The Impact of Training & Development on Employee Engagement at Google

This research report investigates the connection between training and development programs and employee engagement within Google. It begins with an overview of human resource management practices, highlighting the importance of training and development in retaining talented employees and improving business performance. The report addresses the challenge of retaining quality employees and explores how HR practices, particularly training and development, can enhance employee performance, engagement, and retention. The research aims to evaluate the significance of training within Google, analyze its impact on performance and reputation, and determine if training opportunities are equitable across genders. Using a literature review approach, the study gathers secondary data to assess the effectiveness of HR practices in employee engagement and retention, emphasizing the role of recruitment, selection, and training in fostering a positive work environment and achieving competitive advantages for Google. The report also touches upon research methodologies, including the use of interpretivism philosophy, deductive approach, exploratory design, and qualitative data analysis, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Thematic analysis is used to evaluate the gathered data from journals and articles.

Research Project
“Are training and development connected to
employee engagement in Google
organisation?"
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................8
RESEARCH AND FINDINGS.....................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................14
Limitations.....................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
Human resource management introduces the process of hiring, selecting, imparting
training and development, motivating employees, engaging and maintaining proper relations
with employees etc. This process is important in attracting and retaining talented employees
within a working environment (Nankervis and et. al., 2019). There are two effective practices of
HR i.e. training and development and employee engagement. These practices help an
organisation in retaining employees for a longer time period. Main purpose of this report is to
recognise the significance of training and development in employee engagement (Carbery and
Cross, 2018).
Background of the company
Google is a chosen organisation for this research project. It is an American multinational
technology company that was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google is
specialising in producing internet services and products that include search engine, online
advertising technologies, cloud computing, hardware and software. Company wants to improve
their business performance and reputation that is only possible with the use of HR practices. This
is important for Google to increase employee engagement by organising training and
development events. Therefore, employee engagement is important in increasing employee
retention that results in improved business reputation and performance.
Importance of the topic
Current research topic is important for each and every organisation because this will
helps them in increasing their understanding about the importance of engaged employees at
workplace. Engaged employees are more capable to help an organisation to mitigate sudden
changes within the wave of an economy with their effective performance, ability and
innovativeness to change crisis into opportunity.
Problem statement
Today it is the biggest challenge for human resource management to retain quality
employees at the workplace. This challenge has a negative impact on business by reducing their
organisational performance and growth. In order to overcome this challenge, HR practices are
important because these help in increasing employee performance, engagement and retention.
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These are effective for Google in successfully retention of highly experienced employees at the
workplace.
Research aim and objectives
Research aim: Main aim of this research project is “To identify the effectiveness of training and
development in increasing employee engagement within a workplace of an organisation: A study
on Google
Research objectives:
 To evaluate about the importance and value of training and development inside Google
organisation
 To analyse about the impact of training and development on the performance and
organisation reputation
 To determine if men and women are trained differently in Google in order to take upper
management
 To investigate about some strategic ways of training & development that can be adopted
by Google to increase efficiency and performance
Research questions
 How important is training and development in a large organisation like Google?
 Are men versus women trained equally to become managers in Google?
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the technique and process of gathering secondary information about
any topic. There are various sources that helps researcher in collecting of secondary data about
the training and development and its effectiveness in employee engagement and retention. These
sources are articles, journals, books etc. Therefore, literature review of the present study is
explained as below:
Explanation about the two HR practices
According to the Perucci (2018), practices of human resource involve the strategic
operations of HR. There are two selected HR practices i.e. recruitment and selection and training
and development. Both practices are explained in detailed manner;
Recruitment and selection: This is one of the main HR practice that helps in recruitment
and selection of the best candidate at the right place. There are different ways that help HR in
recruitment and selection of applicable candidates. These ways are; panel based-interview, better
advertising for job opening, internship, video interviewing etc. These are the main methods that
help an organisation in its recruitment and selection process. For example: Google is a
multinational company that uses this practice of HR (Lawler, 2020). There are different ways
used by Google for recruiting and selecting the best candidate i.e. job searching, interviews,
online etc.
Training and development: This is another HR practice that helps in increment of
employees’ knowledge about the business. This practice of HR helps business organisations in
increasing their employee engagement in business activity. This has an impact on business
performance and reputation (Doz, 2020). As trained employees perform their all tasks and
activities in an effective manner that results in improved productivity and performance. Training
and development helps in increasing employee retention that turns to effect on business
reputation in a positive manner.
Theoretical framework on HR practices
Recruitment and selection and training and development are two selected HR practices
that help in employee engagement and retention. There is a theoretical framework of both HR
practices. These are shown as below:
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Figure 1: Practices of Human resource Management
(Source: Practices of Human resource Management, 2021)
From the above mentioned theoretical framework of HR practices, it has been interpreted
that recruitment and selection and training and development are essential in increasing employee
engagement and retention. This is important for Google to provide same training to their male
and female employees because this will helps in increment of employee engagement. Effective
training is essential in increasing employee engagement within a workplace. Recruitment and
selection is also important HR practice (Cho, Lee and Shin, 2019). For this, Google recruited
talented and highly experienced people that they never want to leave particular organisation from
another. Along with this, there are various advantages of trained and engaged employees for
Google i.e. helps in transforming crisis in opportunity, improving human capital structure, helps
in accomplishment of competitive benefits, facilitate in retaining finest talent, improve business
performance and reputation etc.
