2012's Number One Company to Work has a Hot Commodity - their Vice President of Human Resources, Laszlo Bock

In the past year alone, over 2 million resumes were sent his way. Laszlo Bock is the current Vice President of People Operations for Google, and is nothing short of a man in demand. In his late 30’s, Bock has conquered quite a lot in the field of human resources. When completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees, he had no intentions of going into the human resources field. However, his most recent position on the Google Executive Management team has shown different.

Biography and Past Endeavors

A native to the United States, in 1994 Laszlo Bock completed his undergraduate degree from Pomona College in just 3 short years. He then went on to receive his Master’s in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management, graduating in 1999. Before being headhunted by Google, Bock held employment at Hewitt Associations as a consultant, and McKinsey and Company as an engagement manager. After these, he held the position of Vice President of Human Resources, Compensation and Benefits for General Electric Commercial Equipment Financing, as well as the same position for GE Capital Solutions. In 2006, he received the call from Google, and on March 26^th, he accepted the position as Vice President of People Operations. To put it in simple terms – the Vice President of Human Resources.

Current Google Human Resource Functions

Being a part of the Google Executive Management team for almost 7 years now, Laszlo Bock has driven the number of employees nowhere but up. In 2006, Google had only been around for less than a decade (formed in 1998), and had 3,000 employees. Today, Google has over 34,000 employees worldwide, only growing larger. In 2010, Bock was named the Human Resource Executive’s HR Executive of the Year.

Google was ranked number one on Fortune’s Top Companies to Work For in 2012. Many different human resource functions that Bock oversees are responsible for this, including the following:

• Unlimited free meals from gourmet restaurants on site (also for guests)
• Free shuttles from 5 different bay areas, escorting employees to work
• Free car washes, oil changes, haircuts, laundry services, and dry cleaning on site
• Compensated $2,000 for each employee referred hire
• Reimbursed up to $500 in food expenses if on leave for a new baby in the family
• Free gym, weight room, fitness classes, massages, and foreign language classes on site
• Free personal concierges, child care, and notaries on site
• Five on site doctors to assist with basic check-ups, free of charge
• Motorized scooters available to use on the pet friendly site
• Provides employees with up to 20% of their paid time to personal development and research
• Utilizes and recognizes employee ideas from this research with Founders Awards, which are made up of millions of dollars
• Highly compensated startup and retirement plans

All of these different attributes make Google a most desired place to work at, while maintaining high retention rates. The rewards and compensation delivered to employees is a vital factor. Google allows 20% of each employee’s paid time to conduct research of their own. This provides freedom, resulting in satisfied employees. From this, Google also utilizes their employees’ research and ideas within the company itself. For example, one employee researched a functional travel route from her house to headquarters because she was tired of driving to and from work. After presenting her ideas to Google, they implemented the new shuttle system, free of charge to all employees. They did not have to hire a research firm; they utilized their own employees and put their ideas to work. This resulted in giving recognition and awarding this employee – two of the many ways to increase job satisfaction.

Google also has even placed benefits for employment after death. If an employee passes away while currently employed, their family will received 50% of their paycheck for the next decade. On top of this, each child will be paid $1,000 per month up until the age of 19 (or 23 if they are a full time student). These two benefits are in affect for all 34,000 employees.  

Bock’s Expansion Issues

Since Google was under a decade old, Bock had the ability to virtually create a human resource plan for the entire company while it was in its vast growing stage. In 2007, the average daily number of applications received was 7,000. With the large pool of applicants, Bock wanted to make sure “the quality of hiring didn’t slip.”

Another issue when expanding was to determine how to maintain the company’s unique culture. Bock wanted to ensure that all new offices being opened, in any country, would still have the benefits of the original offices. To confirm this, Bock created a number of policies, including one that states each new office must have a Google veteran as one of the first ten employees hired. This Google veteran will help the “rookies” understand and promote the culture.

Bock’s Hiring Strategy – ‘Three Thirds’

Laszlo Bock has created a hiring strategy for Google that is no secret. He created a three thirds team of HR professionals in order to transform the outside and inside perceptions of Google’s HR functions. One third consisted of traditional HR people, one-third “high-end, strategy-consultant” types (some with non-HR backgrounds), and one-third master’s and doctorate level analytical. This diverse mix allows the Google HR department to have more empathy and understand the different challenges each position may have. “[As a team] they’ve seen lots of things happen and they know how to deal with them. They understand how to work closely with employees,” Bock stated.

