Google'ın Yenilikçi Eğitim ve Gelişim Programları Çalışanları Nasıl Güçlendiriyor?

Imagine an environment where learning is not confined to the walls of a classroom or the limits of a standard curriculum. Google has redefined the landscape of employee training, creating a culture where continuous learning is interwoven with day-to-day work. 

It's a world where innovation is not just encouraged but is a part of the very fabric of employee development.

While companies spend days finding the perfect course or developing an ideal training program, Google took the opposite route and let employees decide what to teach and how to teach.

This unique approach worked in Google's favor. It has excellent reviews for learning and skill development. 

This L&D case study will look at Google employee training and development programs in detail.

This isn't just a story about Google. It's a treasure trove of insights and strategies that can inspire HR professionals and business leaders.

Whether adapting some of Google's practices to your organizational context or rethinking your approach to employee development, plenty of lessons can be learned and applied.

And in fact, we do share a step-by-step implementation guide for everything Google nails in their L&D strategy. 

📜 Google's learning philosophy: 4 Core pillars

Former VP of People Development Karen May's presentation on the principles shaping learning at Google highlights a modern, holistic approach to professional development, emphasizing the dynamic nature of learning.

The principles or the core beliefs that shape the design and delivery of learning resources at Google are:

"Learning is a process. It's not an event. It involves some motivation, often some pre-work. It involves practice, practice, practice, and feedback."

At Google, learning is viewed not as a one-time event but as a continuous journey. This perspective acknowledges that real learning requires time, effort, and repeated practice. By incorporating feedback into this process, learners can continually refine and improve their skills, leading to deeper understanding and mastery. 

"Our [PeopleOps team's] job is to think end to end about where the motivation gets created, how we create the opportunities to practice, and what the feedback loop is, so that we really can get to behavior change."

The key is ensuring that learners put into practice the new information obtained from training, with a final goal of enabling behavioral change. 

"Learning happens in real life, especially during transitions or challenge points."

This approach aligns learning with actual on-the-job experiences, making it more relevant and applicable. 

The most profound learning occurs not in isolation but while tackling real-world problems and adapting to change.

"Learning is personal. Everyone has different learning styles and different levels of challenge within which they can work. [...] And part of our role is helping people understand what their own learning style is so that then as people, we can create the kind of experiences that will help us accelerate."

Google understands that learning is not one size fits all and that: 

• Every individual will have different learning styles and preferences. 
• They also have different needs regarding the knowledge they should get from the training.

"Learning is social. Googlers tell us when they really need to figure something out, they ask each other. They turn to their colleagues for information and for advice and for support."

The idea that learning is inherently social reflects Google's emphasis on collaborative learning environments. By fostering a culture where employees are encouraged to seek out and learn from each other, Google leverages its workforce's collective knowledge and experience. 

This peer-to-peer learning approach enhances skill acquisition, strengthens team dynamics, and supports a culture of continuous improvement.

By embracing these principles, Google sets an example of how organizations can foster an environment where learning is integrated into the fabric of everyday work. 

🤖 How does Google enable learning and growth? 4 Stellar Google employee training and development programs

Let's delve into real-life stories and examples that illustrate the transformative impact of Google's training approach on both individual careers and the company's overall innovation trajectory.

The G2G Program

Back in 2007, Google had a ton of new hires lined up for the sales department in Dublin one summer. With only three trainers available, training these new hires looked impossible. 

The L&D team reached out to leadership to see if some top performers could temporarily act as trainers. The best sales team members trained the new hires, and the results were amazing. Quality scores of the training were quite high, and employees also enjoyed the training process. 

As a result, L&D decided to expand this program. This led to Google's outstanding peer-to-peer training program, Googler-to-Googler (G2G). 

As part of G2G programs, Googlers can nominate themselves to take training on any topic: technical, functional, domain, leadership, parenting, yoga, mindfulness, etc. And it entirely runs voluntarily.

How does Google run the G2G program?

• Employees volunteer themselves on the topic they want to teach. There are no fixed topics. Employees can teach anything from technical topics to hobbies.
• The L&D team provides training to the volunteers on how to facilitate training.
• The L&D team also provides an internally built Learning Management System (LMS) for tracking trainers, classes, and participant completion.
• Participants and volunteers can track training hours in the internal LMS.

