Lesson #4: Take Care of Your Team
Lesson #4: Take Care of Your Team
Despite being the brainchild of Page and Brin, they are the first to admit that the company’s significant growth is the result of the creative and hard working team behind it. One of the management’s top priorities is simply “to have great people working for us,” as Brin says. But, it is not such an easy process. Indeed, the hiring process is one that Google takes very seriously.
In order to attract the best of the best, Page and Brin put much effort into creating a highly desirable environment in which to work. “We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements,” says Page. “I don’t know if other companies care as much about those things as we do.”
To this end, engineers at Google are encouraged to spend up to 20% of their time on their own creative projects that might benefit the company. This has resulted in big successes such as Google News and AdSense. “In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters,” says Page. Employees are given meals free of charge, as well as onsite doctors and washing machines within the GooglePlex, which is decorated with lava lamps and large rubber balls.
“We are careful to consider the long-term advantages to the company of these benefits,” Page tells Google investors. “We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.”
Google also strives hard to maintain a flat organizational structure. “If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and balancing going on,” says Page. While the VP of engineering no longer gets 150 direct reports, few walls exist between programmers and management. Instead, Google thrives on its employees, who are all crammed together as efficiently as possible in order to create an energetic atmosphere. “Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them to change the world,” says Page. “Google has large computational resources and distribution that enables individuals to make a difference.”
Page believes that it is because of the significant employee ownership of the company that has made Google what it is today. “Because of our employee talent, Google is doing exciting work in nearly every area of computer science,” he says. “Our main benefit is a workplace with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow.”
Lesson 4 Take Care of Your Team
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“Our employees, who have named themselves Googlers, are everything,” Page explains to his company’s investors. “Google is organized around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional technologists and business people. We have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working stars. We hope to recruit many more in the future. We will reward and treat them well.”
Despite being the brainchild of Page and Brin, they are the first to admit that the company’s significant growth is the result of the creative and hard working team behind it. One of the management’s top priorities is simply “to have great people working for us,” as Brin says. But, it is not such an easy process. Indeed, the hiring process is one that Google takes very seriously.
In order to attract the best of the best, Page and Brin put much effort into creating a highly desirable environment in which to work. “We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements,” says Page. “I don’t know if other companies care as much about those things as we do.”
To this end, engineers at Google are encouraged to spend up to 20% of their time on their own creative projects that might benefit the company. This has resulted in big successes such as Google News and AdSense. “In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters,” says Page. Employees are given meals free of charge, as well as onsite doctors and washing machines within the GooglePlex, which is decorated with lava lamps and large rubber balls.
“We are careful to consider the long-term advantages to the company of these benefits,” Page tells Google investors. “We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.”
Google also strives hard to maintain a flat organizational structure. “If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and balancing going on,” says Page. While the VP of engineering no longer gets 150 direct reports, few walls exist between programmers and management. Instead, Google thrives on its employees, who are all crammed together as efficiently as possible in order to create an energetic atmosphere. “Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them to change the world,” says Page. “Google has large computational resources and distribution that enables individuals to make a difference.”
Page believes that it is because of the significant employee ownership of the company that has made Google what it is today. “Because of our employee talent, Google is doing exciting work in nearly every area of computer science,” he says. “Our main benefit is a workplace with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow.”
Lesson 4 Take Care of Your Team
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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