How Google uses people analytics

Google’s analytical, data-driven approach to its HR system has certainly made waves. The technology company prides itself on its ‘people analytics’ – a mix of quantitative and qualitative data analysis that combines hard numbers with human feedback. In fact, the results of this analysis have shaped the company. Google states on its website that it “use[s] people analytics as a foundational building block that informs everything we do to find, grow and keep Googlers.”

This strategy not only replaces anecdotal and untested strategies with processes backed up by data, it also helps to engage employees who know that their feedback has a direct impact on human resources across the company. The company has an employee survey participation rate of over 90 per cent.

Google’s HR department – People Operations – used a mix of productivity data and employee feedback to determine employee behaviors and skills through Project Oxygen, an initiative designed to find out what successful Google managers do. Performance ratings and employee feedback were analyzed and compared with productivity metrics to determine the impact of different leadership styles on employee engagement and productivity.

From this, Google was able to create the ‘Oxygen Eight Behaviors for Great Managers’ and used it to train and select its company leaders. This is a process that can be easily adopted by other companies – HR software can be used to analyze performance and productivity, while gathering staff feedback adds a human layer of analysis that can be used to determine where your best leaders are – and how others can improve. If you expect the best from your teams, there need to be effective leaders guiding them.