How Google's Innovative Training and Development Programs Empower Employees

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.

Great review of Google's learning culture | Source: Indeed

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.

Google’s learning philosophy: 4 Core pillars

Former VP of People Development, Karen May, shares four principles or the core beliefs that shape the design and delivery of learning resources at Google:

1. Learning is a process

At Google, learning is viewed not as a one-time event but 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.

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

2. Learning happens in real life

The most profound learning occurs not in isolation but while tackling real-world problems and adapting to change. This approach aligns learning with actual on-the-job experiences, making it more relevant and applicable.

3. Learning is personal

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

4. Learning is social

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.

High ratings for skill development at Google | Source: AmbitionBox

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? 5 Stellar employee training and development programs at Google

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. It is entirely voluntary.

Googlers take pride in teaching others | Source: LinkedIn

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

Yoga G2G program | Source : LinkedIn

G2G scoreboard in 2020 | Source: YouTube

Whisper Courses

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

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:

1. Have a role-and-responsibilities discussion.
2. Match your Noogler with a peer buddy.
3. Help your Noogler build a social network.
4. Set up onboarding check-ins once a month for your Noogler’s first six months.
5. Encourage open dialogue.

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?

Employees volunteer themselves to be a Guru. Google provides preparatory training sessions to the volunteers. Google uses a GROW coaching model to ensure participants get the most out of these calls.

Career Conversation Worksheet using the GROW model at Google | Source: Scribd

Participants use Google Meet (formerly, they were using Google Hangouts) to book and conduct coaching calls. Participants can fill out a feedback form after the call.

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

Post-class evaluation survey at Google | Source: re:Work

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

• Career
• Team development
• Leadership
• Manager—for people managers on people management-related topics
• Innovation
• New employees
• Wellbeing
• 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

GDG event for women in AI/ML | Source: LinkedIn

How does Google run 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.

Employee-to-Employee Facilitator Prep Guide | Source: Scribd

Google School for Leaders

Google understands that leaders are the ones who will create the culture, help them achieve their ambitious goals, and set the right tone in the workplace. Considering this strong impact, they continually invest in leaders and managers to equip them with the right skills with the Google School for Leaders program.

Under the Google School for Leaders (GSL) program, L&D teams offer training for managers at all levels, from those leading their first small team to senior leaders overseeing large, global organizations. What’s different about their training approach is that they are developing training that not only helps leaders develop required skills but also the right mindset.

Innovative session on understanding leadership styles | Source: LinkedIn

The GSL team develops training for key management skills, covering areas such as coaching, goal-setting, change management, and the right mindset for effective leadership. Recent programs have explored topics like overcoming mental obstacles (Mindtraps) and understanding individual leadership styles.

Session on Mindtraps done as part of Google School for Leaders programs | Source: LinkedIn

How does Google run the Google School for Leaders program?

Google usually trains new managers after they’ve already started their new role - generally 45 to 90 days into management. Managers get access to a comprehensive support system—onboarding programs, personalized coaching, digital learning resources, and peer learning communities for their skill development.

The 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 Senior Vice President of People Operations at 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.

1. 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.

2. Build your faculty from within

Google’s approach to employee development is built on the idea that training must be as unique as the teams and challenges it supports. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all curriculum, Google encourages its leaders to tailor learning experiences to the specific goals and needs of their organization. This philosophy is clearly articulated by Laszlo Bock:

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

1. What’s the best training for your team? It depends on your goals
2. 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

He further explains this with an example:

In essence, Google’s process is about harnessing the collective intelligence of its workforce. By letting each team define its own learning needs and drawing on the expertise within the organization, Google not only streamlines the training process but also builds a strong, collaborative, and self-sustaining learning culture.

3. 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 altered the program in a way that 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.

Core Beliefs of G2G Program | Source: YouTube

The key to Google's L&D success

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

1. Giving employees more control

Employees want more control over training. What companies are predicting now, Google implemented years back. Google trusts employees to decide on their learning journey and not mandating training programs. It instilled a strong learning culture and increased training participation.

2. 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, Former VP of People Development Karen May reflected on the common mistakes she noticed in employee training programs:

Rather than enforcing mandatory sessions, Google fosters an environment where employees opt-in and trust recommendations from colleagues. This peer-driven model creates a positive vibe and motivates learners, leading to better engagement and outcomes.

3. 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.

4. Investing in leadership development

45% of managers say their company isn’t doing enough to develop future leaders. The success of organizations lies in the hands of leaders. Google understands its importance and has created an open forum for leaders to work on their skills.

5. 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.

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.

How can you run a development process like Google?

The success of the entire Google learning program lies in transparency and control. Both of these you can develop in Deel Engage.

Assign transparent career paths

With our career management module, you can create a transparent career progression path for roles in all departments, outlining the clear expectations for each role. Employees can discuss with managers and create their own development plans.

Create courses easily

Our learning management system helps you bring all courses into one platform. You can centralize skill development courses, management courses, soft skills training, and more in the platform. Further, you can enable voluntary participation in training to give employees more control.

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

Facilitate connections

Our connections module helps you keep the social element in the workplace alive. Employees can be matched for random coffee chats where they can discuss their issues or have random water cooler conversations that help create a sense of connection at work.

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. You can assign learning journeys to specific learners or publish them in your company’s learning library so employees can self-enroll in whatever subjects they are interested in.

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.

Collect feedback on your training experiences

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

With Deel Engage, you have two 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 learners

Develop your workforce with Deel Engage

Deel Engage doesn’t run in isolation as a training software. You can bring new hires on the platform for onboarding, conduct regular training, and also automate the feedback loop for their continuous growth.

Book a demo to create a continuous learning culture at your workplace.