Effectiveness of HR practices in employee engagement and retention
According to Pellegrini, Rizzi and Frey (2018), human practices such as training and
development and recruitment and selection is effective in employee engagement and employee
retention. Recruitment and selecting is the method starts to recruit employees for conducting
different activities in the organization and retention of employee starts from the day employees is
selected in the organization. Google makes budget for advertising requirement of employees for
vacant positions in the workplace. This package helps in sourcing right kind of employee in the
workplace for conducting particular activities to attain targets of organization in the workplace.
Google makes sure that they find gaps in skill and knowledge of employees working in the
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organization so that those employees could be sent to training and development and new
employees could be recruited that could contribute in attaining targets of company. Google also
uses different types of recruitment process so that extensive selection of talent could be done and
engagement of employees could be increased in the workplace. The process of recruitment
focuses on selecting those employees that could be easily grown with the working culture and
environment of Google.
As per the training and development is another practice of human resource that has great
contribution in increasing employee engagement and retention of best talent. It provides greater
career opportunities to employees that could assist in developing career of employees. This
developmental increases engagement of employees as it offers flexibility in working in the
workplace. This helps employees of Google to give attention to their personal life that could be
part time study or part time job (Bell and Moore, 2018). This type of training sessions also helps
in using their new skill and knowledge to do various activities and tasks in the workplace so that
they could become more effective and efficient in different sectors. Hence, human practices have
great role in engaging employees and retaining great workforce in the organization.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is the process of gathering and evaluating information regarding
the topic. There are several methodologies that are effective in secondary data collection and
evaluation. These are described as below:
Research philosophy: There are basically two types of research philosophies which are
positivism and interpretivism. These are two philosophies but according to the existing topic,
interpretivism philosophy is useful and beneficial for researcher because it helps them in
collecting and evaluating qualitative and secondary data (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). As compared
to positivism philosophy, interpretivism is more valuable because it does not consume maximum
time and cost.
Research approach: Approaches within a research are important in evaluating gathered
information effectively. There are two significant approaches to the research, which are inductive
and deductive. These are essential approaches of the research but for evaluating information
about the effectiveness of training and development in increasing employee engagement within a
workplace of an organisation, deductive approach is more beneficial (Willmott, 2020). Main
purpose behind the use of deductive approach is it is a cost and time effective approach as
compared to inductive approach.
Research design: There are different types of research designs which are exploratory,
experimental and descriptive. These are main types but according to the existing topic or
research, exploratory design is useful. Therefore, exploratory design is used by researcher
because it helps in collecting, evaluating and using qualitative data within minimum time.
Descriptive and experimental designs are not effective within a project because it takes
maximum time and based on primary data (Newman and Gough, 2020).
Research strategy: There are numerous approaches to the research strategy such as action
research, survey, case study, literature review and many others. All these are essential
approaches but within a research project literature review is a chosen approach of research
strategy (Teoh, 2019). Main purpose behind the selection of literature review approach is it helps
in gathering secondary data from various sources i.e. articles, books, publication research,
magazines etc.
Research choice: There are two essential choices of the research i.e. qualitative and
quantitative. Both choices are effective in own way but in accordance to the current research
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project, qualitative is a selected research choice. There are different advantages of using
qualitative research i.e. saves money, helps in gathering secondary data, time-effective and many
others. All these are main beneficial within a research project because it helps in accomplishment
of research aim and objectives (Lai, 2018).
Data collection: There are two significant methods of data collection i.e. primary and
secondary. These are essential in collecting information about any topic or study. There are
various instruments of collecting primary information such as interview, questionnaire,
observation, focus groups and many others. There are also several sources of collecting
secondary data i.e. books, journals, publication research and many others. Therefore, both
methods of data collection are essential in their own way but for gathering information about the
effectiveness of training and development in increasing employee engagement within a
workplace of Google, secondary sources are used by researcher. Therefore, within a research
project, only a secondary method of data collection is applied for attaining each objective in a
successful manner. There are various benefits of using a secondary method of data collection i.e.
ease of access, low cost or free, time effective, longitudinal analysis etc. Thus, as compared to
primary data, secondary data is more valuable in present investigation (Davidavičienė, 2018).
Research ethics: Ethics are important within a research project. There are several
principles of research ethics such as maintaining confidentiality of research, mitigating the risk
of harm and many others. These are the main principles that should be used by researcher in
current project because it facilitates the completion of each activity in an ethical and successful
manner (Gear, Eppel and Koziol-Mclain, 2018).
Data analysis: This is the process of evaluating gathered data from analytical tool. In
accordance to the present study, qualitative data was gathered from secondary sources i.e.
journals, articles etc. For evaluating this type of information, thematic analysis is used as an
analytical technique. Main purpose behind the use of thematic analysis is it is cost and time
effective and helps in evaluating of data through different themes.
