Looking to join a highly supportive and inclusive employer? 

Siemens Healthineers is committed to co-creating an inclusive culture, and understands that the way we work is influenced by our surroundings.

The company aims to provide employees with the best possible working environment to contribute to an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome, heard, and valued.

Siemens Healthineers Germany Interior Designer & Head of Workplace, Alina Rehorst, discusses how her company designs workspaces to cater to diverse abilities, ensuring everyone thrives.

Creating human-centric workplaces

The goal of Alina Rehorst and her Real Estate colleagues worldwide is to create activity-based work environments that provide all the functional elements not only for different work styles and tasks, but also for personal preferences.

“Our goal is to create an activity-based and human-centric workplace. We want to design an exceptional user experience in an easy-to-use space that can be tailored to the specific, individual needs. Creating the best possible workplace is about translating individual activities and needs into a space where we can contribute and feel a sense of belonging," explains Alina.

Enabling all employees to participate

Activity-based workplaces at Siemens Healthineers provide functional elements for all types of activities with an emphasis on personal interaction in teamwork, meetings, and community settings.

Accessibility plays an important role in enabling all employees to benefit from and participate in the working environment. Typically, when people think about accessibility, physical accommodations like ramps, elevators, automatic doors, and accessible restrooms come to mind. But not all disabilities are visible and nor are the challenges faced by our colleagues.

“When designing our workplace, we have to consider diversity of all kinds. In addition to physical, cognitive, and sensory limitations, there are also individual sensory and social needs that we want to take into account,” adds Alina. 

Siemens Healthineers understands that there are different types of disability, both visible and invisible, that can impact employees’ abilities and require specific accommodations. Visible disabilities are readily apparent to others and can include physical disabilities, such as mobility impairments, amputations, limb differences, and the use of mobility aids like wheelchairs or crutches. Blindness and deafness also fall into this category. In contrast, invisible disabilities, such as chronic pain, mental health conditions, or cognitive impairments, are not immediately evident but can significantly impact an individual’s daily life. 

Actively seeking input and feedback from colleagues 

Alina Rehorst, alongside colleague Marc Rücker, play the role of listeners and facilitators to bring colleagues with and without disabilities together to brainstorm about making their workspace more accessible and supportive of their work. The feedback and suggestions from the participating employees are incorporated directly into the Room Directory developed for Siemens Healthineers, which serves as a global guideline for design and activities in the work environment. For example, it includes functional elements, such as furniture and spatial specifications, for all locations of Siemens Healthineers worldwide that support activity-based working. Of course, local regulations must be borne in mind too.

Alina and Marc collected feedback during accessibility workshops from participants on various topics such as architecture, interior, media, room acoustics, room signage, user experience, and facilities. The team collected ideas for possible new premises. A total of 52 inclusive ideas were created, which Alina and Marc also shared with their colleagues in the USA and other countries. The aim of the second workshop was to look at the rooms that are included in the catalog together with the participants and to get feedback on their equipment and size.

“Just visiting one of our offices gave extremely valuable input on what is already good and how the space can be improved even further,” reports Alina Rehorst.

A truly dynamic and collaborative process

Alina knows that co-creating an inclusive and accessible workplace for people with disabilities is a dynamic and collaborative process. Alina also believes that this approach can ultimately contribute to a more diverse, equitable, and innovative work environment.

With her commitment to better understanding the unique needs and preferences of Siemens Healthineers employees, Alina drives positive change within the company and create a diverse work environment where everyone can thrive, contribute, and succeed.

Be part of a workplace embracing inclusion 

Through Alina's work and that of employees worldwide, Siemens Healthineers strives to build a workplace that embraces inclusion within the company and beyond.

Countless colleagues are also working to create products and services that are designed to improve healthcare access and outcomes for all people, regardless of their background or life experiences. 

Learn more about the wide range of career options at this leading healthcare company.

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