Google's biggest challenge in keeping employees motivated

Google is number one on the list of “ideal” employers and has been in the top five of Fortune’s list of “best companies to work for” for six years running and was number one on the list for three of those years. But make no mistake, Google’s executives offer these fabulous perks for several reasons: to attract the best knowledge workers it can in an intensely competitive, cutthroat market: to help employees work long hours and not have to deal with time-consuming personal chores; to show employees they’re valued; and to have employees remain Googlers (the name used for employees) for many years. Yet, employees continue to jump ship. As one analyst said, “Yes, Google’s making gobs of money. Yes, It’s full of smart people. Yes, it’s a wonderful place to work. So why are so many people leaving?”

For instance, Sean Knapp and two colleagues, brothers Bismarck and Belsasar Lepe, came up with an idea on how to handle Web video. They left Google, or as one person put it, “expelled themselves from paradise to start their own company.” When the threesome left the company, Google really wanted them and their project to stay. Google offered them a “blank check.” But the trio realized they would do all the hard work and Google would own the product. So off they went, for the excitement of a start-up.

If this were an isolated occurrence, it would be easy to write off. But it’s not. Other talented Google employees have done the same thing. In fact, there are so many of them who have left that they’ve formed an informal alumni club of ex-Googlers turned entrepreneurs.

Google is taking aggressive steps to retain its talent, especially those with start-up ambitions. One thing the company has done is give several engineers who said they wanted to leave to pursue their own ideas the opportunity to pursue those ideas within Google. These employees work independently and can recruit other engineers. In addition, Google’s resources, such as its code base and computer servers, are available to them. In addition, from the very beginning, Google’s founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) believed in giving everyone time-called 20 percent time-to work on their own projects.

Other Googlers have left because they felt Google had gotten too big and turned into a slow-moving bureaucratic company. Again, the company battled to keep the talent. For instance, when a Google product manager told his bosses that he was leaving to take a job at Facebook, they offered him a huge raise. But he told them it wasn’t about the money. So they offered him a promotion, the opportunity to work in a different area, or even to start his own company inside Google. Yet, the former employee says that “At Facebook, I can see how quickly I could get things done compared to Google.” However, there’s one other thing that start-ups can offer experienced employees: They’re still “private companies that haven’t gone public and can lure workers with pre-IPO ( initial public offering) stock.”

Discussion Questions

1. What’s it like to work at Google? (Hint: Go to Google’s Web site and click on About Google. Find the section on Jobs at Google and go from there.) What’s your assessment of the company’s work environment?

2. Google is doing a lot for its employees, but obviously not enough to retain some talented employees. Using what you’ve learned from studying the various motivation theories, what does this situation tell you about employee motivation?

3. What do you think is Google’s biggest challenge in keeping employees motivated? 4. If you were managing a team of Google employees, how would you keep them motivated?

5.What would you tell managers at Google?

Read the material and answer all the questions. Write a minimum of five pages not including the cover sheet, table of contents, or bibliography to answer the questions. Also answer the question: What keeps people happy on the job? What do you feel you need to want to stay with an employer? Remember to use the book and other outside resources to support your answer. Opinions will be severel