The Performance and Efficiency of Employees - Essay Example

The Module number: Assessment number: Word count: Managing people in practice Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction The management of the human resources in a company is seen as the most significant way of creating competitive advantage and continued success of the business. In the modern business world, all the leading and following companies strive to manage their human resource base in the most beneficial manner so that they can create a motivated, engaged and enthusiastic workforce within the organization. Without an appropriate level of attention being paid to the management and development of employees and employee relations, a company is likely to loose on their winning edge very soon. The increasing level of competition and the continuous exposure of the businesses to the different dynamics of the external global business environment have made it more necessary to concentrate on managing, guiding, developing and supporting the most valuable resource of a company which is the human resources base. This essay discusses that performance and efficiency of employees and their dedication towards organizational goals are driven by effective HRM practices at workplace. The essay also evaluates and discusses the major impact of effectiveness of good or bad leadership on the sustainable growth of failure of the organization within an industry. Google Inc. is an American multinational specialized in computer and internet related products and services like search engines, cloud computing, software systems, online advertising technologies etc. This company is chosen as the selected company for discussing the management of people resource because Google inc. is one of the most renowned companies in the world from the perspective of employee management. The ways in which Google inc. has managed and motivated its diverse employee group and work culture to build on sustainability, innovation and success are discussed in the following sections of the essay. The essay is concluded by documenting the findings from the analysis as well as by highlighting the significant points of human resource management as identified from the discussion. Discussion Google Inc. as an employer Google Inc. was ranked as the best company to work for in the Fortune magazine’s list of best employers in 2007, 2008 and 2012. The company was listed as the fourth best company to work for in the same magazine’s list in 2009 and 2010. Also, Google Inc. has been nominated as the most attractive employing company for the graduate students as per the index prepared and presented by the Universum Communications talent attraction index. The corporate philosophy of Google Inc. itself is representative of the primary motive of the company to embed and implement the people oriented principles like “work should be challenging and that the challenges should be sources of inspiration and fun for the employees”, “employees can be serious without wearing a formal suit to work” and that” a company or a person can achieve success and make money without being evil” (Charlton, 2003). The company has been a reputed employer in its operations in 40 countries across the world. This is because; the management of Google Inc. has continuously focused on developing a work culture and an organizational atmosphere that is supportive of the employees. The innovative ways and strategies used by Google Inc. over the years have added to the efficiency and performance of the employees and subsequently increased their overall commitment in achieving the objectives of the business as a whole unit. In the present business environment, the company is deemed to be one of the top employers across the globe. The success of Google can be measured on a number of dimensions of human resources management including the maintenance of the lowest level of employee attrition rate in the industry for more than 6 years from 2008-2014, the high degree of diversity maintained within the different geographical locations of the multinational, the rich employee base it retains, the huge level of innovation driven by consistent people management and the numerous awards and recognitions that it has been given over years by many international and domestic human resource management indices, magazines, institutions and authorities (Hartog and Verburg, 2014). As computed in the year 2013, Google Inc. has more than 47,756 employees based in more than 40 geographical locations across the globe. Of these, 10000 employees are software developers. The employees of the company belong to the crème layer of the industry and are generally the most eligible engineers and software developers chosen from across the world. Also, the diversity of the employees has been a major focus of the management of the company (Bratton, 2012). Innovative Human Resource Management Strategies of Google As per the corporate website of Google Inc., the company believes that it is the people of the company that makes it the kind of a success it is (Google Incorporation, 2014). The management of Google Inc. has always focused on hiring the candidates who are determined and smart and have always prioritized the ability and potential of a candidate over his/ her work background or experience level (Peng, 2006). The employees of the company are called Googlers and according to the words of the owner of Google Inc., Larry Page, the senior management and the leaders of the business always try to create common objectives and goals between the company and the Googlers. The employees of Google are hired from different backgrounds, from varying walks of life and from diverse races, religions, cultures, gender and creed (Fish, Schoenfeldt and Shaw, 2003). However, the company aims to ensure that they maintain unity among diversity by encouraging the employees to match their individual goals and aspirations with those of the company and by making the human resource management