Project human resources management

1. INDEX
S. NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.
1. Introduction 3
2. Organizational Structure 5
3. HR Policies 14
4. Employee Reviews 21
5. Perception Among Law Graduates and Potential
Employees
24
6. SmallSoft - Dummy Organisation 26

2. INTRODUCTION
This assignment is solely directed towards making a clear intelligible
comparison between the 2 leading American Firms in the field of
software and AI i.e. Microsoft and Alphabet. Microsoft Corporation is
an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in
Redmond, Washington. It was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates
and Paul Allen. Microsoft’s best-known software products are the
Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft 365 suite of
productivity applications, Edge web browser and Chat GPT. Whereas
Alphabet is an American multinational technology company that
specializes in internet-related services and products. It was founded in
October 2nd 2015 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google which is now a
subsidiary of alphabet was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey
Brin while they were Ph. D. students.Google’s shares were transferred to
alphabet’s stock on a share on share basis. Google’s search engine is the
most widely used search engine in the world, handling more than 70% of
all online search requests. The company’s other popular softwares
include Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets,
Google Slides, Google Translate, Google Photos, and YouTube.
As of 2023, both Microsoft and Alphabet (Parent company of Google
LLC) are ranked in top 5 American information technology companies
in which Microsoft is ranked 1st with the largest market capitalization of
2.4 trillion dollars and Alphabet occupying the 3rd position with a market
capitalization of 1.9 trillion dollars.

3. BASIS
OF
COMPARISON
ORGANISATIONAL
STRUCTURE
HR POLICIES
EMPLOYEE REVIEWS
PERCEPTION AMONG
POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES

4. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
1. MICROSOFT
Microsoft has a product-type divisional organizational structure,
with each division focusing on a specific line of goods and
services. As the company scaled over time it also became more
hierarchical.
Furthermore, each has a separate research and development arm
and
dedicated sales and customer support staff.
Since current CEO Satya Nadella was appointed in 2015, the
company has undergone several structural changes. Presently,
Microsoft has two core engineering (product development)
divisions:
1.Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Platforms.
2.Experiences and Devices.
Functional structure
Microsoft has a further seven functional divisions:
1.Business Development and Evangelism.
2.Finance.
3.Human Resources.
4.Legal and Corporate Affairs.
5.Engineering (operating systems, devices, studios, applications,
services, and cloud and enterprise units).
6.Dynamics.
7.Advanced Strategy and Research.

5. Despite each division having some autonomy, divisional heads must still
report directly to Nadella.
Geographic divisions
Microsoft also contains two geographic divisions: United States and
International Division.
Advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft’s organisational
structure
Advantages
Streamlined innovation
With a product-based divisional structure, employees work on projects
that suit their skills and expertise. Supportive leadership with access to
the CEO gives product specialists the freedom and resources to
innovate. This ties in nicely with Microsoft’s core strategy of creating a
family of integrated devices and services.
Minimization of internal conflict
With little overlap in the scope of each division’s activities, there is little
chance for conflict over resources or skills.
Flexibility and responsiveness
Each division operates as a pseudo-entity, equipped with the functions
and resources necessary to accomplish its mission. As a whole, this
makes the divisional structure of Microsoft more adaptative. Divisions
can be added, removed, or merged as required and do not impact other
units.

6. Disadvantages
 Incompatibility
The divisional structure has led to a scenario where
Microsoft’s own products were incompatible with each
other. This occurred when the business software division
was unable to integrate Microsoft SharePoint with
Windows Live.
 Minimal consideration for international markets
Microsoft has a sole geographic division for the rest of the
world sans the United States. It could be argued that a
single geographic division
fails to capture the nuanced differences of regional markets.

