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A starting point for innovation
Be your true self and do your best work with us
At Siemens Healthineers, we embrace and encourage different viewpoints, backgrounds, experiences, expertise, and idiosyncrasies. We encourage our employees to be themselves and empower them to unleash their true potential. This allows different ideas and approaches to thrive.
We are on our way, taking one step at a time, all the time
We believe that our differences make us stronger and enable us to be the innovative company we pride ourselves on. Innovation comes from change, and change takes time and persistence. That‘s why we are working on diversity and inclusion every day.
Where do we stand now and where do we want to go? Here are a few insights:
Celebrating our differences
Hear from our employees on how they embrace and embody our diversity and inclusion mindset.
"Don't limit your opportunities. Believe in your potential!"
When Yuan Jian entered the lobby of our building in Shanghai for her job interview eighteen years ago, it was like a whole new world was opening up to her. “I liked the special atmosphere that comes with a global company. There were business men and women from all over the world, with different backgrounds. It was exciting. I wanted to work in such a diverse environment.”
Yuan Jian got the job and started as sales rep in Hangzhou. The allure of the global environment continued. Driven by her own ambition, she continuously worked her way up the career ladder – as one of the first women aspiring to take on more responsibilities in the customer services realm in her country. Established stereotypes did not impress her much and she never once doubted her own potential. “I strongly believe that thorough work pays off.”
When Yuan Jian saw an opportunity to manage a sales team, she went for it, continuing to progress further to take over management responsibility. Today, she’s leading our more than 1,000 people strong Customer Services team in China. “Discipline, perseverance and passion for what I do brought me here.” Her advice to other woman colleagues: “Don’t limit your opportunities. Believe in your potential!”
Yuan Jian heads our Customer Services team in China
"I decided that being deaf should never keep me from reaching my goals"
When you meet her, you can feel Bruna’s passion and positive energy – it’s contagious. But when you compliment her on it, she won’t be able to hear your words. When Bruna was one-and-a-half-years old, she contracted meningitis and lost her hearing. “But I decided that this should never keep me from reaching my goals.” And she kept that promise. Bruna is the first deaf person in Brazil to graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering – and that was just the beginning.
Working in healthcare has given Bruna the unique opportunity to do something that makes a difference. Always keeping the hearing-impaired community in mind, she and a colleague saw an opportunity to make a real change: “We developed an app that enables deaf people to call emergency services like an ambulance or the police with their mobile phone.” Part of this work got Bruna to receive the prestigious Prêmio Excelência Mulher award.
Today, Bruna works in our project analyst team, ensuring that the on-site architecture and electronics meet all regulations and specifications when we install our imaging systems. When communicating with her fellow deaf team members, she uses sign language; with her other co-workers speech and lip-reading. In a vivid corporate environment this can be challenging, but she manages. “And when things get difficult, I can always count on my team,” she says. “They’re great. They help me when I need assistance and make my life simpler.”
Bruna Leite works in our project analyst team in Brazil
"During my time there, I often had to put aside my usual way of thinking. Yet time and again, I was able to draw on my experiences from my work at Siemens Healthineers to pursue common goals and values."
In her sabbatical, Irma worked for the AIDS prevention project HOPE in a township in Cape Town, South Africa.
Aim of the project is to improve the quality of life of children and families affected by HIV and the difficult circumstances associated with it.
The trained social education worker spent her mornings with the children's group playing structured games or free play, in- and outside.
"It was similar to a childcare center in Germany, but with fewer resources in terms of materials and staff, and always a lot of improvisation."
"I learned that I can drive change in my own sphere of influence."
“The idea has grown in me over years. I wanted to use my sabbatical to live and work in another country and gain new perspectives.” And Irma’s colleagues and her manager fully supported her with this. So one day, she packed up her things and boarded a plane to live with local people in Cape Town for five months.
Working for the AIDS prevention project HOPE, the trained social education worker looked after 20 kids to prepare them for school. An important task: For despite school being compulsory in Cape Town, many children end up not going because they don’t have birth certificates, they lack school clothes, or their parents simply don’t know how to deal with authorities.
Leaving her familiar surroundings behind wasn’t easy in the beginning, Irma admits. “Especially the drive to work in the Blikkiesdorp township was challenging and intimidating at first. But it soon became a routine I loved as there was lively hustle and bustle to see on the streets along the way. It’s interesting how your perspective can change, once you dare to leave your comfort zone.”
Her time in Cape Town flew by fast. The impact it had on Irma is still present everyday: “Together we can shape culture – on a small scale, like the children’s group, but also at large, like in our company. And one of my most fundamental learnings is that I understood that I can drive change in my own sphere of influence and thus make a difference for people. This is the best souvenir I could have ever brought back for myself.”
Irma is our Diversity Manager in Germany
