HR Technology Integration in Google: HRM0111 Managing Human Resources

This report examines Google's innovative approach to human resource management through technology integration. It details how Google uses surveys, shared documents, and its Hangout application to engage employees and improve decision-making. The report highlights Google's use of people analytics to identify employee issues and improve retention. It also discusses the challenges of over-reliance on technology and the importance of maintaining a human element in communication. The report concludes by referencing sources that support Google's effective HR strategies and innovative technological implementations.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT –
719561

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Integration of technology in HR practices.............................................................................3
Use of technology for HR management at Google................................................................3
Challenge faced by HR when integrating technology...........................................................4
References.................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The spread of globalisation has brought drastic changes in the world of business and
workplace changes have become inevitable for business organisations. In such a scenario,
business organisations are heavily relying upon their human resources in order to achieve
market competencies and are putting in their best efforts to ensure effective management of
their human resources. The latest trend in human resource management has been the
involvement of technology for carrying out various core and non-core functions and a
number of companies have used technological solutions for their advantage.
Integration of technology in HR practices
Technology is one of the biggest gifts of science to the mankind and it has been evolving at a
great pace in the past few decades. Technology has been making the life of humans easier
than ever before and has found its applications in human resource management as well.
Technology is being widely used in the field of human resource management to establish a
contact with employees, store employee information, for analysing performance, etc. with the
basic objective of achieving better management of employees.
Use of technology for HR management at Google
Google is a company that needs no introduction. The company was listed as the best
company to work with by Fortune Magazine, while most of its competitors failed to make it
in the list (Manjoo, 2013). At Google, human resource management is referred to as People
operations and most of its employees call it POPS. The company conducts a lot of surveys to
collect feedback and data from its employees, which is then used for analysis by their human
resource experts to determine the on-going issues related with the employees.
The managers at Google believe that their employees are the true subject matter experts and
should be involved in all important decision making processes. As a result, Google has
started using a shared document technology, which has helped the company in getting rid of
top-down in decision making. The company uses its technology in such a manner that when a
group of individuals approached the human resource director of Google to get their job titles
revised, the HR director gave them a challenge to brainstorm their ideas and come up with
something. To the challenge, the employees created a suite in real time and the discussion

was taken online, which evolved the discussion to a great extent. Further, Google has its
Hangout application which allows its employees to be part of meetings or to talk face-to-face
with anyone from anywhere (Bottom Line, 2014). This allows the employees to maintain a
healthier balance between their professional and work lives.
The human resource managers at Google have been using technology to collect and analyse
bundles of data obtained from employee feedbacks and calls it people analytics. The
company believes that analysing the data obtained from employees can help it in improving
the overall performance of the company and identify issues that are bothering the employees
(DEROSE, 2013). The company has become so perfect in using technology for managing its
human resources that it has created a retention algorithm that helps the managers in
identifying those employees who are more likely to become a retention problem. Based on
the results, the managers have been able to act before it’s too late and make the retention
programs more personalised. The company also has a PiLab, which is a subgroup that
conducts experiments using technological methods and finds out the best possible ways to
manage the people. From measuring the reactions of the employees to compensation and
benefit programs, the lab measures everything related to people. Based on scientific data and
experiments, this subgroup was able to improve the health of its workforce by reducing the
calories that they took just by reducing the size of the plated being used in their eating
facilities (Sullivan, 2013).
Challenge faced by HR when integrating technology
For a company like Google, it was easier to make use of technology for various purposes
because of a pool of talented technologists that it has but on the downside, preventing the
employees from being too much dependent on technology is definitely a challenge for the
company. Technology can make communication very easy but can dehumanize the human
element as the employees are not able to keep in-touch with each other, which reflects
negatively in their performance feedback if they stick to a single method of communication.
Therefore, it is also important for the company at the same time to prevent its employees
from becoming totally dependent on technology.

References
Manjoo, F., 2013. How Google became such a great place to work. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/01/google_people_operations_the
_secrets_of_the_world_s_most_scientific_human.html[Accessed 24 April 2018].
Bottom Line, 2014. How Google Humanizes Technology In The Workplace And You Can,
Too. [Online] Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3028812/how-google-humanizes-
technology-in-the-workplace-and-you-can-too[Accessed 24 April 2018].
DEROSE, C., 2013. How Google Uses Data to Build a Better Worker. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/how-google-uses-data-
to-build-a-better-worker/280347/[Accessed 24 April 2018].
Sullivan, D. J., 2013. How Google Is Using People Analytics to Completely Reinvent HR.
[Online] Available at: https://www.tlnt.com/how-google-is-using-people-analytics-to-
completely-reinvent-hr/[Accessed 24 April 2018].