If you follow the latest news on Google, you can’t help but notice that the company has hit a rough patch. 

At its core, Google appears to have a culture challenge, which is not totally unique. 

Google’s evolution is arguably following a similar trajectory to Microsoft and other established tech companies before it: company builds breakthrough products, maximizes the opportunity, loses its way, and (hopefully) rebuilds its culture to create sustainable success. 

Addressing culture is never easy, and won’t be for Google. Why? What’s needed may be something that seems to make the company a little uncomfortable: emotion and empathy.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with a few Googlers, and it’s been nothing short of awesome. Super smart, collegial, considerate, optimistic, focused problem solvers. 

But by focusing so heavily on the hard skills of coding and building, leadership has apparently overlooked THE driving factor in the new world of work: if you want to retain top talent and drive productivity today, you need to treat employees like customers and invest in understanding and meeting their emotional needs. 

As Boston Consulting Group’s Debbie Lovich pointed out: “Daily routines need to be reworked every day, throughout the day, to build great management habits and ‘muscles.’ Investing in developing better managers who can deliver the connection, support, appreciation, and motivation of all employees–and frankly, all humans–crave is a no-regrets investment.”

This is hard work that doesn’t come natural to most executives. It requires digging in and understanding how employees think and tinkering to find solutions that meet their needs. The good news: solving problems and building solutions is exactly what Google is good at. The opportunity and the imperative is to aim their skills at their people and how they feel.