Read 'The Science of Google-Style Hiring'
Hiring mismatches are a major setback.
This is, of course, also true for the life of the hired candidate.
Even when pursuing hiring methods to prevent mismatches, have you ever felt a sense of frustration with improvements that rely on intuition, such as the interviewer's discernment, candidate surveys, or how you present your company in recruitment marketing?
A book that explains in detail one case study that resolves this dilemma is Takako Ogawa's 'Google's Amazing Hiring: The Strongest Scientific HR Strategy'.
This book explains Google's hiring methods, which thoroughly treat hiring as a science and continue to improve in line with market changes without becoming complacent with conventional successful patterns.
Furthermore, it contains universal know-how, not just things that 'only Google can do'.
In this article, I will summarize the recommended points.
POINT 1: The 4 Es of Structuring Hiring Improvements
The book explains the 4 Es as a framework for understanding Google-style hiring.
1. Effectiveness:
Clearly define the necessary talent and eliminate bias to identify them.
2. Efficiency:
Optimize without wasting cost and time.
3. Experience:
Provide an experience that makes candidates feel 'glad they applied,' regardless of the outcome.
4. Equity:
Eliminate all biases and provide fair opportunities regardless of gender, educational background, or race.
What was particularly impressive was the perspective on how to overcome the trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency.
If you try to judge strictly, it takes time, and if you seek efficiency, mismatches occur. Google's efforts to find solutions through data regarding this dilemma are a great reference.
For example, the book concretely explains the rationale behind reaching the decision that interviews should be limited to four rounds, allowing you to
rethink the consideration process for pursuing the optimal hiring solution.
POINT 2: Constantly Pursuing Evolution Without Settling for Success Patterns
Through this book, you can realize that one of Google's strengths lies in its transformational power to change methods if data shows different possibilities, rather than settling for a once-established success pattern.For example, the book explains the background behind the abolition of methods once synonymous with Google's selection process, such as difficult or strange brain teasers and ranking universities, once data verification revealed they had 'no correlation with post-hiring performance'.
It is full of insights that allow you to re-recognize
how significant the difference is between treating hiring as routine work versus a continuous cycle of hypothesis testing and transformation.
POINT 3: Division of Labor to Optimize Hiring
Bias inevitably occurs in the hiring process where people evaluate people.
That bias is a major factor in expectation mismatches after joining the company, but in this book, you can learn how Google strives to prevent such mismatches.
For example:
Interviewers do not decide the outcome; a third-party organization called a hiring committee is established to make rational judgments based on reports submitted by interviewers.
A people analytics team clarifies the current state of hiring.
The hiring team defines the requirements for the talent the field needs.
These are some examples.
The way they refine organizational functions to serve as a check against changes that tend to occur in many organizations, such as opportunity loss from judging by first impressions or compromises due to the urgency of filling vacancies is a helpful reference.
In summary, rather than thinking 'only Google can do this,' you can think about practical hiring improvement mechanisms and operations based on concrete examples of corporate efforts from other companies.
In Japan, where the working population is shrinking and hiring difficulty continues to reach extremes, this is a recommended book for anyone involved in hiring.