principles of the company accommodating and supporting for all types and levels of people working in the corporation (Jorgensen, Becker and Matthews, 2011). The aim to maintain and manage a diversified workforce among the global employee groups is in line with the core objective of the company to serve the global audience groups (Mello, 2011). Apart from this, the company encourages the Googlers to pursue a wide verity of interests and hobbies that make them more motivated and inspired to perform better in their daily job roles. These hobbies and interests may range from bicycling to foxtrot, beekeeping, Frisbee paying etc. (Cunningham and MacGregor, 2000). Additionally, the management of Google Inc. has set up an open work culture in the campus which makes the employees comfortable in adding their inputs and sharing their ideas and opinions with their colleagues as well as the managers (Wright, Gardner and Moynihan, 2003). The company ensures that all levels of employees are encouraged to participate in the activities and strategies of the organization and become hands on contributors in the innovation practices of the business as well (Boselie, 2010). The cafeterias and offices of Google are designed in ways such that they encourage communication and interaction among the employees in the inter-team and intra-team arenas. Conversations and communication related to both work and play are fostered and encouraged within all the departments of the organization (Aycan, Al-Hamadi, Davis and Budhwar, 2007). Google Inc. has established itself as an equal opportunity employer. The company is especially focused on the management of the internal stakeholder base i.e. the employees and keeps ensuring that the employees are supported, guided and trained and developed in the best possible manner. The company maintains an open door policy which enables each of the employees to directly communicate with their line managers or any of the senior management in case they face any issue in their job roles and daily job activities (Kazmi and Ahmad, 2001). All the employees of Google are provided with a helpline and an electronic mail essaying system which they can use to essay any difficulties, enquiries, issues or unethical incidences directly to the management of the company (Paauwe and Boselie, 2005). In overall, an informal, interactive and supportive work environment is provided to the employees of Google so as to lead and motivate the employees to actively tale part in innovation. Since, innovation is the keyword for success for a company like Google which operates in the technological industry, therefore, the primary aim of the strategic human resource management department of the company is to create a proactive, efficient, high performing, creative and collaborative employee groups (Posner, Kouzes and Schmidt, 2005). All these factors are necessary to drive innovation and thus, the management of Google builds up new strategies and processes that ensures the removal of any cultural bias and establishes fair and just practices in employee and employee relations management. Often Google uses a motivation technique known as the Innovation Time Off. The innovation Time Off policy was launched by the company in 2005 as a way of improving employee encouragement and participation (Paauwe, 2009). This is a motivation technique designed by Google in which all the Googlers are encouraged to invest 20% of their work time in projects and designs that interests them. In a talk in Stanford University in 2012, the Vice President of Google, Marissa Mayer showed that 60% of the new products launched by Google in that years had been a result of the employees’ participation in the motivation policy of Innovation Time Off. Leadership practices in Google Other strategic policies of Google Inc. used to motivate the employees are the use of Laissez Fair leadership techniques and suitable guiding and supporting techniques used by the leaders of the corporation (Adair, 2006). The leaders in the company are required to develop specific skills for managing the employee relations according to the changing requirements of the business situations (Aycan, 2005). The leaders almost uniformly show the characteristics of the Laissez Fair Leadership style which include being a good communicator, developing clear strategies and visions for the teams, being productive and oriented towards people as well as results, expressing interest on the well being and performances of the team members, encouraging employee empowerment, acting as a mentor to each of the employees, support the employees in developing career goals etc. (Armstrong, 2006). At the same time, the leaders in Google Inc. have to mandatorily possess the necessary technical skills so that they can guide, advise and correct their team employees whenever required (Smit and Trigeorgis, 2004). Conclusion Thus, it can be established that Google Inc. is a highly advanced and efficient company in terms of the management of human resources in the business. In an ever evolving technology industry, where the products, processes and services have a short life cycle and in which the threat of products and processes being obsolete is very high, companies like Google have to focus on leveraging on the most useful asset of the business which is the people asset. This would help the company to prepare itself for the existing as well as the evolving requirements of the industry and also help it to achieve a strong position for itself on a globally competitive platform. It can be summarized that basic organizational practices like establishing a fair and just organizational culture, maintaining adequate corporate transparency and building up on an organizational structure which is cross functional and non hierarchical are some of the mentionable ways in which Google has been able to manage people and employee relations most effectively in practice. References Adair, J. 2006. 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