Not all internet startups failed in the early part of the new century. Some, including the garage creation of university friends Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have gone on to be among the hallmarks of the world wide web. Having begun as a search engine for Stanford University in California in 1996, Google has grown to be the favoured engine for the entire world. Its algorithms and codes now help users throughout the planet locate not just relevant websites, but also news, email, academic resources, and even geographic locations.Such a rapid expansion of size, product range, and user base doesn’t happen without organisation. But while the numbers and office locations expanded, Google has held on to some of the original management philosophies its founders first inspired. While some might say the freedoms and perks its employees now enjoy are only possible because of the rapid growth the company has experienced in recent years, Manoj Varghese, Director - People Operations, Asia Pacific, Google, takes a different view. He says Google’s unique work environment is a major factor behind the company’s rise and success, not simply a benefit of it.
Culture of freedom
Take a walk around Google’s campus in Shenton Way, Singapore, and it’s easy to forget you’re in a functioning workplace. Where the walls are not lined with pictures of team trips and functions, only the brightest colours shine through. The individual work desks can sometimes seem like an afterthought, with a significant amount of space devoted to communal and meeting areas.
There’s space for recreation as well. The table tennis table gets plenty of use, as does the Wii video game system. A fully functioning kitchen provides lunch, snacks and hot and cold drinks from two different points. And – should further distraction be needed – you’ve also got the commanding view over the Singapore skyline.
Varghese says employees are welcome to take advantage of these facilities as much and as often as they like. “The most important thing is that at Google you have a lot of freedom to do what you want,” he says. That overwhelming trust in staff is the hallmark of Google’s culture. By investing in people, and then leaving them to do what they do best, the company is able to claim the best possible results.
As Varghese puts it: “you get the best people, give them the right environment, and they’ll truly amaze you.”
Working hard
But it’s not all fun and games, as anyone observing the achievements of the US$150 billion company could well surmise. “Google is not about just free food and it’s not about fun all the time,” Varghese says. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Still, the freedom rule remains relevant. While staff have projects and deadlines like in any other organisation, they are usually left to their own devices to research, collaborate, design and implement as they see fit.
Varghese says Google is definitely not a nine-to-five operation. “People set their (own) pace in a lot of ways,” he notes. He says the company and HR team will communicate a common theme to all staff. “The theme is ‘we trust you’,” he said. “‘We’ve spent a lot of time recruiting you; you have the most amazing colleagues; and we trust you to do your job’.”
Google’s famed product engineers enjoy an extra dose of that freedom. They are asked to devote 20% of their working week to their own ideas and experiments. Varghese says no questions are asked, and no forms are completed. But some of the company’s best innovations are developed during this free time.
India-born Krishna Bharat provides possibly the best example of the way this entrepreneurial freedom can lead to market success. As a researcher and engineer in Google’s Mountain View headquarters in September 2001, he developed a tool for tracking online news coverage of the terrorism attacks on New York City and in the aftermath Washington DC.
Further development led to the creation of Google News, the company’s first offering outside of its traditional website search domain. Bharat still leads the team developing and enhancing the well-known search portal.
Finding the best
Not everyone can be a so-called “Googler”, though plenty put their hand up. Varghese says the company receives more than 3000 applications from prospective employees every day (over 1 million per year), regardless of its advertised vacancies.
That volume, combined with Google’s insistence on hiring only the best talent available, means a great deal of emphasis is placed on the recruitment process. “We spend a lot of our time looking at recruiting the right people,” Varghese says. “I’ve never seen any other company spend so much senior management time on it.”
In the first instance, Google’s own programming talent assists the filtering process. It’s then up to specially-selected recruitment teams to select potentials against a unique criteria.
As well as pure functional knowledge, Varghese says Googlers need to represent a good cultural fit for the organisation – particularly given the freedoms and responsibilities their appointment will entail.
“We have a number of peer interactions as part of the hiring process,” he says. An independent committee then considers feedback from a range of tests and potential colleagues before passing on the best possibilities to the relevant hiring manager.
Even then, not every position is guaranteed to be filled immediately. “Hiring the right person is so important to us that we are willing to wait for the right candidate a lot of the time.”
... and developing them
Of all the talent that resides within the Google domain, Varghese says there is still a need for training and development opportunities. “The great thing about people who are the best in their field is that they always know that they have more to learn,” he says. For this, Google provides a wide range of training options to staff of all functions and levels.
As pure engineering talent rise through the ranks, an added emphasis on soft skills is also required. “It’s important as a company that we provide the right skills sets in terms of management courses,” he says.
Google also works to ensure skills are high throughout the online programming industry. For this, it works with academic institutions to run global coding competitions – ensuring the best up-and-coming talent can be identified early, even if they are not yet in the job market.
“The ‘hard-core’ technology is important,” Varghese says. “And the competitions help us in future years to create a pipeline.”
At the other end of the academic spectrum, many Googlers accept sabbaticals from the company to complete further studies at PhD level or beyond. This helps the company to maintain a better than industry average retention level, particularly for its highest-end talents.
“If people leave for PhD studies; they often come back,” Varghese says. “It’s a testimony to the culture that we’ve built as a company.”
Thank Google it's (almost) Friday
One of the favourite traditions among Google staff across the world is a regular get-together on Friday afternoons. Thank Google it’s Friday (TGIF) is more than a relaxing way to get ready for the weekend. Manoj Varghese, Director - People Operations, Asia Pacific, Google, says it is an important sharing and bonding time that helps staff to understand their important place within Google’s organisation and history.
“We have grown very fast over the last few years,” he says. “In the process it became important for us to educate the employees coming in about the history of the company and its products.”
The TGIF events are also a chance for staff to speak directly with senior managers. “Our culture involves openness; there’s transparency and there’s discussion.” Even some of the company’s “legend” programmers make themselves available, whether in person or through interactive technology.
“It’s an opportunity for interaction; anyone can ask any question. Hearing how Gmail as an idea started and how it grew is fascinating.”
In Singapore, TGIF is known as TGIAF. Scheduling demands the company hold the sessions on Thursday afternoons, hence the acronym: Thank Google it’s (Almost) Friday.
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