9. 2.GOOGLE LLC
Google (Alphabet) has a cross-functional (team-based) organizational
structure known as a matrix structure with some degree of flatness.
Over the years, as the company scaled and it became a tech giant,
its organizational structure is morphing more into a centralized
organization.
The traditional hierarchical corporate structure has employees at
the bottom, supervisors and middle managers above them, and
upper management above all.
In this top-down approach to management, directives are sent from
senior decision-makers down to employees.
Google’s organizational structure has characteristics of a matrix
structure, borrowing elements from both functional and
product/project-based organizational structures.
Google also has aspects of a flat structure with a decreased
prevalence of middle management.
Following are three characteristics of the Google structure:
Function-based definition

10. Google has functional groups pertaining to sales, marketing,
engineering, legal, products, and finance.
Each group is led by an executive responsible for organization- wide
strategy direction and decision-making.
Product-based definition
The company also has groups responsible for artificial intelligence and
cloud operations, among others.
These product groups enable innovative product development and
competitive advantage. They also fulfill Google’s mission statement and
corporate vision.
Flatness
Google takes more of a team-based approach to management.
Employees take an active role in decision-making, which fosters a belief
that their input has a direct impact on company success.
Google places more of an emphasis on intelligence and less on seniority,
allowing employees to communicate directly with upper management.
This promotes the innovative exchange of information between
employees with different skills or expertise.
Advantages

11.  Matrix Structure: Google (Alphabet) follows a cross- functional
organizational structure known as a matrix structure, combining
elements of functional and product/project-based structures.
 Flatness: Google’s structure exhibits flatness with a decreased
presence of middle management. Employees are empowered to
contribute to decision-making and directly communicate with upper
management.
 Product-Based Definition: Google also has product groups, such as
those focused on artificial intelligence and cloud operations,
driving innovation and fulfilling the company’s mission and vision.
 Employee Autonomy: Google encourages employee autonomy and
innovation. The company follows the 70/20/10 rule, allocating
70% of work time to assigned projects, 20% to new projects related to
management assignments, and 10% for exploring any idea.
 Special Leadership Positions: Google employs unique leadership
titles like Chief Culture Officer and Chief Internet Evangelist.
 Conglomerate Expansion: The restructuring enabled Google to
evolve into a technology conglomerate, venturing into various
domains beyond its traditional offerings.
 Innovative Culture: Google’s organizational structure fosters a
culture of innovation, autonomy, and collaboration, contributing to its
success and reputation.

13. HR POLICIES
MICROSOFT’S HR POLICIES
Employees at Microsoft are recognized as the intellectual fuel and are provided with various benefit
plans and resources, which are designed to retain them. Lisa Brummel, who joined as the Chief of
Human Resources at Microsoft, in 2005, started reshaping the company's HR strategies to make them
more innovative and customized to individual employee needs. The focus was to project Microsoft, from
an HR perspective, as an employee‐driven organization. As an organization, Microsoft offers a lot of
flexibility to employees – the flexible work arrangements and flexible benefit plans offered at Microsoft
are often considered Best Practices by many employers.
Microsoft Corporation has adopted1 the “Performance Culture Model`` as the best approach to drive its
success. All the critical people metrics are categorized and measured as per the Growth Pyramid shown
in Figure 1. The amount of investment made in external and internal surveys is very substantial and
projects Microsoft as a leader in this regard across the industry. Some of the categories across which the
surveys are done, analyzed, and the results published are mentioned below-
1.Organisation: Organisation size, open positions, line HR ratios
2.Organisation Health: Workgroup Health Index, Microsoft Pulse Index, Microsoft Culture Index
3.Staffing: Hiring stats – types of hires, channel wise hiring stats, positions closed internally, hiring
spends, lead time, % of hiring plan, net adds, offer acceptance rates, reasons for offer decline
4.Talent Management: Good attrition, bad attrition, YOY and Quarter‐on‐Quarter tracking, reasons for
bad attrition, % retention of high positions, % of promotions, succession planning indicator, succession
planning usage
5.Diversity: % of women (target vs. actual), % of women hired, % of women talent losses, reasons for
bad attrition, % of women in leadership succession slate, % of Managers and employees completing MS
Diversity training programs, % of other diversity hiring
6.Manager Capability: Span of Control, Organisation Depth, % of Managers
7.Learning & Development: Field Readiness Index, number of employees trained on employee
development programmes, number of managers trained through management excellence framework
(that provides for management development through career events, continuous learning and building
connections)
8.Leadership Development: % of leadership hires, % of leadership attrition, succession planning index (%
of successors in stages of readiness for a Leadership role)

