The HR Times February 25th 2013

Vol. 1 Issue 2

What Makes Google the Best Place to Work

POPS – Google calls its HR department People Operations, though most people in

the firm shorten it to POPS. People operations are where science and human

resources intersect. The group is headed by Laszlo Bock.

Happiness Machine - Google monitors its employees' well-being to a degree

that can seem absurd to outsiders.

It’s a science! - At the heart of POPS is a sophisticated employee-data tracking

program, an effort to gain empirical certainty about every aspect of Google's workers' lives. Google finds out not just the right level of pay and benefits but also such trivial-sounding details as the optimal size and shape of the cafeteria tables and the length of the lunch lines. It tries to answer its HR questions scientifically.

Googlegeist, The ‘spirit of google’- It is a lengthy, annual scientifically

constructed employee survey. The survey has a participation rate of 85 per cent among googlers and has led to a number of new initiatives at the company. Googlegeist simply asks employees whether they plan on staying or leaving. Googlers also have the option of taking the survey anonymously or confidentially by name.

PiLab - Google has even hired social scientists to study the organization. The

scientists-part of a group known as the PiLab, short for People & Innovation Lab, run dozens of experiments on employees in an effort to answer questions about

the best way to manage a large firm. One example of PiLab's work is Project Oxygen, an effort to measure the impact of good managers, identify the traits that separate good managers from bad ones and then use that information to help develop better managers.

GUTS - Google Universal Ticketing Systems lets employees file issues about

anything which is then reviewed for patterns or problems. Diner Booths vs. Conference Rooms - Laszlo and his team have found that diner booths work better than conference rooms for facilitating creativity. David Radcliffe, the man in charge of creating the perfect work environment, says that: “Casual collisions are what we try and create in the work environment. You can’t schedule innovation, you can’t schedule idea generation and so when we think our facilities around the world we’re really looking for little opportunities for engineers or for creative people to come together.”

Cafeterias - Researchers found that the ideal lunch line should be about three

or four minutes long; that's short enough that people don't waste time but long enough that they can meet new people. The tables should be long, so workers who don't know each other are forced to chat. And, after running an experiment, Google found that stocking cafeterias with 8-inch plates alongside 12-inch plates encouraged people to eat smaller, healthier portions.

Laszlo Bock, VP People

Operations, Google

Bock’s been on the job since early 2006, following a career that included stops at General Electric and McKinsey. The best way to understand the scope of his job is to see Google not just as a

company that creates products but one

that in some ways operates as its own

city.

Google’s legendary perks

Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The organic food is chef-prepared

Free health and dental care Free haircuts Free dry cleaning Subsidized massages Gyms and swimming pools Hybrid car subsidies Nap pods Video games, foosball, ping pong On-site physicians Death Benefits

Ethical and Legal Issues with HRIS In race between technology and law, technology has always outrun the law in our country. Law is always found catching up and needless to say several loopholes are still there in our techno-legal system which isn’t as robust as in some of the other western countries. Nevertheless, HR manager of today must be aware of some critical ethical and legal issues involved with HRIS and ways of handling them if he has to ensure increased employee trust and organizational commitment in his organization. Unnecessary and avoidable litigation can cause serious injury to the employer brand of the organization and can also prove to be a costly affair, but all of it can be prevented if only a few things are kept in mind.

Collection of Data There is a common perception among people that organizations today collect a large amount of personal data from employees at the stage of hiring them. Thereafter, data relating to employees is generated each day (such data can include attendance records, performance appraisal results etc.). It is a never ending process and it continues throughout the life of an organization. However, not all data is worth capturing. This simply means that managers must make a choice of what data to capture and thus this act of choice making leads to legal and ethical issues. Some tips for managers to make sure that they stay on a safer side while collecting data are:

What data to be collected? – Lawyers and experts have

advised strongly that organizations should have a solid business purpose for any data that is collected. It always puts the HR professional and the company in a good posture to show that there is a good business employment purpose for collecting data under question. Many times solid business purpose acts as a legal defence in privacy suits. It may also vary from industry to industry.

