Employees at the 10 largest medtech employers in the world are finding a greater balance between work and life but are still frustrated by corporate bureaucracy.
Those are just a few takeaways as Medical Design & Outsourcing compiled employees’ sentiments from reviews posted on Glassdoor.
Total medtech jobs were down year-over-year in our 2023 Medtech Big 100 ranking of the world’s largest medical device companies by revenue. Of those 100 companies, 80 disclosed employee counts, reporting a combined total of approximately 1.18 million employees. Total employment dropped by 5% among those companies, a headcount reduction of 61,000.
Some companies on our list give approximate counts rather than exact figures. For example, Medtronic — the largest medical device manufacturer by revenue as well as employee count — reported “95,000+ full-time employees” before and after this year’s layoffs and voluntary early retirements.
As noted by some of the Glassdoor reviews, layoffs are still a concern for many employees. MassDevice has reported on more than 18,000 medtech job cuts across the industry since mid-2022.
The companies below are the largest medtech employers from our most recent annual Big 100 list and some of the top review sentiments from employees.
10. Terumo
Employees: 30,207
Glassdoor rating: 3.4/5
49% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Great people; benefits are good; good pay; great culture; great work environment.
Cons: Poor management/training; low salary increases; interdepartmental communication is lacking; upper management is not focused on new product development and is more concerned about recertification with the FDA; overburdening engineers with extensive and complex standard operating procedures.
9. Medline Industries
Employees: 35,000
Glassdoor rating: 3.6/5
66% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Good pay, benefits and health insurance; people are great to work with; low turnover rate; growing company with a great culture for getting things done; great bonus plans; more leaders than managers guiding toward the future.
Cons: Bad work/life balance; hard to move up; long hours; siloed environment.
8. Boston Scientific
Employees: 45,000
Glassdoor rating: 4.1/5
84% would recommend to a friend
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Great people willing to teach new things; good benefits and health coverage; great culture; family and health first; work/life balance is good; good pay.
Cons: Employees are undervalued; poor management at some levels but not all managers are bad; stock variability and layoffs; long hours; politics.
7. GE HealthCare
Employees: 50,000
Glassdoor rating: 4.3/5
87% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Good benefits and unlimited PTO; good work/life balance; great people and a lot of talent; good culture; pay is good.
Cons: Too much focus on growth and making money; poor management; low salary compared to other companies and dynamic changes; too many managers leads to role clashes; upper management is constantly changing.
6. Stryker
Employees: 51,000
Glassdoor rating: 4/5
79% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: The people are great and very helpful at mentoring; good benefits; coworkers are great; great culture; work/life balance is good; good pay.
Cons: Poor management with a focus on winning no matter the cost; low salaries; long hours; some leaders can carry the load of all across the board; corporate grind.
5. Baxter
Employees: 60,000
Glassdoor rating: 3.6/5
66% would recommend to a friend
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Good benefits; people are great; pay is good; work/life balance; great culture and values.
Cons: Bad managers and poor management; some senior leadership is new and unexperienced; clandestine upper management; some managers have a lack of business acumen; long hours and understaffed.
4. B. Braun Melsungen
Employees: 65,000
Glassdoor rating: 3.7/5
70% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Great people to work with; good benefits and fewer company politics; good pay and good hours; work/life balance.
Cons: Leaders lack leadership experience; low salary compared to other companies; few minorities in management positions.
3. Siemens Healthineers
Employees: 69,500
Glassdoor rating: 4.1/5
79% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Work/life balance; diverse; good benefits; coworkers are great to work with; good culture.
Cons: Poor management; low salary; too many managers at many levels make the organization chaotic and unfocused; old technologies and slow processes.
2. Royal Philips
Employees: 77,233
Glassdoor rating: 3.6/5
64% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Good work/life balance; good benefits and time off; culture is good; salary is good.
Cons: Poor management; too many management layers and managers; layoffs.
1. Medtronic
Employees: 95,000
Glassdoor rating: 3.9/5
73% would recommend to a friend.
Top review highlights on Glassdoor by sentiment:
Pros: Benefits are good; coworkers are helpful; flexible; good pay; good work/life balance; culture is great.
Cons: Poor management; frequent layoffs; no upward mobility; not much trust from upper management.
More analysis of the world’s largest medtech employers: How does medtech CEO compensation stack up to the rank and file?