Human resources management - Essay Example

SWOT analysis GOOGLE Human Resource. Strengths Google has approximately 60,000 employees who are highly skilled and very talented. The recruitment process of its staff is based on their competencies and potential for the company’s success, and they are broadly trained in the different areas of the organization. For this reason, Google employees are typically pursued by other competitors within the industry because of their positive reputation. These employees have acquired high academic credentials and have outstanding experience in various disciplines of information technology, as well as knowledge management.

Most of the top management directors have gained an MBA and Ph.D. in their relevant disciplines; as a result they are relevant to the company vision. For instance, the Google CEO, Eric Schmidt is a member of U.S. president council of advisors on science and technology. Additionally, he was inaugurated as a fellow in 2007 to the America Academy of Arts and Sciences (Google 2). Research indicates that Google employees have the largest profit per employees compared with other companies in the industry such as Apple, Microsoft, and Intel (Quinn 4).

For example, in 2008 Google had approximately 209,000 dollars in profit per employee. This is a motivation for staffs of Google to work harder hence improved productivity. Google give intrinsic motivation to its employees, and thus are very dedicated in the execution of the roles assigned. The larger the company gets, it becomes difficult to minimize overheads and costs (Quinn 4). For example, large firms including HP and Microsoft have relatively small margin per employee but Google has been able to maintain high margins.

Weaknesses Google has a problem of employee retention because most of them are highly desirable in the job market. It is crucial for Google to maintain its staff. Nevertheless, it has pointed that competitors offer more attractive packages to its staffs. For example, the head of global communications and public affairs left the company in 2008 to Facebook. This shows significant failure of the top management. The movement of staff to other company may lead revealing of some business secrets to the rival companies.

Additionally, the company gets over 1000 job application every day due to its good reputation (Quinn 4). However, it is very challenging for the human resource to shortlist and chose the most qualified candidate for various positions. Google developed an algorithm that enabled the management to communicate with employees who were planning to leave the company so that they may be offered new roles before they can decide whether to leave (Quinn 6). This shows that the employees potential were not fully utilized, compelling them to seek jobs in different firms.

This departure has proven to be very costly in terms of money and time. Google also hires many contractors whose skills are not potentially utilized, thus become waste of the company resources. For example, during the restructuring exercise in 2009, the company gave about 10,000 contractors’ marching orders in order to maintain the permanent employees. It is evident that the employees job description, job evaluation, and staff recruitment was poorly managed. Opportunities Due to the increasing demand of online books, Google has taken an initiative to change the way these books are accessed.

Currently, Google is planning to enter into an agreement with the most demanded books that will earn the business some money on the book printed on Google search engines. This will be beneficial to Google because most companies because it will expand. Also, Google will gain more revenue on telecommunication products such as phone enabling internet services. The partnership with Verizon allows Google to sell Verizon subscribers at a fee, thus increasing their profit earning (Google 2). Through online books and telecommunication, Google will position itself with continuous market growth.

For this reason, the company will be able to attract the most qualified staff because it can afford better salaries and benefits. Threats Google is faced with a threat of inability to motivate the contractors in their various branches all over the world. For instance in 2008, Google offered their contract employees with G1 cell phones instead of the usual cash bonuses. Also, the permanent employees in various countries including Canada, Europe, and United States were also given the G1 devices, which was about 85% of its total employees.

The number of restaurants in various station offered to its staff has also been cut. With the current economic crisis, the businesses are suffering from hardships and losses. The unemployment rates have increased to about 10%, which is the highest over the last two decades (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel 57). This unemployment situation is expected to worsen even when the economy crisis reduces. Google will be forced to decrease the number of staffs, particularly the contractors and reduce new recruitments.

The company has been compelled to cut ten thousand competent contract workers. Works Cited Google. “Technology Overview”. .Web 2 February 2015. Lamb, Charles W., Hair, Joseph F., & McDaniel, Carl. Marketing. Mason. Ohio:South-Western Cengage Learning,2009.Print Quinn, J. “Google searches out unhappy staff”. Web 2 February 2015.