Work Rules: FINAL--Performance

Performance—Bock provides an in-depth look into the struggle that Google had with

performance assessment and why they separate it from development discussions. Pay: he suggests paying people “unfairly,” meaning that high performers deserve much more money than average workers; Bias: We’re all biased in one form or another, so remove it from the selection process. Check out the summary in the appendix of the book—in the “Work Rules” section.

New Kind of HR. In the “Afterword for HR Geeks Only,” the author provides a blueprint for this new kind of HR. This section will be critical to anyone trying to build a great company with great people. This book is a very worthy read as is this particular section.

Work Rules: Post #3--Recruitment and Hiring

Recruiting and Hiring. Google only hires 0.25% of applicants. Harvard

takes about 6.1% of its applicants. Thus, it’s about 25 times harder to get into Google than Harvard! Referrals from Googlers are the best source of recruits, but even that yields only 5%.  Treat hiring as the highest priority. Take time, hire the best and make recruiting part of everyone’s job. Note: The hiring manager does not make the final decision! People are being hired into the company, not just a particular division. Also, pressure can make a hiring manager rush, give in, and settle. Write-ups from the manager, peers, and others go to a hiring committee that keeps selection more objective. What they look for in new hires: 1. Cognitive ability—ability to learn; 2. Emergent Leadership—willing to step in and step out; 3. Cultural Fit—comfortable with ambiguity and conscientious humility; 4. Expertise—need to be very good at their work.

Work Rules: Post #2--Google's Culture

Cornerstones of Google’s Culture. The philosophy at Google

is that people are fundamentally good [often called “Theory Y”]. Thus, Google is a high-freedom culture—allowing people rather than restricting them, saying yes much more often than no. Three fundamental drivers of Google’s culture:

Meaning--A mission that matters—Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Companies with strong cultures—Google, IBM, Wegmans—all have a kind of moral imperative rather than a strictly business or financial goal. Great people “…want an aspiration that’s inspiring.” And they want to be able to directly connect their job to the company’s mission. There’s a very good research illustration about how fundraisers who talked with scholarship recipients quadrupled their results.  Getting employees to think like owners and see their work as a calling, not just a job, is a clear focus at Google and other high-freedom, mission-focused cultures.

Transparency--If you think people are basically good, then you should want to share corporate info with them—treat them like owners.  Google’s philosophy is “Default to open,” a model of transparency. For example, new engineers get to see Google’s source code on their first day! Google hosts TGIF every Thursday. Larry Page and Sergey Brin host an all-employee 30-minute meeting both in person and streaming video that gets broadcast around the world to Googlers. Anyone can ask any question. Transparency improves performance. Bridgewater Associates records every meeting and posts it for employees—call it “radical transparency.”

 Voice--Give people a say in how to run the company if you believe in the theory that people are fundamentally good. Through good corporate internal surveys, Google launched “Bureaucracy Busters”—an annual program targeted at reducing bureaucracy to get more done with less interference. Research at UT Austin has shown that giving  employees a voice is key to organizational effectiveness.

Work Rules: Post #1--Overview

Overview What do Google and Wegmans have in common? They both are high-freedom companies that believe employees really matter; they should have a worthy mission; they should get lots of corporate information (from a transparent organization); and, they should have a say—a “voice” in what happens.  Some great ideas emerge in this book, like not allowing hiring managers to make the final hiring decision, which eliminates any bias; hosting TGIF meetings where the CEO answers any questions in an open forum; and, treating HR as People Operations and conducting regular people experiments. Written by Google’s Chief of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, this book opens up Google’s people process to us and provides a worthy roadmap for any progressive company, big or small.

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock (Kindle Edition Hachette Book Group, 2015), reviewed by Steve Gladis, June 2015.