Max Planck Society: Briefing newcomers

Guidelines give overseas recruits a grounding in working abroad.

The Site

The Max Planck Society, a German research institute, provides a detailed briefing for scientists joining it from abroad about working in Germany.

Within Career Opportunities is a 12-part sub-section, Scientists New to Germany, that provides guidelines for negotiating all the bureaucracy involved in moving to work in the country. Issues covered include visa and work permit applications, health insurance, registering residence and driver’s licence. The advice takes the form of concise, clearly written summaries with a reassuring tone of worldly wisdom; for example, “If you are employed as a scientist by the Max Planck Society, you do not need a work permit. Sometimes it is difficult to convince the officials of this fact, but things always work out”.

The Takeaway

Multinational companies and organisations as well as academic institutions doubtless have information packs at the ready for itinerant workers. So the Max Planck Society is unlikely to be doing anything unusual in human resources terms in providing new foreign recruits with some guidelines about the practicalities of their move. Where it does stand apart is in using its website to deliver the information.

There are several reasons it might do so and why some big companies are making similar provision for employees and retirees. Cost is the obvious one: providing information online is way cheaper than printing and delivering a brochure, especially for a select user group (it’s why companies promote e-communications and online annual reports to their shareholders, for example). Related to this is the capacity to update content instantly (and with no reprint costs). Convenience is another; there’s no wait to receive it and no danger of mislaying it. Although aimed at new appointees, the guidelines also send out a positive message to potential recruits about how sympathetic and supportive the organisation is. That’s also a reason for putting it on the public website rather than the society’s intranet (which the new scientist might not yet have access to anyway).

First published on 23 August, 2007