Going on his 7^th year as the Vice President of People Operations of the number one company to work for, there is no doubt Laszlo Bock has his challenges ahead of him to maintain this status. However, with a three thirds HR team behind him, Bock is continuing to ensure the success of Google and all of its future endeavors.

Bibliography 

Casserly, Meghan. Here's What Happens to Google Employees When They Die. FORBES, August 8, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/08/08/heres-what-happens-to-google-employees-when-they-die/

Lashinsky, Adam. The Perks of Being A Googler. FORTUNE, 2013. Retrieved from: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0701/gallery.Google_perks/index.html

O'Brien, Michael. Building A New Breed. Human Resources Executive: Online, October 2, 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=533322196

Yale SOM Office of Communications. News: Laszlo Bock '99, VP People Operations, Google. Yale School of Management, February 20, 2008. Retrieved from: http://mba.yale.edu/news_events/CMS/Articles/6352.shtml

HR’s Role in Workers’ Family Obligations and Career Goals

The textbook talks very briefly about particular career issues that affect individuals within the organization: technical & professional workers, women, dual-career couples, and global career tracks.  I can personally relate to three of those topic, which I will incorporate into my summaries and explanations below.

Technical Workers and Management

The book talks about the reluctance of many technical and professional workers over moving into management roles.  The central theme of their careers involves solving problems and puzzles, rather than managing individuals who do that.  Their skills may be more grounded in technical expertise rather than managerial, and simply promoting such a person into a managerial role as a reward runs the risk of disastrous consequences.

When I began my current job in July of 2000, my department’s management consisted of the department manager and the network administrator.  The network administrator was my direct supervisor, and his role was to oversee the work of the technicians as we maintained the technology of the schools.  The department manager’s role was to oversee the business-related aspects of our department and to act as the liaison between our department and the rest of the district.  She served as the public face of our department, allowing the rest of us to quietly bury ourselves in a nest of cables and computer parts.

Around 2008, our department manager – after having been promoted even further through the chain of executives of the district – retired.  Rather than hiring or appointing a direct replacement for her, the district promoted my boss to be the director of the department, which meant that he now held the dual responsibility of managing the technical aspects of our work as well as overseeing the business side by combining his role as network administrator and director of technology.  This presented a particular challenge for him because, although he always had the capability of performing the business functions, his heart lies in technology and solving technical puzzles.  In fact, immediately after the transition, while a bunch of us were out at the bar after work, he lamented over his beer that he missed being elbows-deep inside a computer rather than working on the following year’s budget.

This scenario illustrates a challenge faced by companies and HR departments.  When an individual reaches various points of advancement and growth opportunities, the employer is faced with either limited available options within the technical track, or the singular opportunity of management.  The challenge arises when faced with the possibility that the individual may be a skilled technical worker but not necessarily a good manager.  Companies understand that having a manager in place with the technical skills means that subordinates will grant respect for that person’s knowledge and abilities, but whether those skills translate into areas of responsibility that are more business focused rather than technically focused is rarely clear.  (Roberts & Biddle, 1994).

Dual-Career Couples

I work in the information technology department of a local school district, and have been involved in technology professionally since 1997.  My wife works in the bankruptcy department for a medium-sized law firm and has been involved in bankruptcy law for about the same amount of time.  I chose my career, but my wife fell into hers.  If she had the opportunity to do it all over again, she would have likely chosen some other career path, but at our age and circumstances, the opportunity for a “do over” is limited.

Whether the household consists of two working parents or the household is that of a single-parent worker, accommodations need to be made or allowed for in order to deal with unexpected situations with family members, such as children.  Home responsibilities must be balanced with work responsibilities, and it can be a common occurrence for one to spill over into the other out of necessity.  Given that psychological contracts between workers and employers are rarely – if ever – codified by law, both sides may have particular expectations of the other, and conflicts arise when those expectations don’t align.

