Google's quest for the elusive talent algorithm

The folks at Google are working to craft an algorithm that helps them predict which prospective employees will thrive in the company's often-chaotic corporate culture:

Google has always wanted to hire people with straight-A report cards and double 800s on their SATs. Now, like an Ivy League school, it is starting to look for more well-rounded candidates, like those who have published books or started their own clubs.

Desperate to hire more engineers and sales representatives to staff its rapidly growing search and advertising business, Google — in typical eccentric fashion — has created an automated way to search for talent among the more than 100,000 job applications it receives each month. It is starting to ask job applicants to fill out an elaborate online survey that explores their attitudes, behavior, personality and biographical details going back to high school.

The questions range from the age when applicants first got excited about computers to whether they have ever tutored or ever established a nonprofit organization.

The answers are fed into a series of formulas created by Google’s mathematicians that calculate a score — from zero to 100 — meant to predict how well a person will fit into its chaotic and competitive culture.

Google is very serious about cracking the code as to what prefigures a successful employee. And it's finding there is more than one answer. For example, the company has traditionally looked for candidates with high academic achievement, but is now finding there are other factors:

“Sometimes too much schooling will be a detriment to you in your job,” Dr. Carlisle said, adding that not all of the more than 600 people with doctorates at Google are equally well suited to their current assignments.

Indeed, there was no single factor that seemed to find the top workers for every single job title. (And pet ownership did not seem to be a useful predictor of anything.) But Dr. Carlisle was able to create several surveys that he believed would help find candidates in several areas — engineering, sales, finance, and human resources. Currently about 15 percent of applicants take the survey; it will be used for all applicants starting this month.

It will be interesting to see whether Google can completely automate the selection process to the point where the candidate interview becomes a mere formality. That might be efficient, especially given volume of applicants Google must weed through (a nice problem to have!), but it seems rather impersonal for a company that prides itself on its corporate culture and values.

At New Equities, our philosophy is to build a strong relationship with the consultants in our talent communties, on the basis that we expect to work with them long-term over multiple assignments. To that end, we spend a lot of time up front in the qualification process so that we are sure we understand each person's unique abilities, career goals and work preferences. After all, if someone prefers 3-month assignments, it makes no sense to pressure that individual to accept a yearlong engagement. Or, if someone has been a successful Business Analyst but is now looking to work as a Project Manager, we will bring those kinds of opportunities to their attention, or look for hybrid BA/PM roles that are in line with that individual's stated career goals.

Obviously, technology plays a role in finding the right talent for a particular need, but there is no subsitute for knowing what people are good at and what they want to do professionally. Metrics and algorithms are useful predictors, but in the long run, relationships may matter more.

(Hat tip: Pajamas Media)