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RESEARCH AND FINDINGS
Importance and value of training and development inside Google organization
Training and development is one of the human resource practices in Google organization
because it gives opportunity of expanding the knowledge base of workforce. It provides both the
individual employees and the company as a whole with advantages that make the time and cost
an investment that is worthwhile (Fletcher, Alfes and Robinson, 2018). So, it is simply
understood that training and development holds value and importance in Google. Some of the
importance is given below:
Addressing weaknesses of employees
Google also has employees that are weak in their job role and responsibility. The training
program of Google allows strengthening the skills of all those employees that need improvement.
A program of development takes every employee towards higher level so every personnel could
have same knowledge and skill (Slavković and Slavković, 2019).
Improving performance of employees
For Google training and development is valuable because it assists in providing necessary
knowledge and skill to employees for performing assigned job. Employees become more aware
about the proper processes and safety practices for performing basic activities. The training helps
in building confidence of employees because they build strong understanding about the
responsibility and industry of job.
Job satisfaction among employees
Google offers access of training and development to employees who ultimately give certain
advantages to the company as workforce become more active and satisfied with its job.
Investment done by Google on training and development generates feeling among employees
that they are being valued in the company. Employees who feel challenged and appreciated
through opportunities of training feel great satisfaction towards their job.
There are different types of human practices used by Google because it assists in managing
and organizing employees in the workplace successfully. It has been observed by Google that
their managers play important role for increasing the performance and retention of employees.
So, human resource adopts practice of rating managers by employees twice in a year so that right
employee could be retained in the organization.
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Google’s PiLab is a unique subgroup that focuses on applying experiments in Google for
determining effective approach to manage people and maintain productive environment and it
also includes the kind of reward that makes workforce satisfied in the company (Ristic and
Qureshi, 2020).
Impact of T&D on the performance and organization reputation
As per the gathered data through secondary sources, it is understood that there is positive
impact of training and development on the performance and reputation of organization because
employees have great knowledge and appropriate skill to perform their assigned role and
responsibility of job. Learning is very important from the point of view of organization because
employees are the people who carry out activities and task at right time so that objectives and
goals could be easily achieved (Milner, McCarthy and Milner, 2018). There is positive effect on
organization because it increases the capability of employees to attain self targets as well as
targets of organization. It creates positive environment in the workplace of Google as every
employee is assigned job as per their knowledge and skill and if their performance is not as per
the set standard then they are being sent to attend learning and training sessions.
Employees retain in the same company as they are offered with challenging developmental
opportunities that stick them in the same organization and they are the only people who spread
great word of mouth about the organization in the market. Another positive impact is with the
assistance of great training and development employees improves the level of customer service
as they are able to clearly explain the features and characteristics of products to proposed
customers. Hence, training and development increases the customer base for the organization in
the presence of different competitors (Smith, 2019).
Retaining best employee in the organization is very significant so Google also adopt various
retention theories so that it could retain best talent in the workplace. Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs, this is the theory consider by Google because it emphasizes on requirements of company
by considering basic needs of workforce which may include payment, job security and health.
This increases confidence and motivation level among employees as their needs are being given
importance.
If men and women are trained differently in Google in order to take upper management and
retention statistics with the assistance of human resource practices
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As per the secondary information gathered in literature review, it is determined that women
and men are not trained differently in Google to take upper management because Google is
always concerned about giving equal opportunities to each and every employees. Google has
strong policies that do not support gender biasness and strict actions are taken if any biasness is
done on the basis of gender. Male as well as female are sent for training and learning programs
as per their capabilities not on the basis of gender and the company makes sure that every
employee is getting right type of training on the basis of their assigned job role and responsibility
(Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas, 2019).
As per the annual report of CIPD, 2017 it is determined that median rate of labor turnover
had increased in comparison to previous surveys. There are over four-fifths of companies that are
facing challenges in retaining workforce in the workplace and it is also recorded that two-fifths
of the companies are concerned about taking appropriate initiatives for improving staff retention.
So, Google has taken step of improving staff retention by increasing opportunities of learning
and development and this has really assisted in improving retention rate of employees in the
organization. Another human resource practice is recruitment and selection through which
company focuses on retaining employees from starting of their sourcing. In this practice
applicants are being observed by the interviewer so that requirements and needs of new
employee could be identified if those match with the goals of organization or not.
New employee is provided with right guidance at the time of joining so that the person could
easily adjust with the culture of organization and work with full enthusiasm and motivation to
achieve pre-defined targets of company. Hence, it could be summarized as that Google does not
differentiate between male and female employees in the workplace and they all are provided with
equal opportunity to show their capability. These employees are promoted to top management as
per their performance in the organization and their skill to handle different operations of
company (Balan and et. al., 2020).
Strategic ways of training & development that can be adopted by Google to increase efficiency
and performance
As per the secondary sources it is determined that Google focuses on employee to employee
network called “g2g” for boosting knowledge of employees. G2G stands for Googler-to-
Googler. This is the programme of Google in which on board employees volunteer to train and
teach their fellow employees. This is the method of training and development of Google that is
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