"G2G is one of the purest expressions of Google culture. It has been a successful program. Over 80% of all formal learning at Google in 2020 was part of G2G, and our G2G volunteers have consistently outperformed external facilitators." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

Whisper Courses

Rather than assigning hours of training and overloading information on employees, Google takes the microlearning approach. The company sends bite-sized lessons to employees called whisper courses.

"A whisper course is a series of emails, each with a simple suggestion, or 'whisper,' for a manager to try in their one-on-ones or team meetings. Over the course of ten weeks, managers could build better psychological safety on their team by trying these whisper suggestions." Google, Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

How does Google run whisper courses?

Google sends a series of emails or nudges, each with a simple suggestion or an actionable tip that employees can immediately implement. The power is its timing. It's sent when the employee needs that information. For instance, Google sends nudges to new hires and their managers with tips that improve the onboarding process. 

"I love that it was practice-focused. Often, you leave a course overwhelmed with info, and it's hard to implement a real change. Because you're encouraging stepwise change, it feels like a slow, steady progression of understanding how you can evolve the way you work." Googler quoted in Google, Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

The Guru+ Program

In 2010, Google launched an internal one-on-one coaching program called Guru+ to help Googlers focus on their growth and development. The program saw huge participation and became one of the top perks of working at Google.

How does Google run the Guru+ program?

1. Employees volunteer themselves to be a Guru.

2. Google provides preparatory training sessions to the volunteers. Google uses a GROW coaching model to ensure participants get the most out of these calls.  

3. Participants use Google Meet (formerly, they were using Google Hangouts) to book and conduct coaching calls. 

4. Participants can fill out a feedback form after the call.

5. If a Guru receives three or more negative feedbacks, they undergo additional training.

"We have parents gurus, leadership gurus, manager gurus, innovation gurus, noogler gurus, and more. It's helpful to be able to just sit down with somebody and say I'm really having a hard time right now, and I'm not quite sure what to do. An empathetic and personal conversation with someone in a setting where you feel safe and know you have good confidentiality about what you're sharing." Sarah Devereaux, former G2G Global Lead.

Gurus cover a wide range of topic areas, such as:

• career;
• team development;
• Liderlik;
• manager—for people managers on people management-related topics;   
• yenilik;
• new employees;
• well-being;
• presentation—for learning to give reports and TED Talks, for example.

Google Developers Community

Google also went beyond the internal workforce and created an open community of developers where Googlers can interact with developers outside the company or end users. This way, Googlers can see practical use cases of Google technologies and gather user feedback. Two major flagship programs as part of the initiatives are:

• Google Developers Group Program 
• Google Codelabs

How Google runs Google Developer Groups and Google Codelabs?

• As part of Google Developer Groups (GDG), community members organize in-person or virtual events, webinars, online discussions, hands-on workshops, hackathons, and coding sessions on various technical topics. It promotes skill development, knowledge sharing, open-source contributions, and networking. GDG also provides a platform for Googlers to receive feedback on Google's products and technologies from the developer community. 
• As part of Google Codelabs, hands-on, self-paced tutorials and coding exercises are available on the publicly accessible platform. Both Googlers and external developers can take up the courses. Googlers can also create courses on topics in which they have expertise.

👀 3 Reasons behind Google's current L&D strategy

Each Google training program is built with deliberate thought and reflects their work culture. Laszlo Bock, former CHRO of Google, discussed it in detail in his book, Work Rules.

Here are the top excerpts that form the core reasons behind Google's training and development strategy.

You learn the best when you learn the least

Google shifted the lens from the traditional approach of measuring the hours spent by employees in training programs. Instead, it focused on behavior changes in employees through the training. That's how Google came up with the idea of whisper courses. Delivering small impactful nudges/checklists/notes that bring immediate positive action rather than hours of training. 

"It's a better investment to deliver less content and have people retain it than to deliver hours of learning that is quickly forgotten." Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, in his book Work Rules.

Build your faculty from within

"I can't tell you what to teach your team or organization since that depends on what your goals are. I can't tell you whether the best way to teach is in person or remotely, through self-study or group classes. That will depend on how your people learn best, and whether they are trying to learn job-specific skills, such as a new programming language, or more general skills, such as how to work better together as a team.

