pay
attention to what that firm is doing. Google has created the same phenomenon in the
form of a “disruptive approach” to work and recruiting, an approach so different and so
compelling that if you don’t pay attention and attempt to emulate some of the things
they’re doing, you might soon lose some of the very best employees you have.

Google’s recruitment process:

Google's recruitment process is based largely on a series of interviews with a series of

different interviewers. Through a range of interview topics from programming questions
to general logic puzzles to personality checks, so as to be able to size up how skilled
and intelligent a person is.

"The interview process is... 'Intense' is a word I often here from people that get
interviewed," is what Rasmussen (Head Engineer of Google Australia) had to say about
the recruitment process at Google.

The interviewers try to avoid "trick questions", they do aim to ask "unusual" questions
that are not geared towards any particular skills or experiences in an effort to measure
how well a candidate does on something they haven't worked on before.

It may take anything from four to a dozen interviews before Google hopefuls get a shot
at working at the search engine.

Role of the human resource manager at Google incorporates the following

functions:

Working with employees around the world to figure out ways to maintain and enhance
and develop our culture and how to keep the core values we had in the very beginning--
a flat organization, a lack of hierarchy, a collaborative environment--to keep these as we
continue to grow and spread them and filtrate them into our new offices around the
world.

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Seeking employees to play a part in being involved in keeping our culture the way it is
today but also growing and developing it. So some of it is coming up with different
programs or processes, and just being there to talk with people when they have issues,
setting up Web sites where people can report bugs in their culture and ideas on how to
improve it.

What employee’s want from Google?

Four or five years ago, Larry and Sergey wanted to find out how happy people are and
what it's going to take to keep them working at the company. The results ended up being
centered a lot on career development and growth. So career development is more of a
focus than giving more stock options or increasing salaries.

More money up front

Many competing firms claim Google has driven up salaries for software programmers by
nearly 50 percent in recent years.

Historically, Google has paid workers less than the industry standard and showered
them with stock options. That paid off for approximately 1,000 Google employees in
2004, when the company's high-profile initial stock offering made them instant
millionaires. Although the firm's present pay structure is a closely guarded secret, one
can assume hundreds, if not thousands, more have become worth seven figures, at
least on paper, considering that Google's stock is now hovering above the $400 mark, a
nearly five-fold increase from its premiere.

Giving a taste of the culture

It is great to be part of a community of like-minded people all around the world," he said.
"I am constantly impressed by the intelligence and enthusiasm of my colleagues.
Everyone at the company seems to really enjoy what they do, and people sincerely
believe that they can make a difference. It is extremely motivating to show up each day
to the office knowing that your work will be seen by millions of people."

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THE WORLD’S FIRST RECRUITING
CULTURE

Google has accomplished something that no other corporation has ever accomplished.
In less than a handful of years, they have developed what can only be categorized as a
“recruiting machine.” Now, Google still doesn’t have the best sales and marketing
strategy nor are they the best when it comes to the use of metrics, but what they have
done better than anyone else is to develop the world’s first “recruiting culture”.

What that means is that recruiting and the need for it permeates the entire organization.
Not just the recruiting function or the HR organization, but the entire company — from
the key leaders on down to the entry-level employees. As a result of this culture, not only
does Google fund recruiting to the point where the function is in a league by itself, but
they have also gone to the extraordinary step of changing the way employees work in
order to attract and retain the very best.

Google Has Changed Work Itself with “20% Time”

Many organizations have changed their pay or benefits in order to attract better workers,
but no one has changed every professional job in the company just so that the work
itself is the primary attraction and retention tool. Rather than letting work, jobs, and job
descriptions be put together by the “out of touch” people in corporate compensation,
Google’s founders (Larry and Sergey as everyone calls them), HR director Stacy
Sullivan, and the leadership team at Google have literally crafted every professional job
and workplace element so that all employees are:

• Working on interesting work

• Learning continuously
• Constantly challenged to do more
• Feeling that they are adding value

The key element of changing the work so that the work itself becomes a critical attraction
and retention force and driver of innovation and motivation is what Google calls “20%
work.” There is no concrete definition of what 20% work means, but generally for
professional jobs it means that the employee works the equivalent of one-day-a-week on
their own researching individually selected projects that the company funds and
supports. Both Google Groups and Google News products are reported to have started
as a result of personal 20% time projects. Other firms, like Genentech and 3M, have
utilized similar programs, and although I’ve spent time at both firms, I find the Google
approach to be clearly superior. Despite not being clearly publicized on their website, it

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is so easy to understand and so compelling that just the mention of 20% time excites
applicants and current employees like no other program I’ve ever come across. In
addition to being a phenomenal attraction tool, it also keeps their retention rate at, as
one HR executive put it “almost Nil.” But its greatest value is that it drives innovation and
creativity throughout the organization.

At Google, innovation is expected of everyone in every function, not just product

development. The 20% time, along with the expectation of continuous and disruptive
innovation, has driven the company’s phenomenal success in product and service
innovation. Yes, in this rare case, HR activities and policies are actually driving corporate
business success.

One Thousand Millionaires:

Yes, it is a fact that Google created an estimated 1,000 millionaire employees when they
went public (they could be billionaire employees by the time you read this case study, if
the stock price keeps growing and its current rate!).

The public awareness of such widely held wealth among employees actually brings in a
volume of resumes from people who want to “work for the money” rather than the joy of
being at the firm that celebrates innovation more than any other company on the planet.
Other ways that the wealth is distracting include the difficulty of motivating and managing
individuals with sudden wealth and the almost inevitable “us versus them” mentality that
is caused by the significant wealth differential between people hired before and after the
IPO. My conclusion is that stock options are not the primary attractor of top talent at
Google. Instead, it’s the work.