14. 9. Rewards: % of budget used on rewards
Recruitment and Selection
Attracting the Best and the Brightest Beginning from its initial days, Microsoft has believed in recruiting
extremely intelligent staff, favouring intelligence over experience. Co‐founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen
shared a preference for hiring extremely intelligent, not necessarily experienced, new college graduates
dated from Microsoft’s start‐up days. Microsoft’s recruitment strategies reflect their philosophy –
Microsoft is an aggressive recruiter and is often the first company to offer jobs to elite graduates at
campuses and career fairs across the world.
Taking advantage of Market Conditions
LEADING
CHANGE
BUSINESS
DRIVER
FLAWLESS EXECUTION
SOLID INFRASTRUCTURE
Technology, Process, Policies, etc.

15. Microsoft also took advantage of breaking opportunities such as company layoffs; one example is with
the AOL down size. The CEO announced that when they heard AOL was downsizing Netscape’s
operations in the valley, they assembled a team to identify the best talent and go knocking on doors.
Employee Motivation
The key to supporting the motivation of your employee is to understand what motivates each of them.
While the recruitment and selection process at Microsoft aims to employ people who will be motivated
by the environment they are provided, the HR department at Microsoft takes great care to understand
such needs and try fulfilling them for the employees. Opportunity and environment to allow the
employees to progress and self development is a part of the work culture that the HR staff is expected
to adhere to. The fit between employee and organization is important to motivation and this is what
Microsoft ensures.
Employee Satisfaction and Loyalty
Microsoft attempts to cater to the needs of its employees by recognizing that the majority workforce
comprises fresh graduates just out of college. This is the premise behind Microsoft setting up its offices
as ‘campuses’ rather than plain workspace and parking space setting that was the norm before
Microsoft. The environment it provides also includes every employee being free to decorate their office
as they please; and the provision of subsidized food and drink.
Employee Rewards
The options driven Engine As an organization, Microsoft still follows the firm belief of its followers in
linking employee ownership with employee motivation and retention. Critical to this is the link between
individual performance and reward, with semi‐annual performance reviews linked to pay increases,
bonus awards and stock options. The formal review system also includes more common evaluations by
managers to ensure no unexpected deviations. The system also includes the process of employees
evaluating themselves, these self‐evaluations then being sent to the manager who does their own
evaluation. The employee and manager then meet to discuss the review.

16. ALPHABET’S HR POLICIES
1. Third for Data
As we all know that Alphabet is not only a tech giant company but mainly their work pillars are
knowledge as well as data. That’s why here at Alphabet, all people’s decisions are based on
data and analytics.
According to Alphabet’s human resource policy, the human resource department is the
department of ‘People Operations’. While most of the decisions about people management are
taken there by the ‘People Analytics Team’, where excellent and superior decision makers
are included.
As a tech company whose search engine is not only famous but has reached into almost every
country of the world, for them all kinds of data types are most important, for that’s what
their entire team works on consistently.
Here if talking about Alphabet human resources, then every time their employee together work
on data and its research, we can say they have one kind of thirst for data.
2. Blending of Result Based and Behavior Based Appraisals
For hiring purposes, Alphabet never gives weightage to how much the next person is qualified
or how many degrees he/she achieved. It always gives importance to the potential and
innovative thoughts of the next person. Their screening test is the toughest task which is
quite enough to explain their work culture.
The recruitment process of Alphabet can be a great platform for interview-facing people,
through which inbuilt quality and skills can be revealed to that people. While their work
culture is so friendly with a happy environment.
The human resource policy of Alphabet for their employee is closely based on some qualities
like a combination of result based as well as behavior-based appraisals.

