PUTRA BUSINESS SCHOOL

GSM5500 HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
ANALYSIS ON INTERNATIONAL
COMPANY

KOH CHIN MIN (PBS1311218) & TAN CHWEE GUAN (PBS1311217)

8/17/2014

This assignment is to determine the good human resource management practices of Google and
try to utilize the best practice in a company that the students created to attract candidates to join
the company.

Table of Contents

Page

1.

Introduction: Objective of the assignment

2.

Companies background

3.

Companies best practices

4.

Recommendation to future company

5.

Rationale: Benefits

6.

Conclusion

Reference

1. Introduction: Objective of the assignment

During our class for Human Resource Management, we recognize the importance of
recruiting, training and retaining good employees. As instructed by our lecturer, Dr. Tee,
we will pick 1 local and 1 international company to analyze their employee best practices.
Then we will recommend or propose employee best practices with regards to either
recruiting, training, and retaining good employees to your future organization. Currently
we are working in a team of 2, Koh Chin Min and Tan Chwee Guan.

This report will focus on the best practices of an international company, for this purpose,
we chose Google. We will analyze the best practices by Google and come up with the
best practice to be recommended to future company. Google is currently the world best
employer according to the assignment handout we received from Dr. Tee. The reason
behind we chose Google is because the company's practices actually attracted our interest.
If given the chance we have quite the tendency to be part of Google. Hence, this report
will covers the best practices of Google in terms of Human Resource Management and
the recommendation to future company.

2. Companies background

Google.com domain was first registered in the year 1997 founded by Larry Page and
Sergey Brin. The name Google comes from the word googol which means one followed
by one hundred zero and this is also the mission of Google that is to bring infinite amount
of information in the web. Larry and Sergey officially setup the company Google Inc. in
the year 1998 with a garage as their office. In the year 2001, Google start their first
international office in Tokyo, Japan. As spoken by co-founder and CEO, Larry Page
Google main goal is to make the searching of information as easy as possible. Although
Google currently offers wide range of product, the search engine is still their main goal.
Since 1998 to 2014, Google has been awarded best company to work for eight times in
which five of the times Google rank as the first.
1

3. Companies best practices

The best practices implemented by Googles Human Resource department is Employee
Relation as Google believe that treating people well is more important than earning
money. One of the example is Google realise that not all of the employees are
comfortable when speaking and raise their idea in public, thus Google conduct their
survey through internal website to gather the result and managers are expected to discuss
the result and outcome with the team. Google further segmented the survey by team as
different team have different options in survey for instance engineering team survey,
sales team survey and others.

Apart from that, Google value opinion by employees, the staff can approach any manager
to discuss on any issue. Google wants to maintain a friendly, cooperative environment
between employees and all level of management. Hence they provide the opportunities to
the employees to express themselves without retaliation. Googles employees even can
discuss the issue with next level of management or with Human Resource Department.
Google practices an open organisation where the employees can approach any member
of management directly. The staffs are recommend to resolve the issue with their
manager first and if not satisfy with the outcome they can bring to the next level up to
CEO. In terms of Human Resource Management, this can be seen as a Employee
Relations where it is not bound by the differentiation of status, together they develop the
organization.

In addition of Employee Relations, Google constantly gather data from the employee
to determine current issue faced by their employees. One of the issue is the employees
obesity as Google provided snack and candy to their employees. In order to solve the
increase in waistline of the employees, Google search engine leader make a few steps.
One of the step is Project M & M the leader analyse the employees behaviour of
consume the snack and find a best solution to curb the overconsumption of candy. The
2

