Google's Human Resource Management Practices

This assignment delves into Google's effective human resource management (HRM) strategies. It examines their unique approaches to training, performance management, and fostering employee engagement. The analysis utilizes various sources, including official Google publications, industry articles, and academic research, to highlight how these practices contribute to Google's overall success and global reputation as a top employer.

Running head: HRM 0
HRM Assignment

HRM 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Google Incorporation.................................................................................................................2
HRM Nature and Characteristics...............................................................................................3
People Management Strategies, Procedures and Tools Use by Google.....................................4
Employment Engagement..........................................................................................................5
Current Problems in HR Practices of Google............................................................................5
Contribution of HRM Strategies in Google’s Success...............................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

HRM 2
Introduction
Human resource management (HRM) is defined as the business functions in a corporation
that are designed to maximize the performance of employees which assist in accomplishing
common corporate objectives. Modern companies focus on implementing an effective human
resource management model in their organizational structure to improve the efficiency of
operations which assist them in gaining a competitive advantage. Due to globalization, the
competition between enterprises is fierce which require them to implement strategic models
that focus on improving their performance. Effective human resource management models
strategically implement various policies that assess the requirements of employees and take
appropriate decisions to increase their productivity (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The HRM
department of a corporation performs various actions relating to human capital such as
recruitment, training, retention, attractions, payroll, discipline and others.
Strategic human resource management includes components of human capital, but it also
focuses on collaboratively working with employees in order to boost their performance,
increase retention rates, improve work quality and maximize job satisfaction that is beneficial
for both workers and corporation (Daley, 2012). This essay will focus on critically examine
the HR functions of ‘Google’ and analyze how corporation use them to gain competitive
advantage. The essay will evaluate characteristics, nature, procedure, tools, problems,
patterns, and trends that influence the effectiveness of HRM approach. Further, the essay will
analyze the key concept of SHRM and how ‘Google’ use them to improve their HR functions
which provide them a competitive advantage.
Google Incorporation
Google was founded in 1998 as an American multinational technology corporation; the
company operates in internet, software, and computer hardware industry and it is the
subsidiary of Alphabet Incorporation. The firm’s head office is situated in Mountain View,
California, US and it provides its services throughout the world (Google, 2017). The CEO of
the enterprise is Sundar Pichai, and it employs more than 73 thousand employees. Google’s
mission is to organize world’s information and making it accessible at a global stage; the
firm’s vision is to provide people access to world’s information in a single click. According
to Forbes (2017), the corporation is world’s second most valuable brand, and it generated

HRM 3
revenue of US$89.46 in 2016 (Statista, 2016). The company is known for its effective
management of people operations which makes it one of the best places to work; the firm
takes its human resource management decisions with the help of powerful ‘people analytics
team’.
HRM Nature and Characteristics
Human resources are the most important asset in a corporation, and strategic planning can
allow modern companies to sustain their competitive advantage. One of the key
characteristics of HRM is that it is both art and science; it is an art of managing people by
applying precious and rigorous scientific theories (Mankad, 2015). Google use powerful
‘people analytical teams’ to implement scientific policies to manage its human capital
effectively. The nature of HRM is pervasive, and it influences all categories and division of
an enterprise; it is also a continuous process which includes different functions such as
acquisition, development, utilization, and maintenance. In Google, the HRM department
focuses on all the divisions of the enterprise and continuously perform HR functions to
manage them effectively. Google’s HR department perform functions such as compensation,
hiring, training, record keeping, labor law compliance, handling performance issues and
others. The nature of HRM is service oriented rather than profit center; it serves different
departments and performs actions as a facilitator (Bartton and Gold, 2012).
HR department focuses on discharging its functions by ensuring that it did not violate any
legal regulations; Google’s HR department ensure that equal opportunity and equal pay is
provided to each employee and ensure that it is not violating any human rights. The nature of
HRM is interdisciplinary and fast-changing because it encompasses with the workforce,
welfare, personal development and close association with industrial relations (Boxall and
Purcell, 2011). The HRM practices transform as per changing market environment and
corporations have to ensure that keep their HR functions up to data as per current marking
condition. Google’s HR department focuses on various psychological, social, economic,
technical, and political inputs to ensure that they adopt as per fast-changing market
environment. HRM focus on results rather the process used to achieve such results; it is
performance oriented and encourages people to give their 100 percent. Google brings its
employees and management together to improve their performance and meet the corporate
objectives. HRM is a people-centered process, and it tries to help employees in fully
developing their potential in the organization.

