Google Inc.: Why is it the best place to work / Google's Secret to success? Google was formed in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in America. It is a search engine firm, which forms part of Alphabet Inc. and has its headquarters in Mountain View, California. It has experienced a great degree of success, handling 70% of all online searches worldwide. The company started out by offering internet search services, but has grown to offer over fifty products. Some of these include: its email platform, Gmail, document software, such as Google Docs, among others. It took a major stride when it purchased Motorola Mobility, opening up the mobile industry to it. It has thus risen to a place where it can be counted among the top most high-tech companies in the world, alongside Microsoft and Apple. The search engine service, however, remains its core business. Advertisements made here earn Google most of its revenue and accounted for 97% of this in 2011. It has endeavoured to be a great employer through the leadership of the organization, the culture that is promoted, the development of its staff, its strategies for recruiting and retaining its staff members and even in the way that it motivates its employees (Google, 2015).

Google's Secret to success

Steiber (2014) states that Google has embraced a strategy of recruiting intelligent and focused people to work for it, regardless of their lack of experience. These staff members come from all over the world, and represent many different races, speaking different languages. They, however, share a common vision and goal for the organisation. Googlers, as they are referred to, have normal interest when off the job, just like anyone else. These range from bee keeping to fox trot. At the workplace, they work from a hands-on perspective where ideas and views are openly shared with the team members. The company has weekly meetings where the staff has an opportunity to ask the executives questions on a wide range of issues affecting the company. Among these executives are the founders. The company has deliberately designed its offices and cafes to encourage communication between the staff members within a team and across teams. This can be interactions about work or play.

The company has a rule that they require all employees to follow. This is the 70/20/10 rule. It requires that the employee spends 70% of his/her time on the work that he has been assigned by the manager, 20% of the time on a new project or an idea that is in line with the core projects of the employee, and 10% of the time in the search for new ideas in whatever form. This, according to the company, has been the reason why it has been able to come up with so many new products. The employees are given an opportunity to be creative, and whether they are sales men, programmers or managers, they have been able to come up with a range of ideas. One of the ways that it manages the numerous ideas that come from its many employees is by organizing meetings where the employees can interact with the executives and founders. In this way, the top executives can hear the ideas as they are floated by the employees who came up with them (Thompson, 2015).

Manimala and Wasdani (2013) noted that the company has adopted a distributed leadership culture, which embodies patience and is unobtrusive, unlike the more corporate oriented go-getter aggressive leadership style. It has a structure, just like that of many corporate organizations, but has included two unique positions of Chief Culture Officer and Chief Internet Evangelist. At the top, it has a board of directors. Reporting to the board is the group of executive management. The departments in the company include: the Engineering, Products, Sales, Legal and Finance departments. From these departments are formed the smaller units dedicated to various regions, such as Americas, Africa, Europe and others. Thompson (2015) notes that, in spite of this structure, the company has managed to give its staff room to generate new ideas without being micro managed.

Google develops its employees to take up higher positions within the company. These employees are selected through appraisals of their performance as well as interviews. In this way, the employees are selected to fit into the positions that are open in the organization. The selection process is also designed to get individuals who will fit into the team as well as the organization. Thus, both the needs of the individual and the company are...

In this way, also, the human resource manager ensures that there is optimal performance by the individual, the team and the organization. The requirements of the job and opportunities are identified through job analyses. This process enables the manager to find suitable options for each individual employee. The company engages with the employee through coaching, so that they can understand how he/she is performing, and the careers that they can grow into. Thus, the human resource manager is enabled to understand what job path an employee can be directed into, and present these as opportunities for the employee. The potential of an employee comes out during appraisals, interviews and coaching. The potential for performing in various jobs can thus be identified. Interests are revealed, employees ability to perform the current job and their potential, are thus, the three things that are of major focus. Lombardo (2015) states that Google has a strategy to retain employees, especially those who demonstrate a leadership potential, and they do this through mentorship and coaching.
Google regularly comes up with programs designed to develop careers. This helps both the employees and the company, as the latter seeks to fill future positions, and the former looks for potential opportunities. In the appraisal process and after it, the staff member will be made aware of the opportunities that are available to them. When there is a new product or service, the company can put up a career development program, which highlights the new job openings (Lombardo, 2015).

There are numerous benefits that the company offers its staff. Some of these are the health, and dental insurance; flex-spending accounts; education benefits; and holiday plans. It pays its employees very well, and this is one of the distinguishing factors of the company in the industry. When employees have legal expenses, the company reimburses as much as $5,000 with a maternity leave of more than four months at full pay. Parents are given benefits in terms of $500 in the first three months of the time spent at home with the baby, and this amount is for take-out meals. The company even aids those who would want to adopt children. For the employee's cars, there are services offered every day, including changing of oil, and washing services. The clothes can be dry cleaned on site and the staff can visit the gym at the same place. At Mountain View, there are even hairstylists. At one of their facilities, there is an opportunity to train for free with access to a fitness expert. Staff members eat lunch for free as well as dinner. Gourmet chefs are also available to prepare meals that are healthy (Martin, 2014).

Employees also have a fair hearing at the company so that there is an atmosphere of democracy. This is enhanced through forums for the employees organized by the company every Friday. There are open communication channels for the employees so that they can open up about their ideas. Conversations run online through Google+, surveys, a program called Fxits, which fixes problems 24 hours a day, and through emails. There is a feedback survey called Googleist, which collects feedback from employees on various issues and this helps the company solve many problems. These surveys also help to give recognition to those who have excelled in management, identifying them as role models. The managers who rank as the worst are not left out, but given vigorous coaching and a lot of resources to improve, so that most are back on track within a short period of time (Martin, 2014).

Conclusion

Through all these strategies, Google is able to get top performance from its employees. It makes it a priority to only hire the best employees who demonstrate clear potential. The people hired must also show a drive and ambition to achieve the best. This is one way to make sure that all the benefits do not become the main focus, but also work performance. It makes sure that projects have a deadline of two years; an achievable task for top range employees. Martin (2014) states that the work environment the company has created, enables it to have employees who look forward to coming to work. In addition to this, the company has a human resource that is dedicated to identifying talent and placing it in the right job. The perks offered are some of the best in the industry. The open communication lines are also a great factor that boost employee's worth. Generally, Google is one of the best…