google's new maternity leave policy - an essay report

5/24/2018 Google's new maternity leave policy - An essay report

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INDIVIDUAL REPORT

TOPIC : REWARDS POLICY

CASE : Googlesnew maternity leave policy

Doan Ngoc Tu_BM103_000845500

Lecture : Tran Nguyen Hai Ngan


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Table of content

1.Introduction...3

2.Case overview & analysis..3

2.1 Characteristic of tech companies...3

2.2 Rewards concept..4

2.3Googles new maternity leave policy..4

2.4 Herzbergs theory with Googles case...4

2.5 Maslows theory with Googles case.5

3.Limitation & recommendation5

4.Conclusion.6

5.Appendix 6

6.Reference list..8


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1.Introduction

In business, human resource is the most valuable asset and as the lifeblood for the

entire operation of the business ( Borthwick ,2011) . Improving the quality of human

resources will help businesses achieve many successes. Besides a good working

environment, the reward policy plays an important role as the motivation, especially in

the world-class corporations. It is said that without the reward policy, employees won't

try their best to contribute the ideas or consider themselves as loyal workers.

Google, a technology company, is famous for being evaluated as one of the best

working environments . Based on the rank of one hundred best places to work by

Fortune in 2013, Google took the first position( Fortune, 2013). However, Google has

encountered a problem that a lot of female staffs quit their job after having a baby (Miller

,2012) . Google has changed the policy on maternity leave and as a result it dropped

nearly 50% of employees left after delivering their baby (Miller ,2012). So ,how did

google change the new policy and the effectiveness of this policy? . The following

paragraphs aim to answer this question.

This report uses Herzbergs Twofactor motivation theory , Maslow's hierachy ofneeds and the concept of reward as well.

2.Case overview & analysis

2.1.Characteristic of tech companies

Google is a tech company, therefore one characteristic of a tech company is the rapid

innovation which requires a high degree of creative thinking (Bielawska , 2014) see

figure 1 in appendix. In addition, the number of male employees in the tech company ishigher than women because they can pay more focus under pressure than women

(Reynolds , 2010) .Mr.Bock, the senior vice presiden for Google said One-third of

Googles 34,300 employees are women ( Miller,2012)


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2.2.Rewards concept

The concept of reward can be understood in a basic way that facilitates or provides

benefits package for motivating employees so they work better ( Silverman , 2004) .

Reward does not only include monetary but also the non-monetary rewards .Themonetary include base pay,incentives,bonus,etc.Non-monetary include

recognition,decision making roles, difficulty allowances, sick leave and maternity leave (

Amstrong , 2007 cited by Hurunavamwe & Kanengoni , 2013 ) .

2.3.Googles new maternity leave policy

Returning to the case of Google, Mr.Bock has discovered that a lot of female employees

left after having a baby ( Miller, 2012 ) . At the time when the old maternity leave policy

still was applied for Google, female employees took 12 weeks for giving birth ( Manjoo ,

2013) . In 2007 Mr.Bock changed maternity leave policy (Manjool, 2013 ) . The new one

allows an 18 to 22 weeks off ( Shontell , 2013) . Furthermore, Google also allows male

employees off seven weeks when baby is born (Shontell , 2013) see figure 2 and 3 in

appendix. Google even offers a stipend 500 dollars for takeout meals after a baby is

born ( Miller , 2012 ). The new policy affects immediately. The rate of female employees

leave after having a baby is down nearly 50% ( Miller , 2012 ) . Moreover, this new

policy also helps Google in saving the recruitment cost when female staffs leave the

company, Mr.Bock said ( Manjool, 2013)

2.4.Herzbergs theory with Googles case

Used Herzbergs two factor motivation theory to analyze. According to Herzberg, there

are two factors that motivate. Factors that helps to enhance work efficiency is motivating

factors . Factors that helps to maintain working efficiency is hygiene factors ( Amstrong

,2012) . In other word, hygiene is extrinsic factors such as salary, bonuses, relationship

with supervisor or leader. The interest from others to a staff is called extrinsic factors

which means from the outside ( Herzberg , 1987 cited Mujah et al 2011) . Motivating

factors can be called satisfiers related to the need for achievement ,the interest of the

job and they are belongs to the intrisic fators ( Amstrong, 2012) . Apply this theory for

Google, notice that Google always interests in both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. The


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evidence is that Google allowing the staff to spend 20% of their work week on projects

that interest them ( He , 2013 ) and it is the intrinsic factors . For extrinsic factors,

Google provides the employees benefit packages for instance free haircuts, free food,

pets are allowed at workplace , etc ( Smith , 2013 ).

2.5.Maslows theory with Googles case

Based on Maslow's hierachy of needs , the new maternity leave policy is only in

extrinsic factors . Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs includes five basic needs ( Maslow ,

1943 cited Tikkanen 2007 ) .The first floor is physiological needs such as air, food,

drink, shelter. The second floor is security needs such as physical safety, health, family,

work . The third floor is Affiliation needs such as love for family, concern from leaders

and coworkers. The fourth Floor is Affiliation needs for example feelings respect, love,

trust . The last floor is self-actualisation needs such as desirable to be creative, express

themselves, skills (Rollinson , 2004 ) see figure 4 in appendix. Therefore, the new

maternity leave policy of Google applied is on the first and third floor . Google offers a

package about 500 dollars for baby food and this benefit belongs to the first floor (

physiological needs ) and allowing employees to extend maternity leave to take care of

the baby belongs to the third floor . All these factors are belong to the extrinsic factors

which mean the concern of one to another. The fifth floor is selfactualization belongs

to intrinsic factors which relates to employee's desire and interest.