I can, however, tell you exactly where to find the best teachers. They are sitting right next to you.

I promise you that in your organization, there are people who are experts on every facet of what you do, or at least expert enough that they can teach others." Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, in his book Work Rules.

Lazloh highlights the two core questions to ask yourself when designing the right training program for your organization:

• What's the best training for your team? It depends on your goals.
• What training method best suits your team: virtual, in-person, self-study, or group classes? It depends on how your people like to learn and your work culture. 

Laszlo further explains this with an example. 

"In your company, there is certainly the best salesperson in terms of total sales. By turning to that person to teach others rather than bringing in someone from the outside, you not only have a teacher who is better than your other salespeople. But also someone who understands the specific context of your company and customers. Sending your best salespeople to the most expensive sales webinars, led by someone who sold products for someone else, is unlikely to revolutionize your sales performance because the specifics of your company do matter."

Trust employees will do the right thing

Learning is quite contextual, and the trainer needs to know how your company works rather than delivering generic best practices. 

So, Google turned to their employees to lead all the top training initiatives: G2G, Guru+, and GDG. 

Sarah Devereaux spoke about their biggest issue with the G2G program: releasing control. 

When they tried to expand the G2G, they put in many more processes, criteria, guidelines, and mandates. It messed up the program, and employees started running away from it. 

They finally let go of control and let employees decide what they want to teach and how they want to teach, and they are only there to assist. 

As a result, participation skyrocketed. Also, instead of making any session mandatory, Google trusted employees to take ownership of their learning journey. The decision power acted as a major motivator for the participants.

"Trust people to do great work. They are capable of more than you think." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

🗝️ The key to Google's L&D success

Let's look at the reasons behind why Google's training initiatives succeeded. 

Incorporating peer learning the right way

National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science studied various learning methods and which is the best. Based on their research, an individual retains knowledge the most by teaching others. Google's learning programs, G2G and GDG, benefit both participants and facilitators. Facilitators retain their knowledge by teaching others, and participants learn the tricks of the trade from an insider. 

Another reason to have employees as trainers is it increases employee engagement and gives them a stronger reason to be at work.

"Giving employees the opportunity to teach gives them purpose. Even if they don't find meaning in their regular jobs, passing on knowledge is both inspiring and inspirational." Laszlo Bock , former CHRO at Google.

Giving employees more control

What companies are predicting now, Google implemented years back. As per the latest study done by TalentLMS on the state of L&D, 37% of employees want more control over training. Google gave it already by trusting employees to decide on their learning journey and not mandating training programs. It instilled a strong learning culture and grew training participation. 

Promoting voluntary participation

Encouraging employees to opt into training programs rather than making them mandatory taps into your learners' intrinsic motivation. This leads to more engaged and enthusiastic learners.

In an interview with the New York Times, Karen May reflected on the common mistakes she noticed in employee training programs.

‍"One thing that doesn't make sense is to require a lot of training. People learn best when they're motivated to learn. If people opt in, versus being required to go, you're more likely to have better outcomes. [...]

If a group of people go through some kind of program and they like it, then you ask them to nominate someone who might find the program beneficial. If the invitation comes from a colleague or a manager, you have that kind of peer-to-peer influence that says: 'I got something out of this. You might, too.' Then the people who come are motivated. They assume they're going to get something out of it. You just create a much different vibe than, 'I was told I have to show up to this thing.'"

When you foster a training atmosphere perceived as an opportunity for growth rather than an obligation, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of learning experiences.

Using the power of nudges

The same study by TalentLMS also found that 28% of employees want training broken into shorter sessions. Google did it beautifully through whisper courses. Sending short nudges through emails to employees when needed.

Bringing in the social element

As per the same TalentLMS survey, 27% of employees also want more social elements in training. Most of Google's training programs (G2G, Guru+, GDG) have a social element. Employees get to learn and interact with peers.

Getting leadership buy-in: Support, not just permission

When G2G first started, the G2G implementation team focused on getting manager permissions for the volunteers, as they would be spending time away from their core day-to-day activities. However, they realized that permission and support are not the same thing. 

