In one smooth act of "Googly", Google Inc has taken employee welfare on a transcendental level, leaving their rivals, Messrs Microsoft and Amazon.com, miles behind.
"Googly", a word coined in 2008 by the company, is about being different as a corporate organisation in providing unbelievable benefits for its employee. The bottom-line is to make the employees feel at home in their working environments.
The Google employee can walk his dog to office, enjoy his three catered meals at office, get a massage, go kayaking or work out on his free gym membership.... taking work with leisure to another level. My only wonder is how and when work gets done in between these long leisure stretches and what kind of employee is actually able to shake off his massage-laden stupor to put on his thinking cap and work on the balance sheets and growth graphs of the company.
But the fact remains that in one master stroke, Google has indeed thrown a googly at its rivals. It's like the difference between the First and Third Worlds.
Adverse impact
But one musn't forget that excesses in employee welfare can actually impact productivity adversely in the long run. However, it got me thinking of what I might want to do for my employees if I were to run a company. Just a few basics that would help put a smile on work weary faces, such as a popcorn vending machine that vends pearly white puffs not with the synthetic butter flavour, but the one that grandma popped on a hot skillet, garnished with fresh butter and herbs.
Next would be an endless supply of a variety of flavoured green teas, not to be served in Styrofoam cups but in exquisite china complete with the kettle, tea-cozy and a plate of muffins.
Happy mums
Young mothers would be allowed to wheel in their pre-school infants to work in a bright and happy baby room with a handful of trained nannies so that mums could work unhindered and pop in to check on their infants as and when they felt the need. There is nothing like a happy and reassured mother for a productive employee.
The must-haves would be the anger venting room and the music rooms that would be interlinked. The employee could walk in, punch a couple of bags, kick a lot of stuff around, scream his/her lungs out in the soundproof roof, and then naturally glide into the music room, select his/her kind of music and get a distressing music massage on his/her frayed nerves.
Everything else such as kayaking, massage, gym the employee could do on his own time after having finished his work. There would be an early bird incentive to finish the day's target and leave an hour early for home. I think that would be the best thing as most employees would use all other leisure activities judiciously to be able to avail the early bird incentive. That way one could ensure an efficient productivity level.
I guess Google's rivals might be feverishly working on something similar to counter all the wonderful sops being handed out to Googlers.
