Recruitment and Selection at Google

Google is a consistently ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the best places to work. It provides employees with excellent pay and a series of perks that are unheard of at most corporations. Some of these perks are flex hours: bring your dog to work; casual dress; onsite free massage and yoga; free snacks, drinks, and meals; and a childcare centre among many others. No wonder that Google receives close to 3 million job applications a year. To find the best talent, Google uses carefully selected strategies, methods and techniques. Google recruits at college and university campuses and through the Careers section of its website. Google is very selective, hiring only about 7000 of the 3 million applicants. Google uses elements; preliminary screening, employment tests, interviews, and background checks. Google is looking for intelligence, creativity, leadership and fit with the Google culture, as well as the role the person will play as a part of Google. Hiring decisions are not made by managers behaving a committee composed of peers making the decision, which is much like the process a university uses in hiring, promoting, and granting tenure to faculty, rather than hierarchical structures used in industry. One can say that in many ways Google operates in the knowledge industry much like a university.

Questions

1. What criteria should Google use in selecting team players?

2. Does peer-based hiring lead to better employees?