Tips for human resources

Google Workspace productivity guide

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Get consensus on job descriptions

Many recruitment efforts fail at the earliest phase—creating the job description. When the hiring manager and HR hiring team are on the same page about what makes a great candidate, you’ll have an easier time finding the right person for the job.

Use Google Docs with your team to create content at the same time, provide specific feedback through real-time comments, and produce a winning job description that captures everyone’s perspectives.

Learn how

Share a document with specific people

Important: If you use a Google Account through work or school, you might not be able to share files outside of your organization.
  1. On your computer, go to Google Drive.
  2. Select the file you want to share and then Share Add approver .
  3. Enter the email address you want to share with. If you use a work or school account, you can share with suggested recipients.
    • Tip: To turn off suggested recipients, go to your Drive Settings Settings. Uncheck "Show suggested recipients in the sharing dialog."
  4. Decide how people can use your file. Select one:
    • Viewer
    • Commenter
    • Editor
  5. If you use an eligible work or school account, click Add expiration to add an expiration date.
  6. When you share your file, each email address gets an email.
    • Optional: Add a message to your notification email.
    • If you don't want to notify people, uncheck the box.
  7. Click Send or Share.

Learn more at Get started with Google Docs

Increase your presence at career fairs

Representing your organization well at career fairs helps you attract the best candidates, but getting the right people to commit a lot of time or travel long distances can be a challenge. Create a virtual team with Google Meet and Chromebooks to support onsite representatives and take advantage of hiring opportunities, from anywhere in the world.

Learn how

Start a video meeting

  1. ​On your computer, go to Google Meet.
  2. Click New Meeting .
  3. Select an option:
    • Create a meeting for later:
      • To share the meeting details for a future meeting:
        1. Copy the meeting link.
        2. Share the link with participants.
      • To directly start the meeting with this link:
        1. Paste the link into a browser.
          • Or, you can enter the link into the "Enter a code or link" field.
        2. Click Join.
    • Start an instant meeting:
      1. Create a new meeting.
      2. Join the meeting directly.
    • Schedule in Google Calendar: To schedule a meeting, you’re directed to Google Calendar.
    • Video call options: To add extra encryption in your meeting, check Add encryption by google.com.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center or Get started with Chrome OS devices

Improve collaboration among interviewers

Interviews can be a very complex process with numerous candidates, several roles to fill, and many interviewers per candidate—all in a single day. With so many moving parts, it’s important to conduct interviews effectively and efficiently.

Keep your interview notes in Docs and share it with recruiters so they can see feedback in real time and identify areas that subsequent interviewers should focus on. With a more informed interview team conducting more productive interviews, this complex process gets a little easier.

Learn how

Chat with collaborators in a document

  1. On your computer, open a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.
  2. At the top right, click Show chat Chat. This feature won't be available if you're the only one in the file.
    1. Tip: If there are many collaborators in the file, at the top right, to the right of the avatars, there will be a blue circle showing the number of additional collaborators. Click the blue circle and then Join chat Chat.
  3. Enter your message in the chat box.
  4. When you’re finished, at the top right of the chat window, click Close Close.

Note: All chats in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides include anyone viewing the file. The chats aren't saved.


Conduct more insightful remote interviews

Although you can get content samples from candidates, the most accurate way to understand their ability to code or write is seeing them do it in real time. But don’t wait for late-stage onsite interviews to test a candidate’s skills.

In the early stages of the recruiting process, share Docs with candidates during remote Google Meet interviews. As a candidate writes code or other content in the shared document, the interviewer can review the candidate’s thought process when solving challenges, ask clarification questions, and evaluate a final sample that truly reflects whether the candidate is suitable for the job.

Learn how

Share, enable editing, and present a document

  1. In Google Drive, open the Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides file you want to share or present.
  2. (Optional) To edit a document, spreadsheet, or presentation simultaneously with your guests:
    1. In the upper-right corner, click Share.
    2. Add a title to your document and click Save.
    3. Add your meeting guests and give everyone Editor access.
    4. Click Send.
  3. Open Google Meet and join the meeting.
  4. Click Present now and choose what to share:
    • Your entire screen
    • A window
    • A tab
  5. Click Share.

Tip: If you're not using Chrome browser (which automatically hides any pop-up notifications), mute or turn off notifications so they don’t appear when you’re presenting.

Track candidate pipeline statuses & updates

Use Sheets to track, monitor, and report on candidate pipeline statuses. This way, everyone can access the latest information in one place and ask task-specific questions right in the spreadsheet.