"Permission and support are two very different things, and it's taken years to shift the organization to a culture of support for volunteer programs like this." Google, Guide: Create an employee-to-employee learning program.

The team worked hard to showcase the value of participating in G2G programs, sharing data on the individual and organizational value of having employees become teachers. 

Having manager support can seamlessly integrate such activities into your people's (weekly) tasks and workload. 

➡️ Impressed with how Google's training process stands out? Also, check how Google handles onboarding and performance reviews. 

🌱 How can you run a development process like Google?

Using Zavvy, you can recreate Google's successful training programs. 

✔️ Assign transparent career paths

You can define career paths for each department to show the role progression clearly. For each progression level, you can define competencies, so employees know what is needed to grow. This transparency will let employees own their learning journey and develop competencies accordingly.

✔️ Create courses easily

You can create custom courses that support your organization's learning requirements. You can design self-paced training for employees.

With the collaborator feature, employees can also create courses on topics they have expertise in.

✔️ Send whispers to your people 

Create small training nudges with a simple suggestion, and send them to your people. This is a very accessible yet effective form of training your people. 

Choose the communication platform of your choice: Slack, Email, or Teams.

The best part is that you can apply Google's whisper methodology to your entire company (not just managers). 

✔️ Bring the social element to learning

You can create group challenges or quizzes for employees.

We have helped Freeletics in the past by running leadership roundtables. The leadership development program had a combination of short weekly nudges, courses, and group sessions to discuss leadership challenges.

✔️ Facilitate mentorship connections

• You can match employees with mentors for coaching calls. You can send surveys to employees to find volunteers.
• You can also share a quick checklist (or course if needed) with mentors and participants on conducting coaching sessions. 

✔️ Take advantage of external training options

Suppose you're trying to teach highly specialized content. In that case, content aimed at your most senior leaders or content that could be very sensitive, peer-to-peer programs might not be the ideal choice. 

Instead, you can use Zavvy's extensive learning library with over 10.000 from top-notch providers. 

Alternatively, set up recurring learning events with professional trainers.

✔️ Encourage learner motivation with voluntary sign-ups

One thing that has made the G2G program successful at Google is that the employees participate voluntarily and are supported by a culture that values learning.

Zavvy yolculuklarını çalışanlara atayabilir veya çalışanların kendi kendilerine kaydolabilmeleri için kütüphanede yayınlayabilir ya da her ikisini de yapabilirsiniz. 

Kütüphanede bir yolculuk yayınlamak için öncelikle yolculuk ayarlarında "kendi kendine kayıt" seçeneğini etkinleştirmeniz gerekir. 

After training sessions, encourage participants to share their experiences and what they learned with their peers. This not only reinforces their own learning but also promotes the program to others.

All courses on Zavvy have a share function; encourage your learners to use it and spread the word about the best materials they engage with. 

Since self-enrollment is active, your employees would have no issues signing up for courses recommended by their peers.

Track the courses that receive the most love from your people and try to replicate what makes them successful.

✔️ Provide LMS to support and track learning

Lastly, you can support employees in creating their learning and development plans. Also, you have a centralized LMS to keep track of all training in one place.

✔️ Use the 1:1 software conversations between mentors and mentees

You can easily replicate Google's career conversation worksheet with Zavvy's 1:1 software. You can adapt elements from the worksheet into a template that everyone in your company can use in their mentorship or coaching conversations. 

You add questions and agenda items to structure coaching sessions better. But each coaching pair will be free to make the template their own. 

Plus, the coach can set up the recurrence of the meetings once. Then Zavvy's automation will take care of all the rest: creating Google calendar invites and events for all participants and sending reminders before each session. 

✔️ Collect feedback on your training experiences

Google meticulously tracks the quality of their training initiatives. Especially for their Guru program, coaches are evaluated by those they coach.

With Zavvy, you have 2 ways of collecting feedback on your training and coaching initiatives: 

• Add a survey step to your learning journeys. 
• Create a training evaluation survey and send it out to your cohorts of learners.

📅 Ready to adapt Google's best practices? Get Zavvy's 360 growth system for your employees. Book a demo to see it in action.