Gates Foundation : Moving appeal

A look outside work helps sell an employer.

The Site

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic venture set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, shows rare concern for an employee’s ‘other’ life.

The Gates Foundation’s ‘about us’ section home page has Jobs at the Foundation as its main content, with a featured link to information about ‘Living and Working in Seattle’. This leads to an overview of the attractions of living in the Foundation’s home town and sets of links to local information websites.

The local sites cover three areas of information: the city and region, other employers (the “top 100 public companies in the Pacific Northwest”) and schools. Links open the sites in secondary windows so the sets are easily retrieved for further research.

The Takeaway

It’s a rare employer whose online jobs content includes information about the locality in which successful candidates will find themselves having to live. Perhaps they figure to recruit from among established residents or that such information is only relevant further down the line as part of a starter pack or on the intranet. The Gates Foundation obviously takes the view that it can be an important element in the recruitment pitch itself.

Aside from the value of the information in assessing the quality of life outside work it also sends the message that the foundation recognises such things are important considerations, especially for anyone with a partner or family. The top public companies link is particularly neat in this respect – what are the prospects for a spouse or partner of also finding work in the area? An organisation which looks to be that sensitive about home-life issues is upping its estimation as a decent place to work.

First published on 19 February, 2009