Siemens

Siemens provides "exceptional" benefits and work-life balance (assuming your job can permit such a benefit). The medical benefits are among the very best, as are the external purchasing plans for items such as cars, mobile plans, electronics, and event tickets.

Siemens offers employees the ability to advance, based upon successful performance results.

Siemens offers unmatched technology and quality of products.

Siemens truly makes an effort to stick with and develop its talent. Layoffs are an absolute last resort measure and avoided at all costs.

The Leadership team is a revolving door. I personally have had 4 managers over a 5-year span. Unthinkable! The salary is not competitive to the overall scale of the company. US employees are not treated as their equals in Germany. Employee evaluations are completely negative. The management feedback focuses much more on "what you did not successfully do" as opposed to building up the employee with optimistic enhancement of abilities. (Please don't confuse this with a pro of the company listed above). In the economically driven market, the core teams (Procurement, Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing) are now spending more time looking for nickels and dimes in the couch, rather than focusing on fixing product issues. The workers understand the importance of profitability, but the goals handed down from the Leadership team are not realistic.

Advice #1 - DO NOT allow human resources to run the business. This is a classic set-up to fail plan.

Advice #2 - Increase salaries to recruit the market's top-level talent.

Advice #3 - Do not use PMP's (Performance Measurement Plans) to tear down employees in an effort to reduce yearly salary increases. This process is completely unproductive. If HR asked 100 employees what they thought of this PMP process, 100 would provide the feedback to cancel it now. Oh, and one more ENORMOUS problem with this employee measurement tool: our teammates from Germany do not even have to participate in the same practice (per labor laws).

Advice #4 - The revolving door of leadership has to stop at some point. The core team (most relied upon workers) do not have any faith about where the company is going or who will lead.