Analyzing HRM: Google & Zappos Work Culture & Training Program

This report provides an analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, focusing on Google's unique office environment and employee benefits, comparing its various global offices and highlighting the impact on employee productivity. It also examines Zappos' distinctive work culture, emphasizing strategic initiatives and core values, and suggests how ABC private limited, a real estate company, can implement similar effective HR planning. Furthermore, the report discusses the importance of pre-departure training programs for international assignments, detailing the components necessary for preparing employees for success in new cultural and professional environments. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and solved assignments for students.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

2HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Comparison of Google Offices........................................................................................................3
Work Culture at Zappos and strategic initiatives to be taken..........................................................7
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
Pre Departure Training Program...................................................................................................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................15
Question 1......................................................................................................................................15
Question 2......................................................................................................................................17
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................27

3HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Task 1
Comparison of Google Offices
Google is one of the unique offices that offer wide varieties of benefits and facilities to its
employees. The management of Google gives utmost importance to all the employees to make
them feel better in the workplace which in turn helps the organization to increase its
organizational productivity (Bock 2015). The employees who first visited the company were
amused and taken back after having a glance of the office space. The office is totally different
from the other contemporary offices and seems much like a amusement place or a playground.
However these offices of the mentioned company are always innovating new and revolutionary
products and services for the future. The Google campus in different places of the world is
considered to be a good life for all the employees working there. The mentioned technology
company offers perks, comforts, privileges to all its employees which is quite different and
enviable for the employees of all the other similar companies. The HR department of the
mentioned organization is specially fitted with the task to look after the different needs and
wants of the employees and provide them accordingly. In contrast to the other HR departments in
other organizations the HR department of the said company tries to b r4ing in analytics, data and
science to serve the employees in the same way as the engineers of the company do on the
product part (Schmidt and Rosenberg 2014).
Recent reports by the company as well as reports from other independent sources have
claimed that the employees in Google are 15% more productive than the employees of other
similar companies. The reason behind this is mainly attributed to the working place environment

4HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
and the unique workplace design of the organization. The workplace design of the company is
unique in nature as because it does not match with any of the other workplaces. Such a
environment helps the employees to have the feeling of owning their individual workplace and
be as much as creative which helps in their personal as well as professional development and
increases the organizational efficiency (Schmidt and Rosenberg 2014). The different offices of
Google located in the different parts of the globe have their own set of uniqueness. The USA
office of Google in California can be taken as an example to provide insights into the work
culture of the mentioned IT Company. The office spans over 1 million square feet and is
believed to be giant entertainment zone. The campus has a total of 16 offices in them with a
variety of different features installed in each of them. First and foremost of the benefits the
company employees receive is the food which is totally free. The lunch and all the other foods
the employees have during their office hours is provided totally free of cost to the employees.
There are 18 restaurants in the campus and all of them serve a variety of food because of the
cultural mix up of the employees. The management of Google employs people from all across
the world and thus the restaurants offer a wide variety of food to the employees. This includes
Asian, Continental, Chinese, Indian, South American and many more as such. Google also
cultivates its own food inside the campus and thus provides organic vegetables and fruits. Apart
from such facilities the management of the organization has also four fully equipped gyms in
place that helps the employees to work out after a tiring days of work. These gyms have also
personal trainers who help the employees to stay fit and fine (Bock 2015).
The list of benefits goes on and on as the management has also installed a number of
sleeping pods in the offices where people are free to take a short nap. Some other benefits
include a free check up facility with a doctor present round the clock to ensure the prevention of

5HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
any accidents or other uncalled incidents. Another most important feature of the office is the
providence of laundry facilities that facilitates the employees to wash and clean their dirty shirts
after a day’s work. As mentioned by, Bock (2015) most of the offices of Google provide similar
kind of services. It will be necessary to compare the different services provided by Google in its
different offices. The comparison has been done in a table format given below;
USA CHINA BRAZIL SWITZERLAND
 Huge office
space of 1
million square
feet with 16
buildings in
the campus
 Employees are
offered
different types
of foods
absolutely free
of cost
 All types of
foods
available
because of the
variety of
 The Beijing
office of
Google is
another
innovative
workplace
 Employees
conduct
meetings in a
fun
environment
by sitting on
bin bags and
couches
 Employees are
free to sleep in
tents and
 Employees
take a nap in
the indoor
amex and
enjoys all the
different types
of opportunity
that helps
them to
increase their
perform better.
 The
employees are
free to create
their own
schedule of
their work to
 The
Switzerland
office is one of
the most hi-
tech offices in
the world.
 A psychologist
was appointed
by the owners
of the
company to
decide on the
designing and
planning of the
organization.
 A large library
as well as

6HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
employees
working in the
office. This
includes
ethnic,
continental,
Indian,
Chinese and
many more as
such
 Employees are
free to hit the
gyms for a
workout. They
are also
provided with
personal
trainers
 Laundry
facility is
available to
the employees
which is also a
sleeping igloos
constructed by
the company
help them
maintain both
their personal
as well as
professional
life.
private pods
have been kept
in place to
make the
employees
relax

7HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
unique one
and quite
different to the
other facilities
provided by
any other
organizations
Work Culture at Zappos and strategic initiatives to be taken
Zappos is one of the few companies in USA that is recognized as one of the best
companies that provides a world class working culture and ethics. The practices help the
organization to make their day to day operations smoother in nature. The managme4nt6 of
Zappos constantly creates and reinforces the corporate culture (Eremina and Puhakka 2017). The
environment that it provides to the employees is not suitable to most of the employees and also
not fit for most of them. However the professional people who fit the corporate culture want to
rather thrive to be an employee of the company. The management of the company has one of the
best leaders of the market who coordinates the culture with the Human Resources and
management work systems of the organization. The corporate culture of the following company
has been defined by the management of the organization using the ten coir values of
management. This includes;
a. Delivering WOW through a superior service
b. Embrace and drive change

8HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
c. Create fun and a little weirdness
d. Be adventurous creative and open minded
e. Pursue growth and learning
f. Building open and honest relationship with proper and effective communication
g. Build a positive team and family spirit
h. Do more with less
i. Be passionate and determined
j. Be humble
The management of the company takes specific actions each and every day that helps to
reinforce its culture of a fun workplace which is a bit strange. According to, Henson (2016) the
work culture at Zappos is really amazing and can be imitated by other companies to get success.
I am the HR consultant of ABC private limited company. Our company specializes itself
in the real estate sector. The company has its operational headquarters in Singapore and it is
involved in building and selling apartments, office spaces and other kinds of both residential and
non residential properties in Singapore. The management of the company had earlier decided to
extend its operations across South East Asia especially in neighboring countries like Vietnam,
Indonesia, Thailand and India. Managing the operations of such a huge area and ensuring a
smooth operational efficiency is a challenge to the organization. Thus it will be better to cite the
example of Zappos to have an effective HR planning in place. The case of Zappos is an eye
opener to most of the companies like ABC private limited on how to formulate, manage and
maintain an effective work culture. The process must start from the grassroots as it will help
ensure the success of the company. During the hiring process of the company it must make sure

9HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
to provide a clear picture of the culture of the company to the potential candidates. After they
gets selected a friendly training session must be conducted by the organization to make sure that
the employees of the organization can come in contact with each other. I will be focusing more
on the employees who can fit into the organizational culture and who are honest, effective and
hard working in nature. This may need some time but will ultimately result in the well being of
the organization. A detailed feedback on each candidate will be provided to me so that I can
analyze the performance of each and every of the individuals and provide my detailed report on
their proper implementation in the company to the management. The core business values as
described by the management of Zappos clearly states that the workplace must be a place where
apart from work the organization needs to implement co-curricular activities that can help the
employees stay happy. The employees must also be rewarded and recognized when they achieve
special achievements as because such a reward system motivates the employees and helps them
to increase their operational performance.
I will have to coordinate with the different departments of the company to make sure that
the employees face no problems in the workplace. The employees in the mentioned company
must be given the freedom to express themselves and innovate new ideas to facilitate the demand
of the customers. Like the core values of Zappos my company must also run on some core values
which are as follows;
a. Honesty and integrity
b. Work and enjoyment
c. Do more with less resources
d. Innovate and express

10HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
e. Freedom of Speech
f. Proper and Effective communication
g. Decision making prowess
h. Create value for the customers
i. Be passionate
The work environment must be formulated in such a way that employees will themselves
follow all the regulations and adapt themselves accordingly. The main driving force behind the
creation of such a model will be the leadership quality of the managers in charge. The
management will have to choose the best leaders from within the organization who are capable
of providing a strong and compact leadership that can help the employees to deliver the best
performance and lead the company to success in future.
Task 2
Pre Departure Training Program
Pre-departure training program is the most important for the people who are generally send
for international assignments (Aravind et al. 2017). The pre departure training programs helps
the particular person to be compatible with the objectives of the company and also ge3t an idea
of the cultural, social and political dimensions of the host country. It helps the person, to be send
for the assignment adapt to the new environment and perform in the best possible way. The
training is generally conducted in the frameworks of cultural awareness and also includes the
support for the performance of the organization. A number of different elements are generally
inducted into the personal development training programs which includes;

11HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
a. Culture profile
b. Country brief
c. Cultural adaption
d. Business etiquettes
e. Sensitivity training
f. Logistical information
g. Table manner
h. Critical cases
i. Language
In the following case a British couple with two school going children has been assigned to
take up an expat assignment in UAE in a span of just 6 months from the present time. The wife
has taken up an offer with Zayed University in the city of Abu Dhabi in a managerial post. The
husband on the other hand is an experienced music teacher. The children are aged 11 years and 6
years respectively. Thus the family must have a clear idea about the host country and its various
policies and rules. The couple will also have to ensure their Children’s admission in an
international school located in Abu Dhabi. The pre-departure training program will be conducted
for 10 days which will include discussion, class room and a 1 month training program which will
purely consist of language training programs for the couple. The trainee should be professional
and must have a transparent and thorough idea about the cultural and other paradigms of both
UK and UAE. The training program must be designed in such a way that will help the couple
feel comfortable in the host country and easily face the striking differences in culture and other
sectors.

12HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
UAE is one of the fastest changing Asian countries that offer a lot of scope in the recent
times. The city of Abu Dhabi with its marvelous structures has been the destination for a large
number of people in the recent years. The shift of the couple from an European background to a
totally new culture will involve a cultural shock. The cultural shock can only be avoided once the
couple has a proper amount of knowledge of UAE. As mentioned earlier some of the main points
that are to be incorporated within the pre-departure training program for UAE will include;
 Cultural Profile- UAE is a federal state comprising seven regions also called as
Emirates. This includes the likes of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al-Khaimah, Ajman,
Umm Al-Qaiwan and Fujairah. The region was united in the year 1971 and the oil
economy was put into place in the following years. The oil economy was the main reason
for the prosperity of the particular region (Doucet decamp and rabin, 2017).
 Demography- The mentioned country has a very small population relative to its size and
wealth. The country lied in shambles and the population lacked the basic skills before the
introduction of oil production. The oil production of the co0untry helped it to achieve
development and triggered a rapid growth of population.
 Linguistic Affiliation- The official language of the host country is Arabic. The main core
of the immigrant population is formed by the likes of the English, Hindi, Urdu and Farsi.
Commercial language of UAE is English.
 Food and Economy- Fish, rice, bread, dates, yogurt was the main diet of the people
before the 1960’s. However the food now has changed due to the availability of modern,
packaged and imported foods. These foods are available because of the presence of
modern supermarkets that offer a huge range of products. Lunch is eaten around 2’o
clock in the afternoon and the staple diet for lunch is basically rice, fish, meat and