Power of Google Essay Example

employees are the first priority among Google’s stakeholders.

This stakeholder community is critical as it determines the potential of the organization, such as the capability to innovate rapidly. During this time Google employees took matters into their own hands and issued a global walkout to testify against mistreatment in their work environment.

“Thousands of Google staff across the world have staged a series of walkouts in protest at claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism. They follow allegations of sexual misconduct made against senior executives, which organisers say are the most high-profile examples of 'thousands' of similar cases across the company.” As employees set the bar for establishing real change in their company and It has created constructive views about how to strengthen their practices and processes.

Through the collective efforts of the employees, the higher management (owners) has taken notice and started implementing ways for employees to report any sort of misconduct without feeling pressured by backlash they might face either through the media, co-workers, or even family members at home. By keeping these concerns anonymous to the public. Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive stated 'that the technology company was taking an 'increasingly hard line' on inappropriate conduct. His letter to staff was in response to a New York Times.

'These employees listed five demands that Google expand its training on harassment and reworked its complaints handling system. Several other requests are yet to be addressed, including a promise to eliminate salaries and inequities, and demand that the chief diversity officer reports directly to the CEO. These demands have been heard but not fully fulfilled by the executives at Google.

After the walk-out passed many people decided

to strike and consumer boycott products throughout the next couple of months. This was an example stockholder outbursts that have long been simmering since 2013. The day after the strike was over Google’s stock fell to 1,071.49 USD on Nov 2, 2018 and continued to fall until it hit its lowest on Dec 21,2018 valued at 991.25 USD. Google’s stock has never seen such a decline since the pandemic of the coronavirus which, on today’s date March 15, 2020 is valued at 1,073.00 USD.

Shareholders are growing concerned that a string of sexual misconduct allegations could hurt the company financially. One shareholder who has a say on the company’s annual meeting said “he feared that Google may follow in 'the fate of the Weinstein company LLC, which has declared bankruptcy'.” This teaches us about how if we stand not as individuals but has a collective group fighting for a cause those corporations have to take a gaze upon their wrongdoings.

Case Study Facts

Most of the facts are clear and many of the executives like Andy Rubin have been relieved of their duties in Google. Since then Google has made adjustments in the way they hire employees especially the ones that are applying for hiring positions in the company.

They are taking a more psychological approach, during the selection process, HR researcher Laszlo Bock described the process as “combining behavioral and situational structured interviews with assessments of cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and leadership.” As a remarkable fact, this walk-out was constructed worldwide including cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Haifa, Berlin, New York, Etc.

This walk-out took place during the MeToo movement which only ignited the controversy around these allegations and brought more

media attention to the mix. It gives me hope seeing that all of these cities took into their own hands to protest for women's rights. While researching many young males were out supporting the cause as well; it shows us the change in culture that big businesses need to adapt to.

Uncertainty in Google

There is still growing uncertainty about how Andy Rubin will face any sort of legal punishment for his actions towards women in his workplace. As of now Mr. Rubin used to work for Essential, maker of android smartphones, a company he started less than three years ago and recently shut down due to the lack of money and interest from investors to get it to the public market.

Google already investigated Mr. Rubin for unethical behaviors, but at that period the company's board of directors paid Mr. Rubin $150 million in assets. It is not known if the board was informed of the accusations at this point but recently gave up due to unknown reasons, To this day no one knows why Mr. Rubin hasn’t faced the court system, blurred lines are starting to become increasingly more skewed as time goes on.

Some can argue that the victims have given up on putting Mr. Rubin in jail. This trend seems highly likely since that incident happened in 2013. All of the information is there its just hard for a court system to decide if the sexual acts were performed with concent. I fully understand that the information given to me was accurate due to the video evidence shown in the lawsuit. This case boils down to the timing of Mr. Rubin left the company before

all of the protests and backlash occurred. We do know that Mr. Rubin was paid off by the CEO of Google to leave quietly with no strings attached.

Google has a really progressive approach towards Human resources and it relies on people analytics to determine many of its HR programs, policies, and procedures. Through Google's practices it represents great care for the employees. A great example of this can be found after the walk-out strikes happened where many females understood that it's okay to report about a problem in the workplace.

Google allows their voice to be heard and that resonates throughout the company. New research shows that new mothers were not able to keep their job due to employers letting them go during labor. So Google implemented a type of sick leave for pregnant mothers from 12 to 5 months full pay and the company saw a significant drop in turnover rate among females. If a company is willing to change policies to be more flexible with their employees, that's a company people can faith in.

Google's recruiting processes are aligned with the suggestions outlined in this document, including the usage of a mixture of Behavioral and Cognitive Formal Interviews, which highlight the value of a personality exam. Work assessments are focused on the position of the work and the employee is mentally prepared for the function of the job.

Google's usage of a mix of behavioral and interpersonal assessments can better determine how an individual can cope with a stressful environment at work can be used to evaluate the capacity to influence people, show teamwork can improve the academic skills of the candidate.

Google implements training in the

form of peer learning where employees teach their fellow employees and is incorporated in their daily tasks. Also they don't follow traditional classroom style coaching. Instead it disseminates information from dial-in conferences etc. Google uses both on the job and off the job training. As an example of on-the-job training the company holds training classes taught by fellow employees.

Off-the-job training is offered through e-learning called where “Googlers” can download and utilize small bite-sized chunks lasting no more than 7 minutes to finish a training program. This is a great way to engage in new ideas by having an employee helping another employee. It's almost like having a student tutor in highschool.

• Define performance:

At Google ,it begins with setting up OKR- Objectives and key results.Consist of a goal, which is established by the employee, and an associated set of key results that guide the employee in achieving the goal.

• Monitor and Evaluate:

Managers rate an employee’s performance on a five-point scale anchored from “needs improvement”. The managers select individuals to be in annual evaluations.

• Review performance:

Feedback is given by the peers by listing one thing the person should do more of and one thing the employee could do differently to have a greater impact on the company. Then managers come together and review the rating of each individual person for all managers to give opinions.

• Provide consequences:

The final stage of the cycle entails making pay decisions. These decisions are made about a month after the annual performance reviews are conducted. Employees, of course, receive feedback at every stage of the process.

The drawback to the success monitoring strategy employed by Google is that it's open to interpretation. When

peers evaluate an employee, the validity can be questionable. If the appraisals could be based on the evaluators personal bias. Google has managers review all the appraisals, however, if both peers dislike the employee the biases may be similar. In which case, the managers may not be able to create an accurate evaluation. It would be much better to have an outside source looking at these reviews.

Google is taking a complete approach to bettering its HR processes, policies, and procedures. This starts with the planning process, continues with hiring and training, relates to performance management, and also includes feedback and pay decision making. This is all part of the overall HR process, and students should be able to piece together the different parts of the process, and how Google’s efforts fit in with each.

The key takeaway is to create an environment that helps your employees. Be willing to evaluate policies and make a change to policy if necessary. Create a hiring structure that is suited for each position the company needs filled. Training is important, and the forms of training have different benefits. Performance evaluations can be done in many ways, but it is a good idea to have an evaluation format that can protect the company from liability.