HRM 4
Google’s HR department understands that it is responsible towards building the potential of
human capital since they assist in achieving organizational objectives; the company provides
various incentives, accommodations, and facilities to its employees that increase their job
satisfaction and productivity. HRM is based on human relations philosophy, and its basic
assumption is that workers are human beings and they should not be treated as factors of
production such as labor, capital or land (Wright and McMahan, 2011). Google gives
importance to each of its employees and treats them as a crucial part of the organization. The
scope of HRM includes various welfare, personal and industrial relations aspects that are
integrated with the internal management of an enterprise; it focuses on development,
utilization, and maintenance of human capital which provide a competitive advantage to the
corporation.
People Management Strategies, Procedures and Tools Use by Google
Modern corporation uses various people management strategies, procedures, and tools that
provide them a competitive advantage and sustain their future development. People
management strategies start with recruitment and selection of qualified employees; the role of
HR department is to recognize and hire the best candidate as per his/her knowledge, skillset
and expertise on a specific post (Boone, 2015). Google’s strategy starts with job designing;
the company analyses the necessary skills, knowledge, and expertise that is required to
perform a specific task before advertising a job opening. After outlining the position
requirements, the corporation develops a recruitment plan which identifies various places and
selects the best for requirement. Google hire employees from multiple sources such as online
websites, universities, talent programs, employment agencies, references and many others.
Google HR Selection Process
Google has implemented an effective selection process in which they use “structured
interviewing” strategy to manage the candidates. The HR personnel asks two types of
question: behavioral and hypothetical (Umoh, 2017). The behavioral questions provide
information about candidates past experience and hypothetical questions assess candidate’s
imagination and leadership skills. Google receives more than 2 million job application in a
year and it is difficult for them to manage them accordingly. The company uses “structured
interviewing” strategy to select only the best candidates, and its effective recruitment and
selection strategy provide them a competitive advantage (Phelps, 2014). Another people

HRM 5
management strategy is training and development program; employees are a significant asset
for an enterprise, and continual development is necessary for their growth. Google use ‘need
analysis’ strategy to evaluate the employees’ requirement such as work, organizational and
cost-benefit analysis (Lombardo, 2017). These analyses identify various human resource
needs which allow Google to implement effective training and development programs; the
programs of the firm are results oriented and HR personnel maintain a positive relationship
with employees to foster their participation in innovative and creative processes.
Employment Engagement
Employee engagement is a key part of HRM that assist in improving workers’ productivity
that allows corporations to gain competitive advantage. The corporation uses manager
feedback survey, career conversations worksheet and many other methods to increase the
engagement with workers and learn about their requirements (Feesler, 2017). The
information from engagement allows the corporation to establish reward and recognition
strategies which increase employee retention and provide the company a competitive
advantage. Google offers a lot of classes to its employees, and the workers can teach classes
on topics which interest them as well. Performance management is another people
management tool used by Google to ensure that employees are meeting their expected
requirements.
In software industry, job satisfaction and retention is a key problem which affects the
performance of companies. The corporations measure its employees’ performance and
encourages them to perform better; Google uses a curated platform called “re:Work” which
allow its employees to make their work interesting by implementing scientific principles
(Mohdin, 2015). These people management procedures and strategies prove that contribution
and wider organizational implication of HRM in practices of Google; the corporation
effectively utilizes these strategies to manage its human capital and maintain its competitive
advantage effectively.
Current Problems in HR Practices of Google
Google’s HR department face problems due to continuously changing market trends, and the
company has to update its HRM policies as per market requirements. In the software
industry, the demand for talented employees in significantly high and corporations pay high