How the data should be collected? – Organizations should

inform their employees in advance about the sources from which data about their activities is going to be collected and managers should abstain from ‘spying’ on their employees as far as practicable in order to build an environment of trust. If cameras are installed in office then employees should know about it before hand. If an employee’s internet activity is being tracked then he should be made aware of the same. These days’ social media is gaining popularity and it’s a convenient tool to keep a check on employee activities. It’s always better to inform employees that their social media activities are also being tracked. However, managers should abstain from basing their decisions purely on the basis of information revealed by employee on social media websites.

Using the Data

Relational Technology and Privacy

Concerns - Data is not used in isolated form. Isolated data items may not be particularly revealing. One database is usually connected with another database to draw inferences about employees. Integrated databases and relational technology pose a potential threat to employee privacy. All the separate data files in HRIS are linked with some common elements (e.g. employee ID, name etc.). Relational technology also allows databases to be established at several different locations. Therefore, managers must have clear policies on how the data is going to be used and these policies should be well known to the employees in advance.

Defamation Issues - Most of the

companies like to confirm credentials of a prospective employee from his previous employer. While providing information about former employees managers should be careful not to provide information that could be judged slanderous by the courts. An employee may contest against his former employer that he has jeopardized his future career prospects by revealing slanderous information about him. He may also be able to successfully establish a case of defamation. Ethically speaking an employer must not close off opportunity of new employment for his former employee.

- AKSHAT GUPTA PGDHRM’ 14 IIM Ranchi

The HR Times

February 25th 2013

Vol. 1 Issue 2

The HR Times

February 25th 2013

Vol. 1 Issue 2

The Best & The Bizarre

1. Recruiting on social media with the “10 days of shoes” contest – Marriott is a longtime innovator in employer

branding but it has found a novel way to use social media for recruiting. The premise of the shoe giveaway campaign is that applicants should always try to “put their best foot forward.” This message is reinforced by Marriott’s giving away a $100 gift certificate at shoe powerhouse Zappos each day for 10 days. To qualify for the selection, the individual merely had to sign up to become a member of Marriott’s Facebook recruiting page. Using highly desirable prizes to drive individuals to your social media page is a bold addition to the standard Facebook recruiting approach. The uniqueness of the approach ensures that it will receive notice throughout the social media and blogging world.

2. Games become part of the workplace – with so many

both young and old hooked on gaming; it only makes sense to integrate games into the workplace. Games have long been used by the military to train, but the giant retailer Target has begun using games to motivate individuals working in mundane jobs. For example cashiers can be scored on each transaction, and individual employee scores can be competitively compared to other cashiers. The end result is both higher quality work and improved morale.

HR Lexicon

Big golden parachute Substantial benefits given to a top executive

(or top executives) in the event that the company is taken over by another firm and the executive is terminated as a result of the merger or takeover. Golden parachutes are contracts given to key executives and can be used as a type of antitakeover measure taken by a firm to discourage an unwanted takeover attempt. Benefits include items such as stock options, cash bonuses, generous severance pay or any combination of these benefits. Also known as "change-in-control benefits".

White knight A white knight is an individual or company that acquires a

corporation on the verge of being taken over by forces deemed undesirable by company officials (sometimes referred to as a "black knight"). While the target company doesn't remain independent, a white knight is viewed as a preferred option to the hostile company completing their takeover. Unlike a hostile takeover, current management typically remains in place in a white knight scenario, and investors receive better compensation for their shares

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The HR Times

February 25th 2013

Vol. 1 Issue 2

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HiRe HR Club IIM Ranchi hrclub@iimranchi.ac.in Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HiRe.IIMRanchi Compiled & Edited by -

Megha Pranesh Nimisha Singhal

-PGDHRM’14 IIM Ranchi