People Matters

The Internet company has proven its mettle yet again by reclaiming its top position in the 2012 list of “India’s Best Companies to Work For” 2012, a Study by The Economic Times & Great Place to Work® Institute. Despite the economic challenges in the industry, Google revenue, share price, profits and hiring were all up last year. The reason seems quite clear – Googlers live and breathe Google’s mission and cannot stop raving about the great worklife.

A combination of reasons facilitate Google in becoming a great workplace. Jayashri Ramamurti, Head, People Operations, Engg. & Product, Google India, explains that this has been possible because of the way Google hires its talent as well as the level of engagement it is able to maintain from its employees. Hiring at Google is clearly for the long-term and adequate investment is made to select a candidate. After a candidate has been interviewed and all interviewers have submitted their feedback, the candidate is evaluated by two hiring committees, including one that is deliberately cross-functional and the other that involves the company’s top executives. This is done to ensure that hiring managers are not ever blinded by short-term hiring needs, and that they focus on hiring candidates who are good for Google. The ‘Hiring Grouplet’ is a group of engineers who are committed to hiring. Jayashri adds, “This year, the Grouplet partnered with the staffing teams to develop a tool that automates the interview scheduling process by matching candidates with Googler availability, skill-set and team. This is a major improvement over the manual interview scheduling process our recruiting teams otherwise used.”

The long-term approach to hiring is reinforced by providing employees the right career experience. Employees can explore career opportunities within Google, view their career map, and judge, whether or not, they are ready for another role. Employees are also provided additional grooming for them to progress on their defined career path. Googlers enjoy exceptional benefits and facilities along with the freedom to innovate, grow, and develop. In making this unique work approach possible, HR has a business partner support role which collaborates with each function on performance reviews, leaves, career development programs and other workplace activities.