Does pressure overcome good practice?
October 6, 2008
I read an article in People Magazine recently that looked at the culture and people practices of Google, (Finders Keepers, 18th September), this year’s best place to work. Google is one of those holy grail places for job seekers in the industry, with its famous funky offices, free dinners, flexible working and a multitude of other employee perks. It’s also well known for its top class management practices, so for HR professionals looking to implement new ways of working in their own organisations, it’s a good place to start for ideas. But how much of what Google does is realistic in other companies?
The most startling aspect of the article, which was an interview with Lianne Hornsey, Director of people operations, was the number of interviews a candidate will go through before being engaged. Whilst the process has been reduced slightly in the last few years, it’s still common for most staff to have at least five interviews, and for more senior positions, many more than this. During this process the candidate will be interviewed by the line manager, potential colleagues and people they would be managing if relevant (360 degree interviewing), and if any person in the process has concerns about the candidate, they are not taken on. These processes sound really good and I’m sure Google have fewer problems down the line with retention, performance and capability as a result, but since the company receives 3,000 applications per day, Google has much more scope to carry out these systems than the average company. Google is such a huge brand and so well known as a great employer, I imagine there are no worries about competition in terms of other companies the candidate may be interviewing with, whereas when I am recruiting, I’m always made aware that ‘if I want this candidate I have to move quickly because they’re also seeing X competitor and won’t be on the market long’. I can imagine that many companies avoid long winded recruitment processes just because of the fear of losing good potential candidates. Add that to the internal pressure from managers to get people into post quickly because of work pressures, and it’s quite hard to put your foot down and say no, we’re doing it this way because we need to get the right people. Even when the company has been burned by poor performing employees that were recruited in haste, it’s hard to get the message home about taking your time over choosing future employees, because all the day to day pressures get in the way and cloud everyone’s vision. Sometimes you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: get the wrong employee and you’re dealing with difficult issues and potential retention issues further down the line; fail to employ someone when there’s a heavy workload and you could deal with retention issues with the existing staff due to stress and pressure. Being prepared and good planning is obviously important but of course this doesn’t always happen.
Google sets a really good example of how to recruit and manage people, and should be used as such, but you have to see these practices in the realistic context of the organisation you’re in. I guess the best lesson that can be learned is that brand is everything, and if you can get to the point where your candidates are coming to you because they are dying to work for the organisation rather than the other way round, you can implement a very different way of recruiting new employees.
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