6 Realities About Working At Google, 2015s Best Company To Work For

Year after year, Google bags the 'Best Place to Work' awards. The company has grown exponentially over the last decade, with employee numbers increasing ten times, from 6,000 to 60,000! And it is no secret that Google's employment practices attract the best talent pool in the world. But what makes employee hiring such a success? This.

According to Laszlo Bock, Google's SVP of people operations (who also penned the book Work Rules!), talks about strategies that have made Google the top choice foe job seekers.

While shedding light on the company's cultural practices and hiring processes, here are 6 secrets that Bock shared that you were unaware of.

1. Hiring committee.

Google's hiring committee has special privileges that even the management can't reverse. Because snap judgements can do more harm than good in an interview. Maintaining a strict check on the quality of candidates being interviewed, the responsibility lies with the committee which neither the management nor the team can refute.

2. Brain teasers.

The company that kick-started the trend of brain teasers itself believes that these can't be taken as positive indicators of employee performance.

Bock says, "Everyone likes to ask case questions and brain-teasers. It turns out our data shows that there is no correlation between your ability to do that (answers brain-teasers questions) and performance." 

3. Know-it all managers are passe.

Bock says, "We’ve all been managed and what we want is just to get our work done. Somebody says take that hill, we will figure out how to do it, we just want to get it done." Bock believes that it's time for managers to take the back seat and let their best people take the wheel because that's what they've been hired for.

4. Little things matter.

Taking smaller steps that lead to something bigger is the mantra to be followed. And Buck agrees, "Instead of doing big management courses and initiatives figure out what you want people to practice on, and practice that discreet skill."

5. Pay disparity exists at Google.

Google is no alien to pay disparity. On one instance, while one employee received a stock reward of $10,000, another received a reward of $1 million! The logic is simple: talent differs and so naturally the pay will too.

6. Counter-Offers are a big no!

Bock believes that counter-offers 'incentivises the wrong employees'. Employees come and go; it's a part of professional life. Even the best employee will not accept a counter-offer, so it's better to not indulge the practice.