Quantcast
Channel: TALENT MANAGEMENT NEWS » Rama Prabha
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Why Google employees don’t stay for long?

0
0
Google Employee Turnover

Career Stepping Stone

Recent data from Payscale shows Google employees stay for less than 14 months on average. It can be argued that these tech-savvy generation Y (the median age being 29) may be a restless lot and by the time they conclude one project, they are done with the entire organisation and are already looking out for greener pastures. How does having restless workers bode for the employer?

It all comes back to the nature of the work place and the resourcing strategy. Say a company is hiring skilled carpenters for its specialised wood furnitures and has about 35 of them working away at orders coming in every week, then losing these guys every 14 months will be difficult because:

a. These people don’t just have a particular skill, but have become masters of applying that skill to producing specialised and very niche products. To have them replaced would mean that a lot of time and effort will be wasted in training or retraining.

b. These are the type of people whom you cannot hire by standing outside any college or even a vocational institute for that matter, but people you have to source from complex channels (independent carpenters with their own teams and craftsman with many years of service );

c.These people will take with them what they have learned, and can apply the proprietary knowledge, highly refined techniques and trade secrets in another smaller set up, most often their own;

d. These people define the brand because expertise resides in each specialist, and that special carving and unique structure can only be produced by very few so losing them will actually jeopardize the entire production.

How then does this work for Google and other large companies listed in the report? For one, they have  a LARGE pool of workers, which means that there are going to be plenty of spares and back-ups, maybe back-ups to back-ups. Secondly, the skills required are being taught at basically every other school and college, so hiring someone well equipped with the basics of software programming, marketing strategies or statistical methods is not difficult. Thirdly, the many layers of capabilities and experience means that there is not much ‘breadth’ in know-how expected of junior level hires, and a short training in the exact vertical will suffice to get expected production from the person. Google definitely keeps its top talents too, only that it is not reflected in the averages which include thousands of general and support workforce who are there on short term stints.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that  for employees, Google is a lot more than a workplace – it is the much esteemed stepping stone in one’s growing career, providing the know-how and exposure, the network and the insights – all of which are invaluable regardless of the path one takes in the future. It  is almost like a specialized MBA, only better because you learn in an organisation whose breadth of sub-areas is phenomenal and whose influence in our lives colossal. Plus, what you learn is formulated in the real world and will be applicable in your immediate and long term endeavors. Companies like Google will continue to thrive on short term tenures because that IS their value proposition.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images