When you think about Google, innovation and technology are probably the first two things that come to your mind. Without a doubt, we are talking about one of the most important companies in the sector. Pioneers in implementing technological advances that make life easier for other workers, all of this would not be possible without a motivated and satisfied high-performance team.
There are a lot of people who dream of becoming part of the “Googlers ” staff. Every day, this technological giant receives hundreds of resumes from professionals who are excited about changing the world (a detail that we will return to later).
We are talking about a reference company, not only at a technological level but also at people management.
Year after year, Google always manages to be present in the lists of the best places to work. And it is not surprising, because their well-known motivation and talent loyalty strategies are far from the ordinary, but above all, they are effective.
Therefore, there are many companies that copy them. They want to get the same results.
Do you want to know what Google does to keep its teams “on fire”? Then we invite you to continue reading because next, we will share with you what Google does to have its teams at their maximum level of efficiency.
5 motivation strategies that Google masters perfectly
1. Google employees work in a dynamic environment
We have all seen images of what Google offices are like: open spaces, leisure and rest corners, restaurants and bars, bookstores, green and landscaped areas… All this so that employees feel comfortable and want to move around to their workplace.
Some have even gone so far as to describe offices as “a huge playground”.
But this fresh and innovative design hides an intention that goes beyond taking care of people’s well-being: it serves to awaken imagination and creativity.
Open spaces help foster greater communication between team members: The ease of dialogue leads to an easier sharing of ideas, which together help create new and bigger ones.
2. There are no secrets for employees
Team managers treat employees as a member of the team from the moment they join the company.
They are asked, consulted and made to participate in everything that happens around them with total transparency and honesty.
Laszlo Bock, a former senior vice president of HR at Google, said in an interview that “Transparency is part of everything we do. We give engineers access to almost all of our code base from day one. Employees can view the presentation that was given to the board of directors. We believe that if you have a good team, they are going to make better decisions by being aware of what is happening in their organization .”
3. They guarantee an environment of psychological safety
An internal study carried out at Google offices showed that psychological safety is a determining factor for the development of a company. It’s what makes the difference between a team that is successful and one that is not.
So, it’s essential to provide the workforce with a safe space. Being able to ask without complexes and make mistakes without fear of rejection is what is needed to motivate people. To experiment until they get really innovative ideas that change people’s lives.
4. Constant training opportunities
At Google, 80% of training is carried out through an internal program called G2G: “ Googler-to-Googler ”.
It’s a network of more than 6,000 employees who offer courses, mentoring, workshops, presentations, design of teaching material, etc. to the rest of their colleagues. The intention is to help each other grow as professionals and develop within the company all together.
Volunteers come from any Google department. And the topics covered are any that serve to be a better professional: management skills, negotiation techniques, sales, marketing, programming…
With this, Google is creating a learning culture that fully involves employees. And, when you get involved in improving the company, your motivation increases.
5. Shared vision
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it useful and accessible to everyone. Making it easy for people to discover all kinds of information.
An inspiring mission that managers make sure to instill in their team members. From the beginning, they are made aware that the work they do there will change the world and the lives of many people. Who wouldn’t be motivated if they say something like that to you?
Aligning personal goals with corporate ones is essential to increase the most effective motivation: the intrinsic one. That type of motivation that arises from the people themselves.
In the same way, it is necessary to clarify what the role of people is and what is the value of their contributions to the company. Thus, team members know why they do what they do. They understand that their work is important to everyone. And that makes them perform tasks with greater motivation.
In short, Google’s motivation strategies involve putting the members of their teams at the center of all their efforts. Managers and leaders are concerned with knowing the needs of their collaborators and provide them with a work space in which they can be themselves.
Team Insights is an employee survey software that will help you achieve the same goal: understand how employees live the reality of work within the company and know exactly which management areas need to be improved to strengthen employee motivation.