Considering that studies have shown that workers who are allowed more latitude in autonomy on the job exhibit higher organizational commitment, it behooves HR and the company to keep such allowances in mind when a worker and his or her spouse both must split their respective responsibilities at home and on the job. (Ahmad, Azim, Omar, & Silong, 2012)

Because my wife was only recently hired at her company, her flexibility is more limited than mine, as I’ve been with my employer for over 12 years.  Additionally, my department is notorious for its relaxed attitude and flexibility that gives us the leeway to get our jobs done.  Thus, when our son was hospitalized recently for a respiratory illness, we both had to take time off, although it was less of an issue with me because of my longevity with my employer.

Global Careers and Families

My first professional job was at an international trading and commodity brokerage firm, where I worked from 1992 to 1997.  Although not well-known outside of the industry, this company and its competitors were big behind-the-scenes players in all sorts of industries: steel, automotive, electronics, consumer goods, and so on.  Anything that required shipping and warehousing of large quantities of goods that departed one country and arrived in another, or even domestic orders, this company managed it all.

The headquarters of this company was based in Tokyo, Japan.  Branch managers, department managers, and senior executives were all based out of the Japanese locations, and assigned to international offices for average periods of around five years.  This meant that managers had to regularly uproot their families and move to foreign countries, adding stress to the family dynamic.

Thus, it was common for the spouse of the transferred worker to be a homemaker, and this was most often the wife of the male manager (in my five years as an employee of this company, I had never met a female manager who had been transferred from the Tokyo headquarters.  Any female supervisor or executive was always a national hire, and not a transferee, which meant that upward mobility in the corporation as a whole was limited, and not just due to gender but national origin).

A firm that expects to compete globally must have its decision-makers fluent in the ways of the world, often from more of a literal sense than a figurative idiom.  Thus, workers who are transferred to other countries are immersed first-hand to learn not just the ways of conducting business in foreign cultures, but to learn those cultures themselves – the customs of workers, citizens, local laws and behaviors, communication methods and preferences.  The company then expects those employees who are successful to bring back the knowledge and skills gained in these assignments to benefit the company as a whole.  (Furuya, Stevens, Bird, Oddou, & Mendenhall, 2009)

 

When a worker is repatriated into his origin country – in this case, Japan – he must not only readjust his new habits and patterns back to that of Japan, but so too must his family.  Many of the managers with whom I worked had young children, and were enrolled in local schools.  While their families had the benefit of a local Japanese-American subculture to reduce the shock and aid in the transition to this foreign land of America, it was still not an easy process.  Kids may have had the familiarity of Japanese school on weekends, but during the week, they attended American school like any other child of their age, but with the added disadvantage of acclimating to a foreign culture, speaking a language that bore little resemblance to what little textbook English they have learned in schools in Japan.

Thus, given the broadly encompassing consequences that come from expatriation and repatriation, companies such as my former employer have dedicated resources and contracts with business partners to aid in the transition for their workers and their families, as benefits of the skills and knowledge gained by their employees – on an aggregate level – far outweigh the costs of support.

Conclusion

Traditionally and perhaps historically, it may seem counter-productive and counter-intuitive for companies to provide accommodations to workers that don’t have any direct bearing on the job.  Any worker should be thrilled and privileged to be offered a managerial position, with its attendant increase in pay and prestige.  Allowing a worker to take time off is akin to paying that person to not be at his or her desk, when tending to a sick child.  Or when a worker returns from an overseas assignment, it should be their responsibility to reacclimate with their home country.

However, such a laissez-faire attitude would itself be the counter-intuitive, counter-productive approach as that would instead contribute to worker dissatisfaction, which can then snowball into turnover.  A more accommodating approach from an HR perspective may not have any direct or immediate benefit to the company, but a wise decision-maker must look beyond the immediate and direct benefits.  Granting workers some latitude and freedom, and assuring the worker that he or she will be cared for raises the level of trust on both sides, and both employer and employee benefit in the forms of a steady and satisfying job, and a happy and loyal worker.

Works Cited

Ahmad, A., Azim, A. M., Omar, Z., & Silong, A. D. (2012). Work-family psychological contract, job autonomy and organizational commitment. Journal of Applied Sciences, 740.

Furuya, N., Stevens, M. J., Bird, A., Oddou, G., & Mendenhall, M. (2009). Managing the Learning and Transfer of Global Management Competence: Antecedents and Outcomes of Japanese Repatriation Effectiveness. Journal of International Business Studies, 200-215.

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2011). Human Resource Management. Mason: South-Wester Cengage Learning.