17. 3. Practical Implications
If we analyze the age group of Alphabet’s employees then most of the employee’s average age
can be obtained as around 29 years. While there is no dress code for their employee, all
kinds of restrictions and boundaries are closed there.
Their working policy gives importance to practical work and its results, which go to analyze by
their human resource team. From time to time it gives rewards to their pre-decided goal
achiever employee with the best financial benefits. In that way, they want to motivate their
employee for better work in the future.
Its human resource policy not only believes to enhance its services but also wants to give
chance to work to worldwide talented people who have excellent skills and work potential.
4. Transformative Skills and Perspective
When Alphabet was launched, worldwide people knew about it as a search engine and Gmail
service provider only, but in the next some years, it has transformed into various services.
Expansion of Alphabet we can see nowadays as a Map through a navigator service provider,
Voice assistant, Search engine, Android operating system sponsored and developer, and
Developer of Google play store.
Apart from that it provides an online payment service as Google pay, which means it believes in
market research as well as new service providing which later comes in the form of a famous
trend.
Here they expects their employee should have an adaptive mind, who can change their skills
and perspective as per the expansion of the market.
When we go to analyze Alphabet’s progress, the conclusion can be simple their human resource
policy believes on meet their goal through perfection and innovation.
5. Critical as Well as Theoretical Analysis
Their HR department as well as their senior executive always try to motivate their employee for
work productivity. For their employee, they offered flexible work hours, as well as they, give
high-class salaries, bonuses, rewards as well as other attractive perks.
As per the Alphabet human resource strategy they want the employee to use their time in the
ratio of 70:20:10. Here employees have an option to choose a project for which they can
give

18. 20% time, while 70% of the time they need to give on basic work and the business related task
of Alphabet.
Rest 10% time employees can give any kind of innovative idea related to work, which can be
beneficial for them in the future. If we think about their employees’ daily workload and task
variety then it could be hard to decide and analyze that.
But in that hectic schedule, it manages a pleasant and relax work environment which gives
motivation as well as mental relaxation to their employee.
As per Alphabet’s human resource policy, they believe to give a happy and friendly work
environment to all employees, with some other perks. Somewhere it reduces critical work
stress from their employee’s minds, whose results come with the best output.
6.Internal Growth Basis Training Model
Every employee of Alphabet gets all kinds of changes by which they can improve and develop
available skills. Human resource management tries to motivate every employee due to that
they can get to know the available potential and workability in them.
The main reason here is that it works on multiple platforms so here employees can choose
work projects as per their skills.
Human resource management has set their training model that way, by which each and every
employee knows themselves on the basis of available knowledge into them so closely. While
their mind goes to transform in an adaptive way.
7.Employee Promotion, Hiring, and Transfer Strategy of Alphabet
In simple words we can say about Alphabet’s employee hiring strategy that is they believe on
right person is to have on the right place. Every year there are thousands of people and
recruited in various country offices.
As we discussed earlier their screening test which they conduct during the hiring of the new
employees, is of utmost tough.
8.Attractive Perk and Good Incentive for achieving goals with growth
As earlier, you have read a list of all kinds of perks and benefits which have been offered by
Alphabet for their employee. While time to time those employees who are achieving their goal

19. of successfully completing their projects of them are receiving incentives for their good work
performance.
9. Excellent Management Style with Happy Working Environment
As a tech giant that works in multi nations, it always tries to improve its management by
providing all kinds of the facility to their employee.
As per their management style and human resource policy it always focus on keep maintaining
their office environment always happy by which employee can give their best output that in
actual their needs.

20. EMPLOYEE REVIEWS
MICROSOFT’S EMPLOYEE REVIEWS
Microsoft has been rated 4.3 out of 5 on Glassdoor.com by its
employees. This rating is based on the opinion given by nearly 51000
employees who have worked with Microsoft in the past or are
currently working with Microsoft. According to Glassdoor.com 86%
of the employees recommend working at Microsoft while the rest 14%
consider that Microsoft does not provide adequate working conditions
and suitable environment for job.
While on Indeed.com Microsoft has been rated 4.2 out of 5 by its
employees. This review is contingent on the viewpoint of nearly 5200
employees of Microsoft.
Microsoft got a similar rating of 4.2 out of 5 by its employees on
Ambitionbox.com with a sample size of nearly 1,200 employees of
Microsoft.
Top Review Highlights
Top Positive reviews by its employees
 “They provide great benefits and you get a lot of exposure if interested in full time corporate
role" (in 4935 reviews)
 "Work/Life balance is good and entirely up to you make it what you want it to be" (in 3509
reviews)
 "Some really great people working in the Inside sales teams and the building is fantastic." (in
3441 reviews)
 "Great culture and very rewarding" (in 2139 reviews)

