Innovation from Google’s free food strategy

Innovation from Google’s Free Food Strategy
I would like to begin by saying that I am usually not jealous or envious of many people but I have to say I am actually jealous of all the googlers. That being said I know now if I was to ever own my business I will make sure to first read Laszlo Bock’s book “WORK RULES! INSIGHTS FROM INSIDE GOOGLE THAT WILL TRANSFORM HOW YOU LIVE AND LEAD” I believe this book can help transform the way we conduct our businesses and how we treat our employees. It’s the new way of looking at the workforce, the old view was to invest in your business and not employees but new view is when you invest in your employees the rest will follow. Google’s HR along with owners has proven this by providing the great perks like free food, free rides, dry cleaning services, great maternity leave and much more that happier employees leads to a productive workforce.
Google’s business model is stated on their website as follows; “We strive to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues. Our offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play.” (Google, culture)
I have to say the startup like culture would explain their continuous growth throughout the years and it just keeps happening. Human resources at google is treated as a science rather than a department. They experiment with new ideas and are not afraid to try new things in order to bring out the best in their employees. The old and popular believe of not investing in your employees is obviously not accepted by the google executives. They want to invest in their employees so they are bringing forth their best ideas. They also make a culture of not being afraid to share ideas, which is the reason why googlers, as they refer to themselves, keep coming forth with great new productive ideas.
The culture at google can best be described as one of a classroom with a great professor who keeps pushing his/her students to brainstorm together with classmates in hopes of providing his/her students with a great team building experience and also not being afraid to speak their mind without the fear of failing. While watching the video shared by Professor Nelson in blackboard, titles Google interns first week, it was very clear that management is asked to make all new comers and interns feel comfortable and know that even they can make a difference even if they are there for a short period of time. At google they like to flip the phrase “don’t be afraid to fail” into “don’t be afraid to succeed.” That must be a great feeling to work for a company even for a short period of time where you are told to believe in yourself and keep trying until you succeed.
Some other companies out there hold employees accountable for trying and failing, but at google they appreciate the fact that at least you tried. Management is trained to step in if they see that a team or an employee needs help and try to help them succeed and step out as soon their help is no longer needed. This approach is being used by all managers at google and has proven to be effective and allows employees to take pride in their work and know that they can always go to someone for help if they need it without being treated differently for not knowing something.
Now we all ask ourselves what we can do to get so lucky and work for google or in other words become a googler. I feel like I have the answer to this but is it good enough? Well only the recruiters at google would know that. According to Laszlo Bock to work at google you don’t have to have a fancy Ivy League degree to show, or experience, all you need is cognitive ability. We all may feel like we have it but apparently at google when you interview you will get asked some really simple questions and all you have to do answer them so that you can impress the googler interviewing you and voila you have the job. Laszlo tells Charlie Rose in the interview that some of the top 50 googlers don’t even have degree, yes, they never finished college. What they do have is an imagination and they are not afraid to succeed. They are willing to try new things and are willing to put their ideas out there even if they feel like it might not be worth sharing.
Another article that I read helped me understand more of what Laszlo Bock is referring to when he says management needs to have a broader point of view. In this article The Evolution of Management, the author talks about the different styles of management that have been adopted by leaders to date and it seems that what used to work before just will not get the job done today.
“After a century of trying to control people, processes and information, we have come to a point in organizational history where we need to recognize that what worked before just simply isn’t enough anymore.” This goes to prove that over time just like everything else evolves our behaviors towards our colleagues has to evolve as well. And management has to learn the new behaviors of his/her employees. The Millennials and generation Z needs to know that they are appreciated and need to be challenged before they get bored, hence the reason why managers need to learn of this behavior and adapt to lead a more productive workforce.
Laszlo Bock states in an interview with Charlie Rose, why he recommends that managers hire people better than themselves, because ultimately this would lead to their jobs becoming easier. When you hire people that you have to train and later down the line you realize that you didn’t really want them for the job the cost of hire just keeps going up, therefore the theory of hiring people that over qualified works in the company’s favor.
Interns or entry level professionals at google are treated like they are googlers and are given responsibility just like any other googler. Google know to take advantage of all the bright minds that come through there and that’s exactly what the leaders at google do. The interns are assigned to projects which actually help them feel like they really learned something from their internship and didn’t just waste their time. Leaders at google encourage their interns to share all their ideas without thinking their ideas will not be appreciated because they are appreciated very much. Interns and entry level professionals come to google thinking it’s going to be a typical work day but go away feeling like overloaded with joy of having had the chance to work for google.
The perks at google are as amazing as it gets. Food is obviously on top of the list, empowering it’s employees to become entrepreneurs, Googlers are made to feel like they are living the future by trying out the upcoming technologies before they even hit the marketplace, free rides to and from work, take your pets to work, gyms for their employees well-being, maternity leave like no other and considerable death benefits like paying the spouse 50% of the salary after death of googles employee. With perks like these it’s hard not to be loyal to the company. Googles employees tend to be more productive because of all these perks, as they worry less about their lives outside the office they are able to contribute more to their work.
That is definitely the kind of day I want to have every day at my workplace but unfortunately I don’t work for google. I know for sure that I am an out of the box kind of thinker and that’s exactly the kind of employees google wants to hire. With my current employer it is hard to get things approved in order to bring out even the slightest of change but with google it seems they’ll try anything if they feel it may have the slightest of benefit to the company or its employees. Most Tech agencies don’t want people who want job safety we want people who want to change the world. I am so impressed with the way Googles owner and HR team has changed the way company operates and most definitely will be conducting my HR department of one as closely to the google model as possible.

Works Cited

H. (2014). Becoming a Googler...and Other Opportunities. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jeCJ7bMQJE

C. (2015). Google's Laszlo Bock: 10 Rules for Managers (Oct. 22, 2015) | Charlie Rose. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSCr04gpCVI

G. (n.d.). Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.google.com/about/company/

K. (2016). How Google Thinks About Hiring, Management and Culture. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoYZft2gZ5Q

G. (n.d.). OUR CULTURE. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/culture/

The Evolution of Management. (2013, May 28). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/in-business/advice/the-evolution-of-management/

W. (2013). The millennial mind - Rethinking companies for a new generation. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4I--8A-x70