DIFFERENT STROKES: Surfboards lean against a wall at the Google office in Santa Monica, California. Google says its value talent, intelligence, group spirit, diversity, creativity, idealism. - Reuters
By SAJITH SIVANANDAN
Free food, colorful creative spaces and ping-pong tables certainly make life at Google fun and comfortable, but these things are not necessarily “the secret” to Google’s working culture. There are 10 core values that underpin our approach to work, our organisational structure and even the tools we use that make up the “secret sauce” to working at Google.
1. Transparency. Google has a culture built around "audience participation". We have weekly company-wide town hall meetings where anyone can ask anything to senior management.
2. Shared ownership and responsibility. Googlers work in small teams to have a big impact. Googlers are also empowered to make decisions that mean the best for the company.
3. The culture of startup. We vet for cultural fit when hiring. We do not hire narrow specialists, but rather smart generalists.
4. Collaboration. Most of the benefits and perks are designed to foster collaboration at Google. In the cafes, we have long tables so that employees across the organisation will come together. The micro-kitchens can be thought of as “water holes” where employees gather to discuss ideas or just take a break. Our tools like Google Docs, Sheets etc. reflect our collaborative philosophy—instead of sending versions of one document back and forth, everyone works on one document at the same time, saving a great deal of hassle.
5. Innovation. Working at Google means tackling the toughest problems in information technology and developing innovative products that make a positive difference in tens of millions of lives every day. We offer employees opportunities to take on responsibility and to take an idea from start to finish.
6. Intellect. Opportunity to test the limits of your intellectual abilities, employees have world-class skills, thrive in small, focused teams and high-energy environments, believe in the ability of technology to change the world, and are as passionate about their lives as they are about their work.
7. Creativity. Google is an environment that attracts and retains the brightest engineering talent and combines it with unparalleled resources in order to develop great things for users while allowing employees to work on a wide array of projects. Our culture allows for creativity no matter what department you work for.
8. Diversity. We value talent, intelligence, group spirit, diversity, creativity, idealism. Our mission is to open the world’s information to everyone—in order to best serve our users, our workforce needs to reflect the diversity of our users. We also want to be in as many markets as possible, so we are focusing on issues of both scale and localisation to make each office 'Googley' while preserving that country’s unique culture.
9. Flexibility, not facetime. Thanks to our cloud-based tools, Googlers aren’t chained to their desk. We care about output and the quality of your work, not whether or not you sit in the office. So if Googlers need to work remotely for whatever reason, they can still conduct meetings over Hangouts, call people using their laptop-installed Softphones, and access the Google intranet via VPNs. This is especially valuable for working mothers or people who need to stay home.
10. Never stop learning. At Google we believe that we’re never too old to learn a new skill: Whether it’s a new programming language, or better managerial skills, or ballroom dancing. Googlers have access to an array of personal and professional classes through our Learning and Development team, as well as classes taught by other Googlers under the “Googlers-to-Googlers” program (known internally as “g2g”).
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