21.  "A lot of the work is driven by individual performance within a team environment and the pay is
good." (in 1401 reviews)
Top negative reviews by its employees
 “Bad managers abound and there is not much remedy for that except for leaving the job." (in
1199 reviews)
 "life balance in hardware due to frequent unplanned work travel and evening calls; bloated
meetings; some poor management" (in 897 reviews)
 "Long hours you have to wait till the last customer leave. It’s energy consuming some of the
customers are even disrespectful" (in 386 reviews)
 "Too much politics and exchange of favors rather then meritocracy seriously affect the
possibilities to grow and develop inside the company." (in 266 reviews)
 "Bad middle management" (in 220 reviews)
ALPHABET’S EMPLOYEES REVIEWS
Apparently, on Glassdoor.com Alphabet is rated far less that Microsoft.
It has a rating of 3.9 out of 5 which is constructed on the viewpoint of
107 of its employees. 84% of its employees would recommend working
at Alphabet to a friend while only 57% have a positive outlook for the
business.
On Comparably.com, out of 33 Alphabet Inc. employee reviews, 85%
were positive. The remaining 15% were constructive reviews with the
goal of helping Alphabet Inc. improve their work culture.

22. Top Review Highlights
Top positive reviews by its employees
 Good company nice people and food" (in 8 reviews)
 "Great Benefits with vehicle bonus pension." (in 5 reviews)
 "Wonderful colleagues &; team" (in 3 reviews)
Top negative reviews by its employees
Micro management in the team" (in 3 reviews)
"Competitive culture hard working hours" (in 3 reviews)
"You'll find a lot of people only stay because of the perk of the free car the average
salary for entry level jobs is between 20 to 23k and some people would be doing 100 mile a
day commutes, not worth that at all" (in 2 reviews)

23. PERCEPTION
PERCEPTION AMONG LAW GRADUATES AND
POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES
Microsoft
Microsoft has a high brand value and goodwill in the job market as
it has been positioned one of the top software firms
and hardware firms in the world. It has been
profitable for decades and is known for providing
good work life balance and health facilities to its
employees. According to statistics, it gives an
average package of 122,000 US Dollars p.a. to its
employees, though this figure may vary according to
position and type of work which makes it one of the
highest paying IT firms in the world. Its work culture
can also be considered as one of the best as it invests
millions of dollars just to improve the work culture
within the company.
Alphabet
Alphabet also has high brand value in the job market as it is the 3rd
largest software firm in the US. But recently potential employees are
least interested in working for alphabet because recently it fired
thousands of its employees without a prior notice and information and
reduced the salary of some of its employees even to an extent of 50%.
Some of the top officials of Alphabet even made a statement that in the
coming few months it could fire more employees because of potential
recession and the increased utility of AI in its operations. It is uneven in

24. providing work life balance to its employees and does not provide
stability in working hours. According to statistics, people are only
willing to work for Google because of high pay scale and its brand
value in the job market.
WHICH FIRM I WOULD LIKE TO WORK FOR?
On basis of my analysis, I would place Microsoft above Alphabet and
would like to work for Microsoft because of the following reasons-
Microsoft have job stability better than Alphabet since Alphabet laid
off thousands of its employees recently which is one of the biggest
layoffs.
Microsoft has better working conditions as compared to Alphabet
according to their employee reviews.
Microsoft provides a similar pay scale as Alphabet and in addition
provides many perks to its employees.
Microsoft provides several health benefits, leaves and has flexibility
of work.
Microsoft provides better diversity of work and freedom of work
as compared to Alphabet.

25. SMALLSOFT
SmallSoft corporation is a US based multinational corporation
headquartered in Washington. It was founded in 2001 by Henry Gates
and Perry Page. It is one of the top software firms of US highly
recognized for its softwares such as Landroid Operating System which
accommodates millions of apps on its applicaton store and offers free
application development platform on its operating system. It also
accommodates various other popular services on its Operating System
such as Accurate Maps, Videotube, S Mail, etc. As of 2023, it is the 5th
largest software firm in the US with a market capitalization of 1.1
trillion dollars.
It is one of the largest employer in America with almost 100,000
employees working under it. It provides an average salary of 125000 US
Dollars to its employees which might vary according to position and
work. It provides a flexible work culture to its employees and various
other benefits such as accommodation, health services, childcare
services, work from home, etc. Its CEO Harsh Nadella, who is holding
the post for past 15 years aims to provide stress free atmosphere to its
employees with a view of promoting innovation in workplace.