result from Project M & M shows that in just seven week the consumption of Googler
in New York reduced by 3.1 million calories and all they do is just placed the candy in
opaque container. On the other hand, Google provides beverages such as soda drinks,
juices to their employees. To increase the employees to choose for healthier option of
beverage, the team rearrange the refrigerator the healthier beverages placed at eye sight
level while the soda placed at the bottom shelf. In just one weeks of times the
consumption of healthier drink by Googler increase by 47%. Last but not least, Googles
team also taking initiative to reduce the portion size consumed by the employee in
cafeteria. Google discover that when same portion are serve with both large and small
plate, the employee will choose over the smaller plate and also resisted to go for second
plate.
Furthermore on Employee Relation, Google also organise TGIF (Thanks God Its
Friday) weekly where employees and the management are engage together to preview
the coming weeks, recap of the events, and most importantly question and answer section.
In the question and answer section, Google encourage the employees regardless of
location to raise their question personally or choose to email the question if they cannot
or choose not to ask the question in person. All the other employees entitled the right to
vote for the question and the most relevant will work the way up to the queue. Another
highlight in TGIF is the welcome for new employees. The new employees will be seating
at the front of the room and the founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin will lead the team to
welcome new folks and this is the chance for the new employees to experience the team
spirit of Google.

4. Recommendation to future company

Inspired by Google, we would like to recommend to all companies on Employee

Relations. Whereby, treating employees right is more important than revenues. We
should always "monitor" our employees opinions towards the organization. As far as
opinions are concerned, this also reveals the employees satisfaction. Hence, we truly
3

believe that happy employees plays the most important role of an organizations.
Moreover, we want that satisfactory becomes the organization's culture. Who do not want
to work in an environment that satisfy everyone where everyone can be happily working
together. It will be like a big family, the second family for the employees. Here, we will
nurture our employees to be responsible and a responsible worker will take care of
themselves on what they are responsible for, as we know that employees are also human
and what makes us human is that we can think. That is why we do not stress on training
them to be responsible while using the approach of nurture. People are born to think
responsible, but it is their choice to care for it or "careless" for it. Ultimately, it is our
innovative to nurture them to care for their responsible.

5. Rationale: Benefits

According to buzztime (2013), they suggested that the benefits of taking care of the
wellbeing of employees are

1. More productivity and loyalty.

Biro (2014) also support this fact. According to her conclusion, there are many evidence
that directly illustrated that happy employees is the lead for better performance and
higher profits.

2. Better customer interactions.

Prokopeak (2011) supports this idea by saying that, "the customer may always be right,
but you better be sure to treat your employees right too. A new study identifies job
satisfaction as a key driver of higher customer satisfaction and repeat business".

3. Fewer sick days.

As according to buzztime (2013), "if you treat employees well, theyll have less workrelated stress, which will improve their health. A great benefits package can also help
keep employees healthy".
4

4. Less turnover.
Jacobsen (2013) make a statement in her tips to reduce employee turnover. "Encourage
pro-social behavior in your employees. When they are given the opportunity to connect
with one another through acts of generosity and the expression of gratitude, employees
will be healthier, happier, and less likely to fly the coop. And by encouraging them to be
on the lookout for good behaviors to commend, you give people a sense of ownership of
the company".

5. More talented employees.

For example, "when a restaurant or bar is a great place to work, word tends to spread. If
everyone knows that you treat your employees well, youll attract more talented
employees. These talented employees will, in turn, make your restaurant an even better
place to workits a great cycle! Taking care of your employees by providing training
will also help them become more confident, which leads to better customer interactions
and less of the job insecurity that can lead to a lack of productivity" (buzztime, 2013).

Hence, there are many evidence shows that happy employees are very beneficial to an
organization. On our approach, Employees Relations is the best way to achieve it.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, Employee Relations plays an important role in a successful organization.

Hence, rather than focus only on our customer needs and wants, we should take care of
our employees. In return of a caring treat on employees and their wellbeing, they will
take care the customer for us.

References

buzztime. (2013). The BIG Benefits Of Treating Employees Well. Retrieved on 17th of
August, 2014 at
http://www.buzztimebusiness.com/smarts/big-benefits-treating-employees/

Biro, M. M. (2014). Happy Employees = Hefty Profits. Retrieved on 17th of August,

2014 at
http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2014/01/19/happy-employees-hefty-profits/

Prokopeak, M. (2011). Happy Employees Mean Happy Customers. Retrieved on 17th of

August, 2014 at
http://talentmgt.com/articles/happy-employees-mean-happy-customers

Jacobsen, D. (2013). 12 SUREFIRE TIPS TO REDUCE EMPLOYEE TURNOVER.

Retrieved on 17th of August, 2014 at
http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/2013/12-surefire-tips-to-reduce-employee-turnover/