Roberts, K., & Biddle, J. (1994). Questions Associated with the Transition to Management. Human Resource Management (1986-1998), 565-.

The Basics of Compensation and Rewards

One of the most important things for companies to stay competitive is to come up with reward packages and adequate compensation that can satisfy their employees. Reward packages can also be known as Rewards, and Compensation is the money employees receive for completing there jobs. Total Rewards and Compensation include "all monetary and non-monetary rewards provided by a company to attract, motivate, and retain employee. The success of a total rewards and compensation systems depends on being able to combine organizational goals to compensation so that employees are motivated work in an effective way that benefits the company and its functions.

Compensation Types

An organization could not maintain a workforce with providing compensation. There are a few different types of compensation that should be addressed. The first is called base/fixed pay. Base/Fixed pay is essentially the simple compensation that any employee receives. It can be divided into two more categories known as wages and salaries. Wages are hourly payments based on the time and employee works. Salaries are consistent payments made to the employee and do not change each period. Salaries remain the same regardless of the amount of time employee’s work. The second type of compensation is Variable pay. This type of compensation is related to how an employee or team of employees performs on certain tasks or projects. Types of variable pay can include bonuses and incentive program payments. The final type of compensation is also its own category under the total rewards system. This type is known as benefits. Benefits are rewards, which may not just be cash, for an employee’s membership not based on their performance. They can be healthcare, vacation pay or even a pension. (Compensation and Benefits Review)

Compensation System Issues

All employees work to gain compensation for their efforts and performance. Many employees go through issues of perceiving if their compensation is fair or not. This can affect their performance and they view their job and company. Equity is the supposed fairness of what an employee does for their company and what they get out of it (Compensation). Employees often judge equity on how much effort they put into work and what they received compared to what their peers received for their efforts. There is another issue with equity known as pay secrecy. There are some concerns about the secrecy some companies have with their pay systems. Information containing what other employees make and what raises they may have received may be kept in secret closed systems (Human Resource Management). Some companies also have rules on what pay information employees can talk about with each other. Violation of these rules can sometime result in discipline by employers. These policies were erected under the National Labor Relations Act. Most employees refrain from brining up pay topics because it can easily make the work environment very uncomfortable for employees and employers. (National Relations Labor Act.)

Compensation Pay Systems Legal acts

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) passed in 1938 is the federal law that governs compensation acts throughout corporations.  This act included a minimum wage for covered employees (Fair Labor Standards Act). It states minimum dollar amount that an employee can be paid. Currently the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25. This was passed in 2007 in the Fair Minimum Wage act of 2007. The FLSA has also set “child labor provisions”. These state that the minimum age that someone can work at a job with unlimited hours is 16. It also says that for jobs that may be hazardous the minimum age is 18 years old.

Compensation Pay Principles for Tough Economic Times

Organizations must remember to continue to reward their top performers. It does make sense to reduce compensation of employees who do not perform to specific company standards, although it is more important to reward top performers. This can attract more talent during tough economic times (Compensation). Companies need to also note that non-cash benefits as well as other rewards are essential in down times.

Conclusion

Compensation and Rewards are quite simple and easy to comprehend although they are an essential part of any organization. It is a crucial part of any HR manager to be able to handle the functions of compensation and benefits to keep their employees satisfied. Over the years base lines have been made for the total rewards systems through legal acts such as the FLSA and Fair minimum wage act. An important part of compensation practices is being able to match employee’s perception of fairness of how they think they are performing with pay increases and not going so far as to greatly increase company costs. Without proper control of compensation and the total rewards system, companies and HR managers may lose employees that could potentially be very valuable assets to the company.

References

Anonymous (2002). Compensation: IOMA's Report on Controlling Law Firm Costs. [ONLINE] Available at: http://search.proquest.com/docview/232014533. [Last Accessed March 24/2013].

Pankaj M. Madhani (2009). Compensation and Benefits Review. [ONLINE] Available at: http://cbr.sagepub.com/content/41/4/44. [Last Accessed March 24/2013].

Mathis Jackson, (2009). Human Resource Management. 13th ed. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

"NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT." Poverty and the Government in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Credo Reference. 24 May 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/login?url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcpga/national_labor_relations_act>.

