Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos spoke at our IGNITION conference today.
On stage, he was asked about Google's famous perks which include free food, massages, laundry, and so on. It's like a cruise more than it's like a job in that aspect.
Amazon (just as famously) doesn't offer similar perks like free food and massages.
Bezos minimized the importance of those perks for attracting top talent. He said that if you were to give job advice to your niece, would you tell her to go find the company with the best massages?
Of course not, you would go find the most interesting work.
However, Bezos also said he rejects the idea that Amazon doesn't take care of its employees: "We have great amenities, they're just not the same as what some other companies do."
What are those amenities?
He said Amazon is in the heart of Seattle, which means employees can live in a great city, and walk to work. There are good food carts that show up at Amazon's headquarters that provide a variety of food (that employees have to pay for).
You can open the windows in the office, which is actually harder than you think to make happen, says Bezos. He had to fight the HVAC people on it. They would say, "What if someone leaves it open when it's raining?" Bezos' response: "What if they put bugs in our code? At least, we can see the open windows!"
Amazon also allows people to bring dogs to the office, which is a nice, comforting thing for employees.
These may not sound as fantastic as the perks offered by Amazon's rivals, but the bottom line to Bezos is that Amazon offers amenities, and most important satisfying work.
