Hiring by committee is the most important decision an organisation can made, according to Google's Senior Vice President for People Operations, Laszlo Bock.
Bock, who is responsible for the attraction, development and retention of Google's 50,000 employees, made the comments during a discussion with Professor Sandy Pepper of LSE's Department of Management at an LSE public event on Monday 18 May.
Speaking about how Google has retained core values and culture during its expansion over the past 15 years, Bock asserted that the hiring committee safeguards against abuse of power by individual managers. Initiated by Google's founding fathers, recruiting by committee has ensured that the company's hiring policies are objective, but more importantly according to Bock, that employees fit the organisational culture which is central to how the company operates. For the Google selection panel, cultural fit is more important than the school a candidate attended or the grades they received, which Bock admitted was no longer a considering factor in Google's recruitment process. Instead, Google assess candidates on four attributes: cognitive ability; emergent leadership; cultural fit and expertise.
Discussing how to exceed at Google, Bock exhorted that employees should always over deliver, explaining that the company does not use conventional distribution models for performance management which do not differentiate levels of pay for top performing employees. Under Google's pay for performance system, an employee performing 500% better than their colleagues can earn 500% more in salary. Bock's argument conflicts with Professor Sandy Pepper's recent essay for the High Pay Centre, in which he advocated the biggest challenge for remuneration committees is to put forward pay proposals that break out of the cycle of pay inflation.
To close the conversation, Bock answered questions from the audience which included LSE staff and students and the general public.
Lazlo Bock spoke at LSE to promote his new book WORK RULES! Insights from Inside Google that Will Transform How You Live and Lead.
Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
More information
Full details about the event are available here: WORK RULES! Insights from Inside Google that Will Transform How You Live and Lead.