26. SMALLSOFT’S ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
This company works on a classic divisional hierarchical company
structure. The CEO is at the top of the hierarchy and oversees the entire
company. The COO is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the
company, while the CFO manages the financial aspects of the company.
The CTO is responsible for all technology-related aspects of the
company.
The COO has four direct reports: Project Manager, Software
Development Manager, Quality Assurance Manager, and Technical
Support Manager. The CFO has two direct reports: Accountant and
Financial Analyst. The CTO has four direct reports: Software Architect,
Database Administrator, Network Administrator, and Security
Specialist.
The CEO is responsible for setting the overall direction and strategy of
the company. The COO oversees the day-to-day operations of the
company and ensures that all departments are working together
effectively. The CFO manages the financial aspects of the company,
including budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting. The CTO is
responsible for all technology-related aspects of the company, including
software development, database management, network administration,
and security.
The Software Development Manager is responsible for managing
software development teams and ensuring that software products are
delivered on time and to a high standard.
The Quality Assurance Manager ensures that all products meet quality
standards before they are released to customers. The Technical Support
Manager oversees technical support teams and ensures that customer
issues are resolved in a timely manner.
The Accountant manages financial transactions such as accounts payable
and accounts receivable. They also prepare financial statements and

27. ensure compliance with tax laws. The Financial Analyst analyzes
financial data to provide insights into business performance and make
recommendations for improvement.
The Software Architect designs software systems and ensures that they
meet business requirements. The Database Administrator manages
databases used by the company’s software systems. They ensure that
data is stored securely and can be accessed quickly when needed. The
Network Administrator manages the company’s computer networks to
ensure that they are secure and reliable. The Security Specialist is
responsible for ensuring that all systems are secure from external
threats.
Sometimes, this structure is modified to suit the specific needs of
SmallSoft. For example, as SmallSoft has a large number of software
developers, it has multiple Software Development Managers reporting to
the COO.

28. SMALLSOFT’S HR POLICIES
SmallSoft is a software company that values its employees and strives to
create a positive work environment. Here are some HR policies that
SmallSoft implements:
1.Flexible work hours: SmallSoft offers flexible work hours to its
employees, allowing them to work at times that suit them best. This
policy helps employees maintain a better work-life balance and reduce
stress.
2.Remote work: SmallSoft allows its employees to work remotely,
either full-time or part-time. This policy helps employees save time and
money on commuting and also helps reduce the company’s overhead
costs.
3.Paid time off: SmallSoft offers paid time off to its employees,
including vacation days, sick days, and personal days. This policy helps
employees take time off when they need it without worrying about lost
wages.
4.Health insurance: SmallSoft offers comprehensive health insurance
coverage to its employees, including medical, dental, and vision
insurance. This policy helps employees stay healthy and reduce their
out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
5.Retirement benefits: SmallSoft also offers retirement benefits to its
employees, such as a pension plan. This policy helps employees save for
their future and provide them with financial security in retirement.
6.Employee assistance program (EAP): SmallSoft offers an EAP to its
employees, providing them with access to counseling services, legal
advice, financial planning, and other resources. This policy helps
employees deal with personal or work-related issues that may affect
their well-being.
7.Professional development: SmallSoft offers professional
development opportunities to its employees, such as training programs,
workshops, or conferences. This policy helps employees improve their
skills and advance their careers.
8.Childcare benefits: SmallSoft also offers childcare benefits to its
employees, such as onsite daycare or subsidies for childcare expenses.

29. This policy helps working parents balance their work and family
responsibilities.
9. Wellness programs: SmallSoft also offers wellness programs to its
employees, such as gym memberships, yoga classes, or healthy snacks
in the office. This policy helps employees stay healthy and reduce
stress.