Motivating engineers at Google Essay

Submitted By hellfireblazer
Words: 603
Pages: 3

Job motivation is the set of forces that compels people to increase their job performance. It is important in maximizing work performance, as illustrated by the equation: performance as a function of motivation multiplied by ability. In order to achieve high performance, both factors have to be high. Motivation begins with job satisfaction and morale; low job satisfaction usually results in poor performance, leading to turnovers or absenteeism. On the other hand, high job satisfaction does not necessarily lead to high performance. Thus it is imperative for companies to constantly motivate employees in order to achieve their desired outcomes. As Google expanded over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to motivate employees, who complain about the growing bureaucracy and lack of individual attention. In particular, the twenty percent time usually results in products that eventually get rejected while feature creep limits the scope for new project initiatives. Another problem Google currently faces is retaining employees with start-up ambitions. Thus in order to retain talents and encourage engineers to sustain high performance, Google can apply the two-factor theory to motivate employees by re-energizing the twenty percent time to include peer recognition and support, while continuing to reduce bureaucracy, especially for creating independent start-ups. The first part of the strategy focuses on catering to two motivators: achievement and recognition, to imbue a sense of accomplishment in employees’ work and contributions. Google can augment the twenty percent time by introducing an online discussion forum administered by the top management, which serves as a platform for employees to showcase their projects. Meanwhile, individual project managers encourage them to appraise each other’s work and interact to generate new ideas. The forum is made accessible to everyone and the most popular idea chosen by employees is featured on Google’s search page every month, regardless of its implementation. In this way, Google fosters an environment of mutual appreciation as employees take pride in their work, while reassuring them that novels ideas are acknowledged too, not just improvements to existing ones. The second part of the strategy targets hygiene factors, particularly by reducing bureaucracy so that employees can get ideas implemented quickly and easily create new start-ups. Capitalizing on Google’s flat organizational structure, employees are given the chance to pitch business ideas directly to top management, tapping on professional expertise and experience. Google can also implement new policies allowing anyone