Google, arguably one of the world’s most prolific, innovative, and forward-thinking companies, was started by two college students as a simple search engine.
Today, Google is recognized as the leader in not only online searches, but also advertising, marketing, and technology.
So, how does a company like Google manage a workforce, and more importantly, how does it manage a workplace? After all, Google employs more than 50,000 professionals across the world, and the company needs to be able to coordinate complex projects, many of which are not even solidified, for hundreds of millions of customers and users across the globe.
Below are three ways that Google is able to stay competitive and deliver these results. These are good principles that you can apply to your career.
1. Care About Your Work
One of the first things that Google looks for in employees and partners is a desire, a true desire, to complete the task at hand. Across the United States, and across the world, there are plenty of people who are showing up each day for work who have no true passion for what they are doing … in fact, most people are working for a paycheck.
While this is not inherently bad, as everyone needs to pay bills and eat, Google has come to realize that it will not get the best performance from its employees if it only looks for those who are simply seeking a paycheck instead of caring about, being passionate, about the work that they do.
So ideally, try and seek our work which excites you and when you look for employees, hire those who feel the same way.
2. Seek Out Those With Skills That Exceed Yours
Google management looks for professionals that possess complimentary and better skills.
This means that managers who are not skilled in finance seek out employees who are finance wizards and Google managers who are wizards in finance look for employees who know how to run IT servers especially well.
Also, they are not afraid to hire people who are better than themselves.
So pick out great people and aim for a well balanced team. In the end, if your team does well, it makes you look good. If you look at a business operation as an “I-have-to-do-and-be-in-control-of-everything” type of situation, you will lose in the long-term, but likely even in the short-term.
3. Pay Your Performers Well, But Don’t Negate Everyone Else
People work for pay (and hopefully because they have a passion to do the work they’re doing). Your top performers provide a much-more-needed service and are under a greater amount of stress than employees who deliver less.
Therefore, you need to compensate higher-level employees more as they add more to your company. On the flip-side, however, acknowledge the efforts of other employees as well, since are are good and essential to your team/company. Make sure you provide them with competitive pay and also enough development opportunities.