Please help me to identify the Key issue in this case studies. this is going to help me a lot.
CASE-

FRHM Case Study

Fortune magazine recently named Google the best of the 100 companies to work for, and there is little doubt why. Among the benefits they offer are free shuttles equipped with Wi-Fi to pick up and drop off employees from San Francisco Bay area locations, unlimited sick days, annual all-expense paid ski trips, gourmet meals, five on-site free doctors, 2000$ bonuses for referring a new hire, free flu shots, a giant lap pool, on-site oil changes, on-site car washes, volleyball courts, TGIF parties, free-on site washers and dryers (with free detergent), Ping-Pong and foosball tables, and free famous people lectures. For many people, it’s the gourmet meals and snacks that make Google stand out. For example, Human resource director Stacey Sullivan loves the Irish Oatmeal with fresh berries at the company’s Plymouth Rock Café, near Google’s “people operations” group. “I sometimes dream about it”, she says. Engineer Jan Fitzpatrick loves the raw bar at Google’s Tapis restaurant, down the road on the Google campus. Then of course, there are stock options- each new employee gets about 1200 options to buy Google shares (recently worth about 480$ per share). In fact, dozens of early Google employees (“Googlers”) are already multimillionaires thanks to Google stock.
For their part, Googlers share certain traits. They tend to be brilliant, team –oriented (team work is a norm, especially in big projects), and drive,. Fortune describes them as people who “almost universally” see themselves as the most interesting people on the planet, and who are happy-go-lucky on the outside, but type –A- highly intense and goal directed- on the inside. They’re also super-hardworking, team oriented and when working on projects, it is not unusual for the Google team to give up its larger, more spacious offices to crowd into a small conference room, where they can :get things done”. Historically, Googlers graduate with great grades from the best universities, including Harvard, Stanford and MIT. For many years, Google wouldn’t even consider hiring someone less than a 3.7 average- while also probing deeply into the why behind any B grades. Google also doesn’t hire lone wolves, but wants people who work together and people who also have diverse interests (narrow interests or skills are a turnoff for Google). Google also wants people with growth potential. The company is expanding so fast that they need to hire people who are capable of being promoted five or six times-it’s only they say, by hiring such over qualified people they can be sure that the employees will be able to keep up as Google and their own departments expand.
The starting salaries are highly competitive. Experienced engineers start t about 130,000$ a year (plus about 1200 shares of stock options, as noted), and new MBA’s can expect between 80,000$ and 120.000$ per year (with smaller option grants). Most recently, Google had about 10,000 staff members, up from its start a few years ago with just three employees in a rented garage.
Of course, in a company that’s grown from three employees to 10,000 and from zero value to hundreds of billions on dollars in about five years, it may be quibbling to talk about “problems”, but there’s no doubt that such rapid growth does confront Google’s management and particularly its “people operations” group, with some big challenge.
For one, Google, as noted above, is a 24-hour operation, and with engineers and others frequently pulling all –nighters to complete their projects, the company needs to provide a package of services and financial benefits that support that kind of lifestyle, and that helps its employees maintain an acceptable work-life balance.
As another challenge, Google’s enormous financial success is a two-edged sword. While Google usually wins the recruitment race when it comes to competing for new employees against competitors like Microsoft or Yahoo, Google does need some way to stem a rising tide of retirements. Most Googlers are still in their late twenties and early thirties, but many have become so wealthy from their Google Stock options that they can afford to retire. On 27 year old engineer received million-dollar founder’s award for her work on the program for searching desktop computers, and wouldn’t think of leaving “except to start her own company. Similarly a former engineering vice president retired (with his Google stock profiles) to pursue his live for astronomy. The engineer who dreamed up Gmail recently retired (at the age of 30).
Another challenge is that the work not only involves long hours but can also be very tense. Google is a very numbers-oriented environment. For example, consider a typical weekly Google user interface design meeting. Marisa Meyer, the company’s vice president of search products and user experience runs the meeting, where her employees work out the look and feel of Google’s products. Seated around a conference table are about dozen Googlers tapping on laptops. During the two hour meeting, Meyer needs to evaluate various design proposals, ranging from minor tweaks to new product’s entire layout. She’s previously given each presentation an allocated amount of time, and a large digital clock on the wall ticks off the seconds. The presenters must quickly present their ideas, but also handle questions such as “ what users do if tab is moved from the side of the page to the top?” furthermore, it’s all about numbers- no one at Google would ever say, for instance- “ the tab looks better in red”-0 you need to prove your point. Presenters must come armed with usability experiment results, showing, for instance, that a certain percent preferred red or some other color, for instance. While the presenters are answering these questions as quickly as possible, the digital clock is ticking , and when it hits the allotted time, the presentation must end, and the next team steps up to present. It is tough and a tense environment and the Googlers must have done their homework.
Growth can also undermine the “outlaw band that’s changing the world” culture that fostered the services made that made Google famous. Even cofounder Sergi Brin agrees that Google risks becoming less “zany” as it grows. To paraphrase, one of its top managers, the hard part of any business is keeping that original innovative, small-business feel even as the company grows.
Creating the right culture is especially challenging now that Google is truly global. For example, Google works hard to provide the same financial and service benefits every place it does business around the world, but it can’t exactly match its benefits in every country because of international laws and international taxation issues. Offering the same benefits everywhere is more important than it might initially appear. All those benefits make life easier for Google staff, and help them achieve a work- life balance. Achieving the right work- life balance is the enterprise of Google’s culture, but also becomes more challenging as the company grows. On the other hand, it realizes that it needs to help them maintain some sort of balance. As one manger says, Google acknowledges “that we work hard but that work is not everything”.