HRM 6
salary packages to attract skilled employees. Currently, Google’s HR department deals with
similar HR problems; the corporation offers high salary packages, incentive schemes and
various other accommodations to retain talented employees in the organization. Another
current HR problem is that the number of millennial is growing in the software industry, and
corporations face issue retaining them into the organization. The requirement of
organizational culture and fulfillment of corporate ethics is grown between software
organizations; the HR department has to ensure that the company is fulfilling its corporate
responsibilities towards employees to maintain its market image (Maier, 2017). Google’s HR
department face problems while complying with various ethical principles because it requires
extensive time and resources. The company takes its corporate responsibilities very seriously
and incorporates them into its business structure; therefore, the company has a positive brand
image.
Contribution of HRM Strategies in Google’s Success
The HRM strategies contribute to the success of a company because it hires the right person
for the right designation, decide right salary package, train workers to improve productivity,
measure employees’ performance, maintain HR records, develop HR policies, resolve
employee disputes and increase job satisfaction (Chen and Huang, 2009). The firm use
recyclable products, natural energy, and other environment-friendly processes to perform its
business operations; similarly, the employees have to ensure that they are fulfilling their part
in performing company’s corporate responsibilities as well. The HR leaders and executives
maintain a positive culture in the corporations to ensure that it fulfil its corporate
responsibilities. In recent years, the performance management has revolutionized the software
industry, and companies use its methods to measure the performance of its employees and
formulate strategies to improve their performance (Bersin, 2017). The HR department also
uses real-time engagement programs which improve the interaction between employees and
management which result in increasing the overall performance of the enterprise (Shuck,
Reio Jr, and Rocco, 2011). These factors directly influence business practices in a company
and contribute to its success.

HRM 7
Conclusion
Conclusively, modern organizations use strategic human resource management to perform its
HR functions that improve the efficiency of company’s operations and provide them a
competitive advantage. The characteristics and nature of HRM include persuasiveness,
continuous process, service function, regulation-friendly, fast-changing, focus on results,
people-centered and integrated concept. Google uses people management strategies,
procedures, and tools to improve the efficiency of its operations such as effective recruitment
and selection process, employees’ engagement, training, and development program and
rewards and recognition. Google’s HR department measure and incorporates current market
position and trends to improve the efficiency of HR functions. Effective HRM practices
provide a competitive advantage to corporations and sustain their future development.

HRM 8
References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bersin, J., 2017. 9 HR Tech Trends for 2017. [Online] SHRM. Available at:
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0217/pages/9-hr-tech-trends-for-2017.aspx
[Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Boone, M., 2015. 5 People Management Strategies for Organizational Success. [Online]
LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-people-management-strategies-
organizational-success-boone-mba-mj [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Chen, C.J. and Huang, J.W., 2009. Strategic human resource practices and innovation
performance—The mediating role of knowledge management capacity. Journal of business
research, 62(1), pp.104-114.
Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management,
pp.120-125.
Feesler, L., 2017. Google is sharing its management tools with the world. [Online] Quartz.
Available at: https://qz.com/1058563/these-are-googles-tools-for-effective-management/
[Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Forbes., 2017. The World's Most Valuable Brands. [Online] Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/ [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Google., 2017. Our offices. [Online] Google. Available at:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/locations/?region=north-america&office=mountain-
view [Accessed on 04/01/2018]

HRM 9
Lombardo, J., 2017. Google’s HRM: Training, Performance Management. [Online] Panmore
Institute. Available at: http://panmore.com/google-hrm-training-performance-management
[Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Maier, S., 2017. The Top Five HR Trends For 2017. [Online] Fast Company. Available
at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3066976/the-top-five-hr-trends-for-2017 [Accessed on
04/01/2018]
Mankad, D., 2015. 10 Most Important Characteristics of Human Resource Management.
[Online] LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-most-important-
characteristics-human-resource-dirgha-mankad [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Mohdin, A., 2015. Google is now sharing its best internal HR and management advice with
the world. [Online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/536760/google-is-now-sharing-its-
best-internal-hr-and-management-advice-with-the-world/ [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Phelps, S., 2014. Cracking Into Google: 15 Reasons Why More Than 2 Million People Apply
Each Year. [Online] Forbes. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stanphelps/2014/08/05/cracking-into-google-the-15-reasons-
why-over-2-million-people-apply-each-year/#66258a902038 [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Shuck, B., Reio Jr, T.G. and Rocco, T.S., 2011. Employee engagement: An examination of
antecedent and outcome variables. Human resource development international, 14(4),
pp.427-445.
Statista., 2016. Google's revenue worldwide from 2002 to 2016 (in billion U.S. dollars).
[Online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/266206/googles-annual-
global-revenue/ [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Umoh, R., 2017. Google uses this scientifically proven method to tell if you'll be a successful
employee. [Online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/google-uses-this-
scientifically-proven-method-to-hire-employees.html [Accessed on 04/01/2018]
Wright, P.M. and McMahan, G.C., 2011. Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’back into
strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(2), pp.93-
104.