Attracting talented individuals, supporting and protecting employees

On the right path: Our Vision 2026

Our aim is to attract the most talented and attain the status of Employer of Choice. As part of Fresenius Kabi’s business strategy Vision 2026, we are seeking to achieve this goal by further developing our HR organization and our strategies for talent retention and development. This approach is supported by digitalizing our tools for global human resource recruitment and strengthening training and development measures for managers and employees alike.

Vision 2026 is an integral component of the #FutureFresenius program of our Group. You can find out more about Vision 2026 here.

In 2023, Fresenius Kabi received the Top Employer certificate from the prestigious Top Employers Institute in several countries (China, Dominican Republic, India, Philippines, Austria, Poland, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, United States). The certification process consists of a survey on HR best practices, which is made up of six sections with a total of more than 250 questions. The topics covered include human resources strategy, working environment, talent acquisition, diversity, integration, and well-being.

Four of our country organizations also received the Great Place to Work certification: Ecuador, Columbia, Mexico, and Poland. The organizations were certified by the Great Place to Work Institute after they had passed through a two-stage process. First of all, employees answered a series of questions, and the country organization then completed a questionnaire about the workforce and corporate culture.

From young professional to manager: Our talent management 

The mission of Fresenius Kabi is to structure the future of global healthcare and exert a positive impact on it. Our employees are driving this mission forward day by day. So as to provide them with the best possible support, we offer employees tailormade development opportunities at every stage of their professional career.

For every career stage: Development programs at Fresenius Kabi

Career Starters Program – Juniors und Young Professionals

The Career Starters Program supports early-career professionals when they start their job. The participants spend five modules identifying their strengths, trying out different methods of communication and presentation, and receiving tips on organizing their work. The attendees come from different business segments. The learning pathway therefore also offers the opportunity to network across companies.

New Leaders Program – first leadership function

Our New Leaders Program is intended to prepare employees for taking up their first leadership role. The participants work through five modules learning about the most important leadership tools, training in applying them, and developing their personal understanding of leadership. The modules are complemented by a personality inventory to reflect the individual’s own management style.

Advanced Leaders Program – for experienced managers

The program offers experienced managers space to reflect on their management abilities, improve them, and refresh their knowledge in order to equip them to master challenging leadership situations. As part of the program, the leaders learn about new methods, receive feedback, and have an opportunity to network and exchange views on ideas and best practices in relation to current challenges. They also receive training on how to identify and deploy the personal strengths and development needs of their teams.

Strategy Execution & Change Management Program – in cooperation with the University of St. Gallen

A management program operated in collaboration with the University of St. Gallen targets middle management. The training focuses on strategy implementation, change management, and collaboration.

Top Executive Program – in cooperation with Harvard Business School

The Top Executive Program is directed toward the most senior management levels. This program is delivered in conjunction with Harvard Business School. In 2023, the program underwent a fundamental revision and it is being delivered for the first time in a new form in 2024. The aim of the program is to promote collaboration and networking in the top executive team, improve their general leadership skills, and strengthen their entrepreneurial approach.

Putting common values into practice

They include expansion into new markets, a broadly based product and service portfolio, investments in future market segments, and a management team with a concrete and quantifiable corporate vision: All these factors are intended to provide our employees with a solid foundation for their individual careers. Moreover, the values we represent in our daily work together are crucial for retaining our employees. We communicate our Group-wide values clearly to our employees to make it easy for them to identify with Fresenius Kabi. More on the Fresenius Principles.

Appreciation of specialist knowledge and commitment: Our benefits

The employees of Fresenius Kabi make an important contribution to the well-being of patients across the world with specialist knowledge, commitment, and creativity. We value their dedication and our aim is to enhance the satisfaction of our employees as far as possible. That’s why we offer a range of benefits, which include the following:

• Retirement provision: In addition to their salary, our employees receive an employer-financed company pension.
• Flexible working time models, hybrid working, and childcare support: These offers are directed toward promoting a good work-life balance between career and home.
• Company Medical Service and sports packages: If our employees have an occupational accident, or require reintegration into the workplace, they are able to rely on counseling meetings to assist them. We also offer our employees nutrition advice and prevention screening in order to contribute to their health in the workplace.