Recruitment is another challenge4. While Google certainly doesn’t lack applicants, attracting the right applicants is crucial if Google is to continue to grow successfully. Working at Google requires special set of traits, and screening employees is easier if they recruit the right people to begin with. For instance, they need to attract people who are super-bright, love to work, have fun, can handle stress, and who also have outside interests and flexibility.
As the company grows internationally, it also faces the considerable challenge of recruiting and building staff overseas. For example, Google now is introducing a new vertical market- based structure across Europe, to attract more business advertisers to its search engine. (By vertical market- based structure, Google means focusing on key vertical industry sectors such as travel, retail, automotive and technology). To build these industry groupings abroad from scratch, Google promoted its former head of its U.S. financial services group to be the vertical markets director of Europe; he moved there recently. Google is thus looking for head for each of its vertical industry groups for all its key European territories. Each of these vertical market heads will have to educate their market sectors (retailing, travel and so on) so Google can attract new advertisers. Most recently, Google already had about 12 offices in Europe, and its London office has tripled in size to 100 staff in just two years.
However, probably the biggest challenge Google faces is gearing up its employee selection system, now that the company must hire thousands of people per year. When Google started business, job candidates typically suffered through a dozen or more in person interviews, and the standards were so high that even applicants with years of great work experience often got turned down if they had just average college grades. But recently, even Google’s cofounders have acknowledged to security analysts that setting such an extraordinary high bar for hiring was holding back Google’s expansion. For Google’s first few years, one of the company’s cofounders interviewed nearly every job candidate before he or she was hired, and even today one of them still reviews the qualifications of everyone before he or she gets a final order.
The experience of one candidate illustrates what Google is up against. They interviewed a 24-year old for a corporate communications job at Google. Google first made contact with the candidate in May, and then, after two phone interviews, invited him, to headquarters.. there he had separate interviews with about six people and was treated to lunch in a Google cafeteria. They also had him turn in several “homework’ assignments including a personal statement and a marketing plan. In august, Google invited the candidate back for a second round, which they said would involve another four or five interviews. In the meantime, he decided he’d rather work at a start-up, and accepted another job at a new Web-based instant messaging provider.
Google’s new head of human resources, a former GE executive, says that Google is trying to strike the right balance between letting Google and the candidate get to know each other while also moving quickly. To that end, Google recently administered a survey to all Google’s current employees, in an effort to identify the traits that correlate with success at Google. In the survey, employees had to respond to questions relating to about 300 variables, including their performance on standardized tests, how old they were when they first used a computer, and how many foreign languages they speak. The Google survey team then went back and compared the answers against the 30 or 40 job performance factors they keep for each employee. They thereby identified clusters of traits that Google might better focus on during the hiring process. Google is also trying to move from the free- form interviews they’ve had in the past to a more structured process.

Regards
Anjana

From India, Delhi
The solution of this case study will not help u getting any job......
This is a case study that is been given to you for ur service marketing exam that is going to be held on tuesday i .e 28th April 2009...
so next time please rectify ur true intentions before posting a case study.........
Cheapster........ kalllo

From India, Delhi
Who the hell this Cheapster is and how he or she is supposed to talking like this ????????? Really a cheap one................... :x
From India, Delhi
First of all please improve ur English yaar... and now u have posted HRM case study.... This is a height of Chea...... (u know the word) Kallo
From India, Delhi
First of all please improve ur English..... and now you have posted HRM case study.... This is a height of CHEAP...... ( U know the word) Kallo......
From India, Delhi
First of all please improve ur English..... and now you have posted HRM case study.... This is a height of CHEAP...... ( U know the word) Kallo......
From India, Delhi
Please Anjana,
Give details about who you are and why want the solution to this case and how much time we have in answering it. It's not a 3-line case for us to read and respond.
Have a nice day.
Simhan

From United Kingdom
Hi , I am a Student of PGP. this case is given to us in advance for the exams. questions would be asked there.
i have my own inputs for the case. i don't know the questions of it, but just want some inputs from senior members and friends here. the person above might be a jealous or mentally disturbed person , as he or she don't want any one to help here.
Any ways its just a humble request from you people to provide inputs. My exam is on 29 April. questions will be provided there only.
Thanks and Regards
Anjana

From India, Delhi
Hey Mr cheap................
Why r u feeling so jelous and uncomfortable. this site is not for war of words. have guts to meet me in the college and reveal ur identity.
Really a cheap and mentally disturbed person.:sleep:
ur name suggests that u r really a cheappppppppppppppppppp
Have guts to reveal ur identity.

From India, Delhi
Hii Anjana ,
I really agree with you. This person is really disturbed. you carry on . I will mail u the issues on this case and don't get in scuffle with the anti- social elements of this college.

From India, New Delhi
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