When it comes to
unprecedented scale of success and growth, one company reigns supreme: Google. Started as a research project in 1996 by
then PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, Google
has become a multinational technology company with industry leadership
in Internet-related services and products. Between its foundation as a company
in 1998 and now, Google has gone through many transformations (the most recent
one of which is its reorganization as a holding company named (Alphabet Inc.). But one thing remained a constant at the
Internet giant: Its commitment to employee satisfaction and engagement.
Google’s commitment to its
employees can explain why the company has topped the Great Place to
Work list in 2013 and 2014, and it has remained in the top five in the
preceding years. A closer look reveals another important factor in this
victory: Google’s carefully constructed and truly nurturing performance
management system.
- How Google Works
In 2014, Google Executive
Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former Senior Vice President of Products
Jonathan Rosenberg wrote a book about how Google operates its organization.
Titled “How Google Works,” the
book provides great insights into corporate culture, strategy, talent,
decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption.
The authors admit that
technology now defines and shapes almost every business sector. The influence
of technology is causing massive changes across many businesses to a degree
that the
word “disruption” has became commonplace. These conditions in the world
of work has created a new segment of professionals, named “smart creatives” by the authors.
Attracting and hiring smart
creatives is a skill in itself. The authors suggest that creating successful
products and ideas based on unique technical insights is the first step. Having
the focus on growth instead of revenue and keeping an eye on the competition
are the other steps to maintaining a successful, original venture that would
attract smart creatives.
- How Does Performance Management Work at Google?
Performance
reviews
were customized to provide great results for Google’s smart creatives.
Senior Vice President of People Operations Laszlo Bock provides great learnings
about their performance management in his book titled “Work Rules.”
Googlers first identify a group of peer reviewers for each employee, which also
includes co-workers that are junior to them. Google abolished numerical ratings in April 2014, so each Googler were subjected to a five-point
scale ranging from “needs improvement”
to “superb.” Carried out semi-annually, peer reviewers are asked to state one thing the
reviewee should do more of and one thing that they can do in a different way.
After the feedback cycle,
managers come together to take a look at these peer reviews. The main aim is to
prevent bias in feedback by asking each manager to justify their decisions to
each other. Managers werw informed about
potential obstacles to objective feedback, one of which is the tendency to
overemphasize an employee’s most recent performance.
- Learnings
Research done by Edward L.
Deci, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, sheds light on
the effects that two types of motivation have on achieving goals. Deci’s
research indicate that when someone is motivated using an external reward such as money, their
motivation tended to decrease. By contrast, when they were motivated by verbal reinforcement and positive feedback, their motivation increased. This in line with what Google pursues with its
performance management. Bock, et al. understand the importance of motivating their
smart creatives with right initiatives and provide enough freedom for their
ideas to flourish and become the next big thing at Google.
The ultimate goal of
performance management systems should always be retaining talented employees by
keeping them fulfilled and enabling their growth. Google seems to get it right
with its carefully thought performance management.
Source : www.talentculture.com
