http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Many companies value performance evaluations.  Both the manager and the employee being evaluated benefit from this because it helps the employee understand their strengths and areas of improvement, while the manager can better understand their workforce and help their employees learn and grow in the company.  Sometimes though, the manager needs to step back and evaluate his/her purpose in the company and how to improve on being a better leader. This is what Google decided to take on.

Named Project Oxygen, Google has devised a project in order to identify and learn how to implement the following qualities that will make for a good manager and leader of the company and its workforce.  This is a few of the principles they came up with:

“Have a clear vision and strategy for the team”

“Help your employees with career development”

“Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results oriented”

Even though these seem to be quite obvious, Google is on to something.  Due to the swings in quarterly performance evaluations, Google is trying to become a better company by understanding its employees and their needs in order to help them feel appreciated and to reduce turnover. As stated by Mr. Brock, vice president of Human Operations,

“If I’m a manager and I want to get better, and I want more out of my people and I want them to be happier, two of the most important things I can do is just make sure I have some time for them and to be consistent.  And that’s more important than doing the rest of the stuff.”

So the overall take away from this article, is a lesson that all companies can benefit from which is to step back, and re-evaluate the position of manger, and to learn from the employees feedback on the managers quality of engagement with his/her workforce. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut, and by re-evaluating the simplest of things, like what Google did, then maybe companies can inspire innovation and productivity in a monotonous workforce.