What you say is true: investing in employees attracts top talent. However, that's only one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is that such policies cost money. So in order to say that this policy is a "benefit to shareholders", you'd need to demonstrate that the benefits outweigh the cost, which is of course impossible to quantify. Over the last 5 years, stock in Mercedes Benz Group is down almost 25%, so I wouldn't say that, generally, Mercedes has been good to shareholders.