In Company Culture Club, we take a look at some of the organisations whose company culture is as impressive as the design of their workplace.
The Google way of life
When it comes to lessons in company culture, Google is the kid donning glasses and scribbling eagerly into a notebook at the front of the class. Google’s renowned and unique company culture has helped them to recruit and retain some of the best in the industry. Unsurprisingly named a Business Insider’s Number One Company to Work For in America, it’s fair to say that Google know a thing or two about creating the perfect company culture.
Google’s staff, known as Googlers, have many great perks such as unlimited free food on site, nap pods, comprehensive health coverage for their immediate families and pet-friendly campuses. But it’s not just these perks that make Google a great place to work. The true formula to Google’s success as a company lies within its phenomenal approach to creating an open culture within the workplace. Google is a truly inclusive place to work with a distinct lack of hierarchy which makes employees feel more comfortable in expressing their opinions and sharing ideas.
In a nutshell, there’s a greater value placed on celebrating the difference in people rather than stifling the diversity. This enables Google to nurture their own thought leaders. Another nod of appreciation goes towards Google’s diversity policy. Greyglers and Gayglers are just some of the names given to support networks within the company to ensure age diversity and LGBT rights and awareness respectively.
TGIF meetings
As one of the largest companies in the world, it’s refreshing to see how Google has kept its roots and their open culture is similar to what you’d expect from a small start-up, not a global organisation. Furthermore, Google places a strong emphasis on workplace collaboration and as such, they endeavour to ensure that every single employee feels comfortable sharing their ideas and thoughts. In order to allow this to happen, they hold weekly TGIF meetings where employees are invited to ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other executives.
Aside from these thought-provoking TGIF meetings, Google’s offices are also designed to encourage interactions between employees. Google’s laid-back and fun take on office design means that it’s easy for employees to cheerfully spark conversation about work as well as play.
People Operations
One of Google’s most unique and interesting aspects is that it has a specialist team whose job is to ensure the happiness and wellbeing of the staff. Elsewhere, such a team would come under the umbrella term of HR, but Google call them the People Operations team. It’s their responsibility to remain “curious and creative” in order to maintain Google’s core values. They even have their own specific mantra, “find them, grow them, keep them” which highlights the company’s dedication to keeping their people and the level of care that this entails.
A new world
Laszlo Bock, Google’s SVP of People Operations and the father of Google’s iconic work culture, has recently announced his retirement. Bock is considered to have been the force behind the company’s unique approach to hiring staff as well as the vast amount of employee benefits. It is his quirky and generous approach to workplace management that has helped to shape Google’s unique culture. His successor has been announced as Eileen Naughton who previously held the role of Sales VP in the London office. This shift in roles could leave Google’s company culture subject to change, but one thing is for certain, Google will never be a dull place to work!