"Fair Labor Standards Act." The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Credo Reference. 22 June 2006. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/login?url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/rcuswh/fair_labor_standards_act>.

Job Satisfaction within a Job Analysis

Which job satisfaction factors are significant when conducting a job analysis?

The most basic building block of human resource management functions is job analysis. A job analysis is used to determine job descriptions and specifications by measuring different job satisfaction factors, such as coworker interactions, working conditions and financial impacts. Job satisfaction is defined as a positive emotional state resulting from evaluating job experiences. This emotional state can determine if an employee is satisfied, and if this satisfaction makes the employee productive or not (Saari, L., & Judge, T). Job satisfaction factors can be measured in multiple different ways, including observation, interviewing, questionnaires, computerized systems, and combination methods.

A research study conducted from 320 employees of 7 telecommunications companies in Pakistan confirmed that certain job analysis factors were positively correlated with employee job satisfaction (Syed, N. Yan, L.). In order to execute this study, an employee questionnaire was created and completed by each employee. Distributing questionnaires to employees is just one of many ways to measure job satisfaction factors within a job analysis. The factors tested throughout this study were empowerment, job rotation, employee participation, merit-based promotions, performance-based pay and grievance handling procedures.

Empowerment

Empowering employees encompasses many different areas. After giving an employee responsibilities and opportunities for different tasks within the work environment, if completed successfully, this can lead to empowerment. Employers can empower their employees through this process by initially giving them tasks and opportunities, encouraging them throughout the task process, and by giving them recognition after completion. In this research study, empowerment was confirmed to have a positive effect in employee job satisfaction with a coefficient value of .511. 51.1% variance concludes that this model of empowerment is significant. ( p =.000).

Job Rotation

Providing employees with a job rotation within their careers has also been proven to have a positive effect in job satisfaction. Its coefficient value is .180, or 18% variance (p = .000). Rotation within a career can serve as an important factor for retaining employees. Sometimes doing the same tasks day to day can get boring, which may result in employees looking elsewhere for employment. However, if there is room for rotation within the department, company, or workplace, job satisfaction will increase as well as retention rates.

Employee Participation

Skills, knowledge and performance are linked to employee participation. This includes involvement in the decision making process, development of strategies and execution of solutions. The telecommunications company research concluded that employee participation is a significant and positively related factor to job satisfaction with a coefficient of .392 (or 39.2% variance. p = .000).

Merit Based Promotions and Performance Based Pay

The telecommunications research project concludes that merit-based promotions and performance based pay also have a positively correlated relationship with job satisfaction. Merit-based promotions are awards that are not given through compensation, but rather by the appreciation of quality work and achievements. Examples include employee of the month, recognition meetings, certificates and verbal congratulatory speech. Performance based pay is based on how well an employee does his or her job because of the pay following it. One example is commission; some employees in the sales industry maintain pay by being compensated for every item they sell. The higher number of items sold, the higher the employee’s pay will be. Merit based promotions and performance based pay were responsible for 35.2% of variance in the telecommunications study, concluding they have a positive relationship with job satisfaction.

Grievance Handling Performance

Confronting and dealing with employee concerns are vital factors within a company. The human resource department comes into major play here, especially when it comes to the legal issues within a company. Grievance handling procedures can be related to work based performance. However, these procedures did not have a positive relationship within job satisfaction and were insignificant, with a coefficient of .170, or 17% variance (with p = .002).

Conclusion

According to the telecommunications study, empowerment (51%), job rotation (18%), employee participation (39%), and merit-based promotions/performance-based pay (35%) all have a positive, direct influence when determining job satisfaction. The greater the variance, the greater the impact and significance the element has when determining job satisfaction. Grievance handling procedures (17%) was proven to be insignificant because of its differentiation in p value (p = .002, while all other independent variables were 0), not having an impact on job satisfaction. This study is just one example providing proof that there are many different factors that can be used, and proved significant, within job satisfaction.

References

Saari, L., & Judge, T. (2004). Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction. Human Resource Management, Winter 2004, Vol. 43, No. 4, Pp. 395–407. Retrieved from: http://utm.edu/staff/mikem/documents/jobsatisfaction.pdf

     Syed, N., & Yan, L. X. (2012). Impact of high performance human resource management practices on employee job satisfaction: Empirical analysis. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 4(2), 318-342. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1033050877?accountid=12924