The World’s Largest Recruiting Budget:

Google recruiting is the best-funded recruiting function in any major product-driven

corporation.

Director of HR, have done what can only be classified as an unbelievable job in
convincing senior management to fund the recruiting effort beyond that of any
corporation in history. My own calculations indicate that, at times, Google recruitment
has a ratio of 1 recruiter for every 14 employees (14:1). That ratio surpasses the
previous record of 65:1, held by Cisco during the first war for talent in the late ’90s. If on
the surface this ratio doesn’t impress you, I might suggest that you compare it to the
typically much larger ratio of employees to all HR professionals, which is about 100:1.
Because “building a business case” is an essential factor for building a recruiting culture
(or even for having a strategic impact), their funding level puts Google in a class by itself!

The Benefits Are Breathtaking:

Before I highlight the extraordinary benefits that Google offers, it is important to note that
although these benefits are certainly so breathtaking that they do in fact get almost every
potential applicant’s attention, they are not designed just for recruiting purposes. Instead,
these benefits are also designed to encourage collaboration, to break down barriers
between functions, and to stimulate individual creativity and innovation. These benefits
do attract some of the “wrong people,” that is, talented individuals who are seeking
benefits rather than an opportunity to do their best work, which creates a screening

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challenge. In addition, some also argue that such a wealth of benefits and opportunities
to play distracts less-focused workers from their jobs. The take away for other firms is
that, even if you do match Google’s “non-work” benefits which are not automatically
going to attract the very best and the most innovative. To do that you also need a strong
“employment brand” and jobs that are designed to continually challenge and grow
employees.

A partial list of Google’s “I bet you don’t have that where you work” benefits include:

• Flex hours for nearly every professional employee

• Casual dress everyday (and this goes well beyond business casual)
• Employees can bring their dogs to work, everyday
• On-site physician
• On-site dental care
• Health benefits that begin as soon as an employee reports for work
• Free massage and yoga
• Shoreline running trails
• Stock options everywhere
• Free drinks and snacks everywhere (espresso, smoothies, red bull, health drinks,
kombucha tea, you name it)
• Free meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner (some have described this as a
feast with multiple locations and world-class chefs, including one that cooked for
the Grateful Dead)
• Three weeks’ vacation during the first year
• Free recreation everywhere, including video games, foosball, volleyball and pool
tables
• Valet parking for employees
• Onsite car wash and detailing
• Maternity and parental leave (plus new moms and dads are able to expense up
to $500 for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with
their new baby)
• Employee referral bonus program
• Near site child care center
• Back-up child care for parents when their regularly scheduled child care falls
through
• Free shuttle service to several San Francisco and East and South Bay locations
(San Francisco is 45 miles away from the main campus)
• Fuel efficiency vehicle incentive program ($5,000 assistance if you buy a hybrid)
• Onsite dry cleaning, plus a coin-free laundry room
• A Friday TGIF all-employee gathering where the founders frequently speak
• A 401k investment program
• A “no tracking of sick days” policy
• Employee interest groups (formed by Google employees, these are all over the
map and are said to include Buffy fans, cricketers, Nobel prize winners, and a
wine club)
• An onsite gym to work off all of the snacks

*Note: These benefits are not all available to employees who do not work on Google’s
Silicon Valley main campus. So what else drives the excellence of Google’s recruiting
efforts? Next week I’ll look at Google’s approach to referrals, international recruiting, and
employment branding, as well as some weaknesses in the Google approach.

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 CONCLUSION
Google has one of the most interesting organizational cultures. They are not only one of
the fastest and most useful web search engines around; they are also one of the top 100
companies to work for according to Fortune (2007).

Google strives to have the fastest, most reliable search engine on the web and in order
to accomplish this; Google has to hire employees that are the best in their technological
field. Google rewards their employee's hard work with an extremely relaxed workplace
that encourages creativity

"There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments

that contribute to the company's overall success" (Google Corporate Information. Google
understands that their employee's have active lives outside of the workplace and they
encourage their employees to bring those parts of their lives into the Google employee
community

It is this sort of culture that creates individuals that have the desire and the motivation to
stay with a company.

This desire allows the company's employees to work towards the same goals and
intensifies the bond that they share. Google tends to have a low turn over rate and
receives over 1,300 applications a day (Fortune, 2007).

The Google employees also have a sense of team instead of self so this encourages
them to work together to achieve goals rather than compete against one another. This
also prevents unethical behavior.

I believe that Google embodies the team orientation primary characteristic of

organizational culture. As stated earlier, Google encourages its employees to work and
play together so that a family bond is formed. According to Google (2007), "Meetings
that would take hours elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for
lunch and few walls separate those who write code from those who write checks." This
really does reinforce a team environment. Everyone is pretty much on the same level
and everyone works together. The limited walls in the building help the employees to feel
like a group rather than an outsider in another department.

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 REFERENCES

• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/868839/the_organizational_culture_that
_exists_pg3.html?cat=3

• http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html

• http://www.money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2007/snapshots/1.h
t

• http://news.cnet.com/Meet-Googles-culture-czar/2008-1023_3-6179897.html?
tag=nw.1

• http://www.ere.net/2005/12/05/a-case-study-of-google-recruiting/

• http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/166548/google_recruitment_process_r
evealed

• http://uwp.edu/~crooker/343-hrm/articles/recruit-google-sfc-121805.htm

• http://wikipedia.com

• http://google.com

• http://msn.com

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