Let’s Make Work Better

In 1998, Google was a small start-up being run out of a garage. As we’ve grown over the past nearly 20 years, we’ve experimented a lot with our workplace culture and management practices. A few years ago we started sharing what we’ve learned — what works and what doesn’t — on our re:Work website.  

This National Small Business Week, we’ve compiled some of the re:Work guides that we think are most helpful for small business owners to help you do what you do even better:

Hiring. Small business owners report that finding and keeping qualified employees is one of the top ten issues keeping them awake at night.¹ See how to make every step of the hiring process more effective:

• Create a job description
  
• Review resumes
  
• Use structured interviewing
  
• Hire by committee
  

Managers. We gathered insights from surveys, studies, and on-the-ground conversations with employees about what makes a great manager. Learn from what we found:   

• Develop and support managers
  
• Setting and communicating a team vision
  
• Coaching managers to coach
  
• Empowering your team
  
• Caring professionally and personally for your team
  

Teams. In the modern workplace, most productive work happens in teams. Google did a deep dive into workplace culture and structure to find out what improves a team’s performance. Check it out: Understand team effectiveness

Setting Goals. Research has shown that when businesses commit to a goal, everyone’s performance can improve. At Google we set and track “Objectives and Key Results” (OKRs). Learn more: Set goals with OKRs.

For even more ideas, keep up with re:Work’s weekly blog, where we’ll be sharing new content focused on the needs of small businesses. You can also get inspirational content delivered to you by signing up for our monthly newsletter.

^{1. National Federation of Independent Businesses, NFIB Small Business Problems and Priorities, 2016.}