Why this Google exec would always keeps 200 random resumes lying around his office
It provides resources like free meals and in-house dry cleaning to save their time and improve their health and productivity.
It "defaults to open," to prove it trusts employees, and encourages them to work on projects they feel passionate about.
By investing in employees and giving them mission-driven things to do, Google attracts great people.
In fact, its employees can be one of the company's best recruiting tools.
Former VP of product Jonathan Rosenberg used to keep the resumes of 200 current Googlers lying around his office.
"If a candidate was on the fence about joining Google, Jonathan would simply give them the stack and say: 'You get to work with these people,'" Google HR boss Laszlo Bock writes in his new book "Work Rules!"
The candidate could then thumb through the pile, seeing that he or she would get the chance to work next to "Olympic athletes, Turing Award and Academy Award winner, Cirque du Soleil performers, cup stackers, Rubik's Cube champions, magicians, triathletes, volunteers, veterans," and people who had worked at some of the most revolutionary companies, developing landmark products.
Rosenberg swears he didn't select certain resumes to keep around - it was truly a random selection. But according to Bock, Rosenberg never lost a candidate.
Which isn't to say that Google has an ideal work force. Last year, Google published its diversity statistics, revealing that it employees mostly white and Asian men.