How Does Google Hire Their Talents? Lessons to Learn 

Recruitment strategy in different companies might be unique and distinctive from each other. Employers would see their company’s intrinsic value, improve their brand, and hire talents based on their unique selling. Some companies might also feel that it is not necessary to follow recruitment process by process but simply adapting and incorporating their practices. Google, for example, has one of splendid hiring strategies in the world; its hiring process could be best described as survival of the fittest. 

Google does not simply hire for quantity, but quality. With big data it has, Google can easily select people based on their interest and skills needed. As many leaders have realised, relying on big data and analytics is one of the best ways to fetch potential talents. This strategy will potentially maximise a company’s hiring timeline and drastically minimise bad hires. 

However, not all companies have access to enormous data like Google. So, how can a recruiter or employer find the best hire like the giant? Read more to know Google’s secret of hiring…

How Google hires 

Learning from their career page, it is likely that Google always set a high bar for quality. The company always decides what attributes they want clearly with no bias. They also define in a good way what kind of candidates will be hired in their companies. The rule that applies to Google’s hiring perspective is to hire only those who are better than the personnel officer. Therefore, you should hire those who are better than you. 

In the past, Google accepted only credentials candidates - those who attended famous schools thus shined off candidate’s resumes. Yet, from the career page, it implies that Google is now looking further beyond GPAs. As written in their career page, Google has now opened to hire any candidates who are qualified with roles needed. They are more into hiring creative individuals, and not merely those from credible universities. 

See also: Should Recruiters Tap into Unskilled Labours?  

As a hiring manager, you can think that after two or three years of working, a new hire’s ability to perform at their job will be completely unrelated to how they performed when in school or college or former employer. The environment plays major roles in this behaviour and skill changes. It can be said that new hires might become fundamentally a different person as they live and train to think differently. 

Give compelling reasons for candidates to join 

As mentioned in the previous point, environment (in this case company culture) plays major roles in how people develop. Google’s former SVP for Products Jonathan Rosenberg used to keep 200 employees' resumes on file. If a candidate was on the fence about joining Google, Jonathan would simply give them the stack and say: ‘You get to work with these people’. The applicant would then shift through the pile of employees and this strategy would always seal the deal. 

There should be a clear way the work you are doing matters, and let the candidate experience the astounding people they will get to work with. There should be a real image, sense, and good reason why your company matters. Click here for a brief look on how Google treats their employees. 

The entire team should get involved 

Large companies like Google can afford to delegate hiring to an entire team or department. Smaller companies are not so lucky and the burden usually falls to one or two people. Make use of the rest of the team, borrow a couple of hours from marketing or business development to help with interviews and get a fresh set of ears and opinions. This collaboration also comes in handy when gauging candidate’s fit with company. 

Furthermore, Google has created so many products and services that a small population can understand. But their recruitment strategies are a little easier to digest. Google hires the best as they simply look for five traits (an ability to learn, leadership, humility, ownership, and expertise) and make sure the hiring process is top-notch. 

Get a pick from the questions Google asks 

Although Google hires based on data, big data that might give a deep overview of their candidates, they still undergo the same processes most companies go through: interview. Google does not use brain teasers questions as they are a complete waste of time. Here are some of what Google has. 

• ‘Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult manager? What did you do?’ - This question helps the recruiter see how a candidate handles difficult situations and pressure in the challenges they face. 

• ‘How would you go about setting up vaccination stations across Google campuses...and then how would you expand internationally?’ - A question-based scenario to find out how a candidate thinks, gather data, and move through the process to get a solution. 

• ‘What is your favourite Google product? Would you change?’ - This question is to determine how knowledgeable a candidate is with the products they are selling. 

• ‘If you have 90 percent of the market-share, how would you grow your business?’ - This shows the candidate's entrepreneurial, sales, and marketing skills. 

• ‘What makes you GOOGLEY?’ - This is basically a cultural fit question. 

Next read: 3 Trends Affecting Recruitment Landscape