Robert Cringeley takes the pulpit in his latest article titled “The Final Days of Google: It is going to be an inside job“.

Cringeley writes:
“Google is an amazing entrepreneurial petri dish. Yet at the same time, it is doomed to disappoint nearly every entrepreneurial type who works there. This is key: Google is sowing the seeds of its own eventual destruction. It can’t help doing so.”

Cringeley’s theory revolves around one of Google’s biggest attractions, 20% time, and how Googler’s inevitable rejection is the “fatal flaw“.

“It (20% time) is a brilliant strategy and one that would appear to be almost foolproof. Alas, that’s not so, for Google’s strategy for business immortality is fatally flawed and will ultimately kill the company.”

20% time, which brought us Gmail, is Google’s “fatal flaw“?

“With hundreds — and soon thousands — of Google employees vested and solvent, we’ll shortly see a dribble, then a river, then a flood of former Google employees with time, money, and experience, and some of them will have the drive to realize the dreams of those thousands of ideas that were rejected by their former company.”

Julian begs to differ… “After all, how many of us can keep fresh beyond 4 years doing any one thing? Don’t we need to disrupt ourselves to keep an edge?” and “Many large and very successful businesses have a model where they turn employees over every couple of years to keep JUST THIS KIND of freshness.”

Cringeley is correct in saying Google’s environment will shed incredible talent and ideas, although I agree with Julian’s explanation that new and brilliant talent will continue to flood into the Googleplex serving as a counter-balance. My personal spin says these circumstances will, in affect, make Google one of the world’s best incubators, creating new ideas and businesses otherwise left untapped, while remaining a sought after organization by top talent all over the world.

Call me an optimist… Cringeley views the watershed entrepreneurs as the downfall of Google, where I see the opportunity for new competition which will feed innovative thinking and market growth.

Check out the video of this article, kind of like a books on CD version, by Maurits Burgers.

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Google’s “Positive Corporate Culture” is what separates them from the rest of Corporate America. Whether attracting new employees or retaining current employers, CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout looks at what makes Google one of the best companies to work for in America - Video

The video says it all…..

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Due to the lack of affordable housing in London, the UK Supermarket giant, TESCO, will provide employee housing alongside their Streatham building, while plan of building new employee housing goes into action.

A spokeswoman for Tesco said they hoped the scheme would be “beneficial for staff retention” in London, where they suffer from a high turnover of workers.

She added: “It is being led in London because there is more need for affordable housing… the sites in London are more constrained so you need to be a lot more imaginative.” - BBC News

TESCO identified a real problem for employees, which led to high turnover, then addressed it. I know it seems rather simple, but many companies need to take such an approach when dealing with morale and turnover. The problem might not reside within the walls of your organization or hours of operation.

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The Labor Market report is out….

“The report showed a net gain of 167,000 jobs on U.S. payrolls in December, up from the 154,000 increase in November, which was also revised higher. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast only a 100,000 rise in payrolls in December.” - CNNMoney.com

67,000 more jobs than expected in December, that’s one Bad Wolf!

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The labor shortage is knocking and like the Big Bad Wolf, it’s coming in!

“The biggest problem with job growth right now isn’t too few new jobs. It’s too few skilled workers.” - CNNMoney.com

The labor shortage has been looming for years with countless articles, surveys, and reports to substantiate the fact that not just good help, but any help will be hard to find. Moreover, companies looking to retain their talent will have to do more than just throw cash at them.

“Companies that are looking at this are saying, ‘We have to re-invent what we’re doing here.’ Just paying people more won’t be the answer. They really need to be treating the talent market as a customer market more than they ever have before.” said Jeff Summer, an executive at Deloitte Consulting who leads the firm’s management practice.

Hopefully by this time you’ve built your recruiting and retention programs of brick, instead of the status quo straw or sticks. If not you can always call in the super recruiters, like Shally, Dave, Jim, Glenn, or Eric, at a price.

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