Name: Eliana Murillo
Title: HR Associate
Years with the company: 1
Google's famous for its perks -- free gourmet food in the cafeteria, an on-campus climbing wall -- but some of the best offerings at the company depend on its employees' creativity. Take its 20% time, for example. Google employees are encouraged to devote 20% of their work hours to a project within the company but outside of their core area.
Eliana Murillo is using her 20% time reaching out to small business owners, helping them use Google's tools to grow. Often businesses don't know how to position their website to show up in Google search, or they aren't aware of Google's advertising opportunities and other tools.
Most of the time, Murillo works in human resources, helping with on on-boarding and recruitment in Latin America. But she sees her 20% project as a source of personal fulfillment. Her family is very community-minded, she says. "My dad is an optometrist, and when he was volunteering at free health clinics, I was there by his side." Her mom, a teacher, led educational programs for migrants in the community in Oxnard, California. "It's almost like giving back is a genetic requirement. To see that I can do that at my workplace has been awesome."
Murillo is particularly interested in helping Hispanic small business owners, since her family fits in that category. As a side gig, her parents produce organic tequila from a farm in Mexico. Helping Tequila Alquimia, her family's business, has directly affected her work at Google. "It's almost like I have my own personal focus group," she says.
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