Learn how

Create a project plan in Sheets

  1. In Google Drive, click Newand thenGoogle Sheetsand thenBlank spreadsheet.
  2. Click Untitled spreadsheet and enter a title for your project plan.
  3. Add columns. For example, you might add columns for tasks, task owners, due dates, status, and comments.
  4. Add content to track the tasks in your project.

Learn more at Create project plans with Sheets

Improve your offer acceptance rate

When you decide to make an offer to a candidate, you want to stand out from all the other options they're considering. Rather than communicating your offer over the phone, make your offer more memorable and welcoming by doing it face-to-face with Google Meet. For instance, have a candidate’s hiring manager, referrer, interviewers, and future peers present the job offer together over a group video meeting to show their support and enthusiasm.

Learn how

Start a video meeting

  1. ​On your computer, go to Google Meet.
  2. Click New Meeting .
  3. Select an option:
    • Create a meeting for later:
      • To share the meeting details for a future meeting:
        1. Copy the meeting link.
        2. Share the link with participants.
      • To directly start the meeting with this link:
        1. Paste the link into a browser.
          • Or, you can enter the link into the "Enter a code or link" field.
        2. Click Join.
    • Start an instant meeting:
      1. Create a new meeting.
      2. Join the meeting directly.
    • Schedule in Google Calendar: To schedule a meeting, you’re directed to Google Calendar.
    • Video call options: To add extra encryption in your meeting, check Add encryption by google.com.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Simplify the onboarding process for new employees

New employees often get lost in large or distributed companies, which is why most turnover occurs within the first few months of starting. Create a Sites webpage with all your onboarding and training resources so they can quickly get up to speed and easily find important reference materials.

Learn how at the Google Sites Help Center

Keep your curriculum current and consistent

If your organization’s instructors teach the same curriculum around the world, making sure they’re using up-to-date materials can be tricky. People often share new versions of content as email attachments. However, as content and versions increase, some instructors might miss updates or update the wrong versions. This can lead to them teaching with outdated materials.

To keep your course content current, store it in a Drive folder or a shared drive and share it with all the instructors. If someone edits a document or presentation, other instructors can see the changes and add feedback in real time. Updates immediately sync with everyone, so the curriculum always stays up-to-date and consistent for every class around the globe.

Learn how

Create a shared drive

  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. On the left, click Shared drives.
  3. At the top left, click New.
  4. Enter a name for the shared drive.
  5. Click Create.

Learn more at Get started with shared drives

Teach courses anywhere in the world

As companies grow, training needs and costs multiply. Instead of setting up new training programs in every location, turn existing programs into virtual classrooms so remote employees can attend trainings online through Google Meet. You can even record the training to make it available later, so encourage your organization’s experts to lead their own training series and share them with employees all over the world.

Learn how

Record a video meeting

  1. On your computer, in Google Meet, click Start or Join.
  2. At the bottom right, click Activities and then Recording.
    • To record the meeting captions, select a language.
    • In some cases, if the recording is played on Google Drive, the recording file might be ready a few hours before the captions are available.
  3. Click Start recording.
  4. In the pop-up screen, click Start.
  5. Wait for the recording to start. Participants get a notification when the recording starts or stops.
    • Meetings can only be recorded for a total of 8 hours, then the recording stops automatically.
  6. To stop a recording, click Activities and then Recording and then Stop recording.
  7. In the pop-up screen, click Stop recording.
    • Tip: The recording stops automatically when everyone leaves the meeting.

An email with the recording link is sent to the meeting organizer and the person who started the recording.

The recording is saved to the meeting organizer’s My Drive > Meet Recordings folder.

For meetings created through:

  • Google Calendar: The meeting organizer is the person who creates the meeting event on Google Calendar.
  • The Google Meet homepage or another product such as Gmail: The meeting organizer is the person who launches the meeting or generates the code.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Collect feedback from peers quickly

It can be difficult to get quick feedback on employee performance, project initiatives, and other activities if you don’t have the right tools or the time to approach all of your peers. Forms makes it easy to create surveys and send them to large groups of people at once—add a bit of executive support and fun to help your response rates skyrocket.

Use generative AI at work

If your organization supports it, you can use the artificial intelligence add-on, Google Workspace with Gemini. Use Gemini directly in Google Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Vids, and Gmail, to help you write, visualize, organize, and connect. You can also use Gemini as a standalone experience at gemini.google.com.

Learn how


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