3.Limitation and recommendation

Google only applied the external factors, which is the first limit in the new maternity

leave policy of Google. That will not become a good policy for rewards, in term of

enhancing it, Google should combine both of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. For this,

Google can allow them to work part-time before fulltime and they will have enough

time for their child .

The second limitation of this policy is that the maternity leave period is too long. It leads

to lacking of manpower and in consequence, delaying the processes. So, to improve

this issue Google can used jobrotation to cover the positions that are left empty.


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Furthermore, Google can deal with candidates the time for maternity leave when they

recruit new ones.

Googles annual revenue isvery high, for example in 2013 Googles revenue was about

60 billion dollars (Google ,2013) see table 1 in Appendix. With this huge amount of

money, it is not a big problem for Google to apply this policy but other smaller

companies which intend to follow the giant's step should consider carefully.

4.Conclusion

Google's case leads to a conclusion that the reward is a key factor for achieving the

success. Without passionate employees, any plan won't work. People are motivated

and satisfied by a certain thing. It can be a free trip, an amount of gratuity, or simply acoupon discount. So setting the rewards policy clear and reasonable, we don't have to

worry about staff loyalty or turnover.

5.Appendix

Figure 1 : The characteristic of a High-Tech company


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Source : Technical University of Lodz

Figure 2 & 3 : How many weeks of paid leave do tech companies offer new moms and

new as

Source : Mother Jones

Figure 3 : How many weeks of paid leave do tech companies offer new dads ?


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Source : Mother jones

Figure 4 : Maslows hierachy of need model

Source : Hierarchy of Needs in Motivation and Personality, 2nd Edition by A H

Maslow.

Table 1 :Income statements for the years ended December 31

Source : Google Annual Report 2013, page 24

6.Reference list


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1.Armstrong, M. (2007). Organisation and People Employee Reward.

Broadway Wimbledon: CIPD publishers. Cited in Harunavamwe, M.

and Kanengoni, H. (2013) The Impact of Monetary and Non-Monetary

Rewards on Motivation among Lower Level Employees in Selected

Retail Shops .African Journal of Business Management, 7(38),

pp.3929-3935, page.3931.

2. Amstrong, M. (2012) Armstrong's Handbook of Reward

Management Practice Michael : Improving performance through

reward, 4thed , London : Koganpage .

3.Borthwick , F. (2011) PEOPLE CAN BE AN ORGANISATIONSCORE

COMPETENCE [Online] . Available from :

http://www.academia.edu/1147775/HUMAN_CAPITAL_IS_AN_INPORTANT_F

ACTOR_FOR_THE_SUCCESS_OF_AN_ORGANISATION [Accessed on 4

April 2014 ]

4.Bielawska, A.Z. (2014) High Technology CompanyConcept, Nature, Characteristics

[Online ] . Available from :

http://pw.seipa.edu.pl/s/p/artykuly/92/925/High%20tech%20def%20Bielawska.pdf

[Accessed on 6 April 2014 ]

5. Fortune , ( 2013) FORTUNE :100 Best Companies to Work For [Online] . Available

from : http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/ [ Accessed on 4

April 2014]

6. Google (2013)ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 [Online] . Available from :

https://investor.google.com/pdf/20131231_google_10K.pdf [Accessed on 8 April 2014]

7. He, L. (2013) Google's Secrets Of Innovation: Empowering

Its Employees [Online]. Available from :

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-

innovation-empowering-its-employees/ [Accessed on 7 April 2014 ]

8. Herzberg, F.I. (1987). One more time: How do you motivate employees?, Harvard

Business Review, Sep/Oct87, 65(5), 109-120. Cited in Mujah, W. et al (2011) Meaning

of Work and Employee Motivation . Terengganu International Management and

Business Journal, 1(2),pp.18-26,p.20.


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9. Miller, C.C. (2012) In Googles Inner Circle, a Falling Number of Women [Online] .

Available from : http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/technology/in-googles-inner-circle-

a-falling-number-of-women.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 [Accessed on 4 April 2014 ]

10. Manjool, F. (2013) Here's How Google Became Such A Great Place To Work

[Online]. Available from : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/working-at-google_n_2526889.html [Accessed on 6 April 2014 ]

11. Maslow, A.H. (1943), A theory of human motivation, Psychological Review, Vol.

50, pp. 394-5. Cited in Tikkanen, I. (2007) Maslow's hierarchy and food tourism in

Finland: five cases.British Food Journal, 109(9),721-734.page.722.

12. Reynolds, M. (2010) Men and Women Think Differently - This is Good [Online] .

Available from : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-reynolds/men-and-women-think-

diffe_b_517277.html [Accessed on 6 April 2014]

13. Rollinson, D. (2005) ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND ANALYSIS: AN

INTEGRATED APPROACH .3rded ,England: Prentice hall

14. Shontell, A. (2013) Biological Moms Get Preferential Treatment Over Parents Who

Adopt At Companies Like Yahoo And Google [Online] . Available from :

http://www.businessinsider.com/maternity-paternity-leave-policies-at-google-facebook-

yahoo-twitter-microsoft-2013-8 [Accessed on 6 April 2014]

15. Silverman, M. (2004) Non-Financial Recognition : The Most

Effective of Rewards?[Online] . Institute for employment studies:United Kingdom. Available from : http://www.employment-

studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/mp4.pdf [Accessed on 6 April 2014 ]

16. Smith, K. (2013) Google Employees Reveal Their Favorite Perks

Working For The Company [Online]. Available from :

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-favorite-perks-2013-

3?op=1 [Accessed on 7 April 2014]


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google's new maternity leave policy - an essay report

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