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In 2008, Google was once again selected as the 100 Best Companies to Work For, which reflects results from a 57 question survey of employees in companies in US. So it was absolutely interesting to see this post on Techcrunch. In short, the general complains of the ex-Googlers as shown in the post were relatively lower pay, fringe benefits disappearing, and usual stuff like “too much bureaucracy, poor management, poor mentoring, and a hiring process that took months”.

While I think that these are the minority in Google, this brings up a conversation that I had with Ed a year back about Web2.0 companies. What is the optimal level of benefits that a company should give out to its employees and how much marketing (for the lack of a better word) should be done using these benefits to attract and retain talents?

The premise for the discussion: During the Dot com days, the remuneration packages and more observably, fringe benefits such as free food, free drinks, gaming rooms all around the office. Ignoring the “Home-run” companies for the reason that they are the outliers and not the norm, when the dot com bust happened, the companies that didn’t have the fringe benefits seemed to be more capable of retaining its employees while the “cool” companies that had to cut the fringe benefits due to cost cutting, had employees fleeting once they sensed that the company is not doing well.

From the emails and the various complaints that the ex-Googlers listed, it seems as though a similar thing is happening. People come in looking forward to being part of the “cool culture” in Google that is so well documented and advertised, but when it doesn’t happen as promised, employees start leaving and bitch about it.

Expectations Setting
This is nothing new, and I guess it boils down to the age old lesson of setting of expectations on a couple of fronts:

1. Manage Expectations of Employees: Instead of over-peppering potential employees and attract them with fringe benefits (which they assimilate to be necessities and forgetting that they’re just benefits), let them know about the reality from other employees.
1a. Set High Expectations, then Exceed Them: As an auxiliary to the previous point, it would yield you instant evangelists out of employees immediately when you exceed their expectations. So do this.
2. Manage Your Own Expectation: It is hard to do this, but seriously, when we choose a wrong company to work for, it is our own fault isn’t it? So instead of going in with too high an expectation and coming out complaining, won’t it be wiser to go in hoping to contribute (instead of them benefitting you), and let them sweep you off your feet with great HR plans?

As I close, I just realized that I unknowingly had a major headfake doing this post: Either be a HR expert, or hire one if you want to run a company. While there will be people that come out unhappy about the company, only then would a successful balancing act help you attract and retain your best talents. Like Google.

Original Posting at: http://blog.wonghongting.com