Motivation and Engagement at Google: Best Practices and Role of Managers and Leaders

Managing Leading People
Motivation and Engagement of Employees

Table of Content
Introduction to the Report.............................................................................................................................................. 3
Company Background....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Understanding Motivation and Engagement at Workplace.............................................................................4
Motivation......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Understanding Employee Engagement................................................................................................................5
Key Practices of Motivation at Google........................................................................................................................5
Flexibility........................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Free Perks.......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Health & Happiness....................................................................................................................................................... 6
150 Ft from Food Rule................................................................................................................................................. 6
Feedback Policy...............................................................................................................................................................7
Family Coverage..............................................................................................................................................................7
Key Practices of Employee Engagement at Google...............................................................................................8
Culture of Google............................................................................................................................................................ 8
Channels of Communications....................................................................................................................................8
A Voice................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Innovation Labs...............................................................................................................................................................9
Employee Empowerment...........................................................................................................................................9
Interlink between the Managers/ Leaders and the HR Representative...................................................10
Development of the employees- Setting up of the KPI................................................................................10
Creating a Positive workplace environment...................................................................................................10
Resolving Conflicts...................................................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................................... 11
References........................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Introduction to the Report
Globalization, Tech Revolution, Workforce Diversity and Social media revolution are the
biggest drivers behind the changing business ecosystem globally. All these are also the
big influencers behind the employee motivation, empowerment and engagement which
not only enhance their productivity in the business organization, but also help the
organization to attain its goals of sustainability (Rong et. al., 2015). Managers and
leaders are the key people who have the ones of keeping the employees motivated,
engaged in the work practices by empowering them by virtue of acknowledging their
feedback and involving them in the decision making. These can also be seen as some of
the key practices which are responsible behind creating a positive workplace
environment which in turn helps in retaining the employees (Cherbakov et. al., 2005).
The report here will analyse how Google as a company engages and motivates its
employees and the roles and responsibilities of the leaders and managers in doing so.
The same will be connected with the HR practices which enable managers and leaders
to work for the development goals of the employees. The report will describe some of
the motivation theories used by Google, best practices of engagement and how the
company has been able to keep its employee motivated and engaged since its inception.
Company Background

Google, an Internet company which changed the world for good was founded by two
visionary and innovative leaders Larry Page and Sergy Bin in the year 1998. The
company which serves ads, digital services, analytics, software and hardware products
worldwide, employees over 85, 000 People and is one of the most employee’s centric
firm on the planet earth. One of the world’s best employers receives over 2 million
applications every single year; this can be potentially seen as the success of the
company in nurturing, managing, motivating and engaging its huge workforce (Case,
2016). Google across the globe is known to be the employee friendly company, who
creates policies and procedures which revolve around its employees. Google does not
call the people working for it as employees, but it calls them Googler’s, this helps the
employees to build a deeper connect with the company, eventually leading to
motivation and engagement with the workforce. The HR team at Google is always
looking out for the best practices to keep the Googlers engaged and motivated, they
work with the aim of creating a fulfilled environment for the employees (Singer, 2017).
Understanding Motivation and Engagement at Workplace
Before moving further with the topic and understanding the insight about the best
practices of motivation and engagement, along with the role of line managers, leaders
and HR, it is first important to understand the concept at length.
Motivation
Motivation is derived from the word motive which means the desires, needs, wants or
drives within the individual. Motivation can also be understood as the mechanism