Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 16, 2014 June 16, 2014 12 FEATURES FEATURES Want to attract and retain top talent? More than just a software solution, Employer D Select equips managers by giving them access to critical, essential data that is linked to human resource management and strategic company planning. Employer D, scalable solutions from Desjardins for payroll, human resources as well as occupational health and safety management. THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS! `iÃ>À`ðVÉ,ÊÊUÊÊx£{®ÊÎxÈxäxäÊÉÊ£Ênnn®ÊΣ££È£È It's all of Desjardins supporting your business HR METRICS Google searches staff to gain HR insights By Sarah Dobson G oogle has a reputation for doing things diff er- ently, especially when it comes to the workplace. So it should come as no surprise that the company has started an am- bitious, long-term study to bet- ter understand work, looking at issues such as work-life balance, problem-solving, productivity, performance and happiness. e survey, gDNA, collects in- formation about employees' in- nate characteristics (nature) and surroundings (nurture). Two times per year, more than 4,000 Googlers voluntarily complete the in-depth survey built on sci- entifi cally validated questions and measurement scales. The survey asks about stat- ic traits (such as personality), changing characteristics (such as work projects or co-workers) and relationships. "We then consider how all these factors interact, as well as with biographical characteristics like tenure, role and performance," says Laszlo Block, senior vice- president of people operations at Google, in a recent blog. "We're two years into what we hope will be a century-long study. We're already getting glimpses of the smart decisions today that can have (a) profound impact on our future selves, and the future of work overall." In the short term, Google hopes to learn how to improve well-be- ing, how to cultivate better lead- ers and how to keep employes en- gaged for longer periods of time. It's the fi rst time Google has done such a massive, long-term study, according to Michelle DeBeyer, HR business partner at Google Canada in Kitchener, Ont., citing the inspiration of the longitudinal Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts that con- tinues today, having begun in 1948 with more than 5,000 subjects. People are the number one as- set at Google, by far, according to Steven Woods, engineering direc- tor at Google Canada in Kitch- ener, adding the company invests an enormous amount of time and energy in fi nding the right em- ployees who will be happy and successful. "We put a very high value on this and the more we can under- stand about how people work and are productive, the better…. We're going to learn some amaz- ing things. at's the great thing about data analysis, teasing out the salient points and correla- tions from causations. ankfully, this is one of the things we're very good at." Segmentors, integrators One early fi nding of gDNA is that with technology making work possible anytime, anywhere, only 31 per cent of respondents are able to break free of the "burden of blurring" between personal and work lives. Google calls these people "segmentors" — they draw a psychological line between work stress and the rest of their lives, says Block. For "integrators," on the other hand, work looms constantly in the background — though more than one-half want to do better at segmenting. " e fact that such a large per- centage of Google's employees wish they could separate from work but aren't able to is trou- bling, but also speaks to the po- tential for this kind of research," he says. "By identifying where employees fall on this spectrum, we hope that Google can design environments that make it easier for employees to disconnect." e company tries to empower people to live their lives the way they'd like and work the way they'd like, says Woods. "So this is really interesting, over time, because people may choose to see themselves as inte- grators and make themselves less happy, so there's some really inter- esting observations here just from this one point." Google tries to create programs that help and support this issue in terms of managing people's life- styles, says DeBeyer. at can in- clude in-house massages or weeks with no meetings — a popular move with engineers, she says. "Programs like that are working at giving people a little more peace and downtime." Goo gle also runs shuttle buses for the one-hour ride between To- ronto and Kitchener, and the WiFi onboard allows people to get work done during the commute, she says. People also appreciate the free meals at the offi ce. " ere's a lot more things we could be doing and this study might help us figure out what those things should be and will help us with our long-term HR planning," says DeBeyer. "The fact that such a large percentage of Google's employees wish they could separate from work but aren't able to speaks to the potential for this research." Credit: Camilla Pucholt Employees take advantage of the Google kitchen in Toronto.

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