IQ Interview: Charlie Gray, Head of Staffing for North American Advertising Sales at Google
By Bruce Powell
A few months ago, I shared the podium at the CMA’s Digital Marketing Conference with Charlie Gray; Google’s Head of Staffing for North American Advertising Sales.
And while our words were different, we were pleased to hear that his views on best hiring practices were closely aligned with ours.
Even though Google is now a huge brand in the marketplace, they still manage their hiring with the rigour, discipline and process of a start-up – as if every hire will dramatically affect the success of the business. And given their growth – it does!
Here are Charlie’s ‘Top 10 Hiring Tips’ as shared at the conference:
- Make a commitment to become a ‘recruitment company’ – Google made a commitment to the attraction of top talent. They know that attracting the best and brightest is the surest way to ensure long-term success and from the beginning have fostered a recruiting culture within their company. Everyone (even executives) are actively involved in the process.
- Know what you want - At Google they spend a lot of time detailing the requirement of the job before they even look at the candidates. This may sound simple but many companies don’t spend the necessary time to truly clarify the role they’re looking to fill or the attributes they’re seeking in their candidates.
- Hire smart people – and don’t be afraid to put people in jobs where they have no direct experience. At Google they value skills, attributes and cultural fit above direct experience. Very few companies have the courage to do this – but smart people are very versatile and often move within the company in different roles. Google focuses on hiring the right people first – and isn’t afraid to put people in different jobs.
- Volume in = Better output – Obviously Google understands numbers better than most companies – and this extends to their hiring. They know that the top 20% of 5 candidates gives them 1 candidate to choose from – whereas the top 5% of 100 candidates gives them 5 to choose from. Simple math, dramatically better hiring results.
- Have a process - Again, it seems simple but many companies hire spontaneously on intangible criteria. At Google, the attraction, selection and assessment of top talent is driven through a clear and structured process – and this generates better results.
- Don’t be afraid to ‘mix it up’ - While having a process is critical to success – being stringently bound by the process may limit your ability to respond to opportunistic situations. Having a process also allows you to step outside of the process occasionally – if you adhere to the other rules.
- Include more people in the hiring process vs. less - Again, this is a numbers game. Google puts people through many interviews to gain as much insight on a candidate as possible.
- Be patient - hiring is hard work. Google doesn’t settle if they haven’t found the right person – and it can take a LOT of work to find the right person. (Case-in-point: they’ve taken over two years to replace the Managing Director of Google Canada)
- Hiring is an imperfect process - Even with a diligent process you can’t expect it to be right every time.
- Treat people well - Given that Google puts so much effort into making the right hire, they make sure to treat that person well after they join. Otherwise you’re not maximizing your return on investment for all the hours invested finding that exceptional talent.
- Bruce Powell, Managing Partner, established IQ PARTNERS as an integrated HR services company - providing a broader range of services to help entrepreneurial companies better manage their people resources.
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