Siemens Healthineers says a workplace effort aimed at helping international staff settle in has become part of its retention strategy, with resignations falling by about a quarter in 2025 to 2,336, or roughly 3% of employees.
The company launched Beyond Borders in January 2026 as an employee network for international staff. Within nine months, it had 200 members. The group helps employees navigate everyday hurdles such as finding a doctor, reading an insurance policy document, or arranging childcare.
Siemens Healthineers is a medical technology company headquartered in Erlangen, Germany, and it employs 74,000 people worldwide. In Germany, international employees make up about one in ten of its more than 17,000 workers.
The effort grew out of monthly staff surveys. Liza Follert, head of people attraction for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the company had run regular surveys for eight years. An anonymized self-identification option, added three years ago, lets the company see which groups are dissatisfied.
'80% agree. But who are the 20%?' Follert said. 'Knowing the answer tells the company where to act.'
Fortune ranked Siemens Healthineers ninth on its 100 Best Companies to Work For – Europe list. Follert credited the monthly check-ins and the ability of employees to shape company culture.
Beyond Borders is one of several employee resource groups the company supports. Others include networks for working fathers, LGBTQ+ employees, early-career staff and employees living with cancer. Each group gets HR support, internal visibility, an executive sponsor and a seat in strategy meetings.
The company has also responded to mental health pressures. Follert said mental health challenges remain a 'huge issue', citing workload expectations and external pressures, including international conflicts and crises. Siemens Healthineers began training employees in mental health first aid. In some markets, including the U.K. and the U.S., employees also have access to Headspace.
Follert said stress scores in the survey have since leveled out, although she said it is hard to know how much of that is due to the program. She also said the company had once considered formal brand ambassador training but dropped the idea after noticing employees were already promoting the company on LinkedIn.
The payoff has extended beyond retention. Follert said job applications have increased over the past two years, and employee referrals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have risen 13% since 2024.
The company is now switching to a new recruiting system and moving roughly 2,500 open positions and around half a million candidates onto the new platform. Follert said the risk at that scale is that recruiters become administrators.
