Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

Chapter 7. Improving Human Resource Management

With more than five hundred applicants for every job opening in 2007, Google was harder to get into than Harvard. Its king-of-the-Internet image helped, but the search giant knew it took more to hire and keep the brainy, high-energy geeks who kept the place going and growing. So it made prospective hires an offer it hoped they couldn't refuse. Beyond the basics of generous pay, benefits, and time to work on their own projects, Google tried to anticipate its employees' needs to save them from wasting time on personal distractions. Medical care, gourmet cafeterias, child care, gym, lap pool, language classes, self-service laundry, shuttle bus service—the list went on. All were available on site. And ...