What's the best way to give someone a raise? A $1,000 boost in salary, or an immediate $2,000 bonus?
Does coaching managers make them better? What's the best way to encourage employees to contribute to an IRA? How long should the line be at the cafeteria, and why? How much maternity leave is enough? What is the best way to maximize an employee's happiness?
And why is Google regularly ranked as the best place to work?
The answer: Because it pursues scientific answers to all of these questions.
In a piece entitled "The Happiness Machine" at Slate, Farhad Manjoo gets a good look inside Google to see how it works its magic with employees and their managers. He interviews the head of Google's People Operations, or POPS, a part of the human-resources department dedicated to monitoring employees' happiness. POPS gives Google's employees an annual survey called Googlegeist, which measures happiness. And if happiness is found to be declining, it's the job of POPS to fix things.
Manjoo reports that when Google found that it was losing women who had recently given birth, it changed its benefits. Women who had been getting 12 weeks of paid time off were given five months of paid time off, and they could take it whenever they wished, including in the final days before they gave birth. Google lost fewer women and cut its recruiting costs–and the savings meant the lavish plan did not cost the company any money.
I can find only one failing in Manjoo's story: He does not include information on where to send a resume.
-Paul Raeburn
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