- salon with free hair cuts
- well-equipped gym with swim-in-place pools
- medical staff
- laundry and dry cleaners
- games like ping pong and pool
- private communication pods (pictured below)
The perks certainly are attractive. In 2007 and 2008, Google was ranked the #1 Best Company to Work For by Fortune magazine. Upon announcing in February that it would add 6,000 jobs this year, Google received 75,000 applications. Clearly, some people want to work there.
Unfortunately, Google hires high-caliber, talented people, and many of them do not want to stay.
Since 2008, Google has ranked the #4 Best Company to Work For. More than 15% of Facebook's staff is made up of former Google employees. Google's stock declined more than 4% last year.
What has happened?
Google lost its focus. It lost its entrepreneurial edge and way of thinking. It became too silo'ed and structured and process-focused, which stymied innovation. Creative, innovative people want their ideas pushed forward not bogged down in paperwork. Former employees express frustration about Google's lack of accountability, which caused delays, errors, and lost competitive advantage.
Being able to get good work done is important to Google's employees. It is more important than free hair cuts, pool tables, and free laundry. Earlier this week, Google named a new CEO, and today, he revamped Google's management team. The new CEO, Larry Page, seems aware of the fact that fancy perks are not enough to keep talented people.
Do you?
(Sources: www.money.cnn.com and www.bloomberg.com)
Great post Kelly. It would be difficult to argue that the Googleplex is what keeps Googlers from leaving, although perks may have been their recruitment tool in the beginning for those that are leaving (and the declining stock doesn't help matters)...one could argue though that the very companies recruiting them elsewhere are dangling just-as-awesome perks as leverage, and that it's still high on their priority list -- but to your point, one wouldn't stay somewhere too long for free haircuts if they didn't like the barbershop. Our company (BetterWorks) is aiming to provide Google perks at Costco prices for small businesses, and retention/recruiting certainly factor in the equation for our clients.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteRight on! Free haircuts when the barber insists on cutting your hair how he wants it are not worth it. When innovation is essential, as it is with most companies today, encouraging creative people to be creative makes sense. Maybe Google's growth took that out of them for a while and they became too "corporate-y." I'm not too worried about them though...they'll be back.
BetterWorks is an interesting company. I'm glad to know about it through your response. Thanks for the reply and introduction.
Continued good wishes to you!