Google applies data wizards to solve the problem of their staff eating too many free M&Ms



Google employees, greedy for free M&MS have been tricked by the tech firm into reducing their consumption by a crack team of data analysts employed by the search engine giant.



Entitled 'Project M&M' by Google, the plan was designed to reduce candy eating among the Internet giant's 40,000 staff and increase their fitness and happiness.



The firm's People Operations group collated data on key details such as how close employees sat to the candy and eventually the M&Ms were moved into opaque containers, while dried fruit and nuts were stored away in clear glass.

Candy Complications: Staff at Google were discouraged from eating too many M&Ms when high tech research placed them away from staff and into opaque jars

This apparently had the desired effect on staff and over the course of seven weeks at Google's New York Office, their 2,000 employees there ate 3.1 million fewer calories in M&Ms.



If a single M&M is equivalent to 3.4 calories then that means 911,765 less free candy treats were eaten in the Midtown New York offices of Google.

While there was no reported increase in eating fruit and nuts, Google did work out that 70 percent of its 40,000 strong work force were pleased to be informed how much they had cut back on their candy consumption.



While Google brings in $55 billion in revenue each year and is famed for its staff-friendly workplace, they eschew gut instinct in their HR approach and prefer science over feel-good ideas.

Research Applied: The Google New York offices, Chelsea Market Space Ninth Avenue, Manhattan, New York, USA

'Data can be a way at getting to the truth. When people talk about data, it becomes an abstract of machines, robots and terabytes of information. But really, it’s just facts; numbers that describe a reality,' said Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of People Operations, to The Washington Post.

Staff happiness is all important to Google, but so is their health, which is one of the reasons they also employed data analysts to get their employees to drink more water.



They arranged to have bottled water kept at eye-level on shelves and behind frosted glass to make it seem more appealing.



After a period of several weeks, water consumption in their offices increased 47 percent while the calories consumed drinking sugary beverages fell seven percent.

The Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California - which are famous for their staff friendly working conditions

Sergey Brin (left) and Larry Page (right) the co-founders of Google place a high stock in the working environment of their staff



Indeed, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is said to live by the working mantra that every employee be no more than 200 feet away from free food.



This is based on multi-billionaire Brin's belief that eating brings people together and idead bounced off each other during meals.



However, Google do not want everyone to eat all the time, reducing their efficiency and dangering their health.



The plates provided at Google offices are small and the portion sizes chosen by staff were reduced accodingly.

