Google raises salaries, updates team member ratings shows documents

Google is reviewing the performance review process, making changes to increase pay. As the company seeks to ease tensions between employees and management overcompensation.

Starting this week, Google uses a new performance appraisal process called GRAD, which stands for Google Review and Development. This is part of an effort to streamline the rating process, limit reviews to once a year instead of twice, and give managers more responsibility than relying heavily on peer reviews. According to internal documents reviewed by CNBC.

“As part of this new process, we expect that most Google employees will be modeled for higher salaries than under the old performance system, and the total amount paid will also increase,” the document reads.

According to 2 people familiar with the matter, Google search chief Prabhakar Raghavan repeated the same at a meeting of the company’s mayor’s office on Friday. Who asked not to be named because the information is confidential.

In an email, a Google spokesperson said that the company “had nothing else to share.”

Paying employees is a sensitive topic at Google. In Googlegeist’s annual survey, which CEO Sundar Pichai uses as a critical indicator of team member satisfaction. Employees rated Google very poorly on pay compared to similar jobs at other companies. Employees also rate the performance appraisal process and career opportunities downwards.

The survey results, released in March, highlight the challenges Google faces from “Big layoffs,” with workers leaving their jobs rapidly and technology companies scrambling for talent. In addition, Google employees raise their concerns directly with management, not just in annual surveys. For example, at a shareholder meeting in December, Frank Wagner, Google’s vice president of compensation. Answered questions about whether the company would offer a pay raise to counter rising inflation, especially. As Google’s revenue soared during the pandemic and the stock price hit a record high in November.

Wagner said Google would not introduce a general increase to account for inflation, even if executives accepted a raise.

Google is now making fundamental changes to how it pays and hires employees. As part of the new GRAD system, management determines promotions, not by a consortium of managers and co-workers. However, the documents show that employees can still apply for upgrades twice a year.