More on the topic of benefits within the Fresenius Group.

Supporting diversity and equal opportunities during the working day

Our international and interdisciplinary work means we put diversity into practice at Fresenius Kabi – every day. We perceive working within intercultural teams as one of our great strengths. Diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can lead to better decisions and results, while driving forward the development of our company. This empowers us to improve care for patients, optimize internal processes, and inspire potential applicants with our corporate culture.

Diversity, equal opportunities, and an integrating work environment are important to us and they are therefore defined as a focus in our Vision 2026. We focus on equal opportunities for all employees in all our processes related to human resources – regardless of origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, or abilities. The corporate values of Fresenius form the cornerstone for the daily actions of all employees and are part of the Fresenius Kabi Code of Conduct.

Mentoring: Appreciation and exchange of experiences

The Cross2Connect program is a mentoring program established to promote appreciative collaboration. The aim is to facilitate processes for sharing interdisciplinary, intercultural, and global experiences across departments and segments. In this context, young employees have the opportunity to learn from their experienced colleagues. In 2023, eleven employees took part in the mentoring program.

Preparing women for leadership roles

In 2023, 52% of our employees were women. That’s why great emphasis is placed on preparing our talented female employees individually for management roles. In cooperation with the University of St. Gallen, we offer our female employees the program Leadership for Women – Boost your Self-Positioning. Various topic modules cover aspects like communication, negotiating techniques, and leadership competence. In 2023, 99 female employees took part in the program.

At Group level, we have defined the goal of increasing the proportion of women in management positions to more than 30% by 2025. This relates to the first and second management levels below the Group Management Board. In 2023, the proportion of women in the Fresenius Group on the first management level was already 30.0% and in the second management level 24.1%.

Read more here about diversity and equal opportunities in the Fresenius Group.

Well looked after in the workplace: Health and safety

As a healthcare company, we are in a position of considerable responsibility – for the well-being of the patients who take advantage of our products and services, and for the health and safety of our employees. We have introduced numerous management systems and measures across the Group in order to protect our employees from accidents and work-related illnesses.

Prevention is our fundamental principle for healthcare. That’s why we offer our employees comprehensive programs that are geared to promoting their health and preventing occupational illnesses.

Work-related accidents and incidents

At Fresenius Kabi, we steer our measures for health and safety on the basis of specific goals and ambitions that we primarily define at local level.

Our global Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management assesses incident investigation reports on work-related accidents. It decides on the need for technical improvements, additional working equipment, work instructions, and further training. The appraisal also serves to avoid a recurrence of the incident in future and to improve occupational health and safety for our employees.

The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) is an important indicator for the effectiveness of our measures. It describes the number of work-related accidents resulting in at least one day of absence from work in relation to 1,000,000 worked hours. The goal was to keep the rate below 3.0. During the course of the reporting year, we succeeded in improving the LTIFR to 2.8 (2022: 2.9) and this represented achievement of our aim.

Dealing with work-related accidents

Work-related accidents that result in at least one day of absence must be reported to the OHS function within two working days. Other less severe accidents without absence or with less than one day of absence are reported on a quarterly basis. Accidents that lead to at least one calendar day of absence are investigated and the results of the investigation are documented in reports. We calculate the LTIFR from the data collected on occupational accidents, and on their severity.

Our management system for occupational health and safety

All the sites of Fresenius Kabi are subject to the relevant local regulations and legislation on occupational health and safety. In addition to the statutory regulations, internal guidelines and directives such as management manuals and standard operating procedures also play an important role in occupational health and safety. The requirements for occupational health and safety of the Group-wide Fresenius Code of Conduct are complemented with our own documentation such as our Code of Conduct. We also integrate our production sites in the ISO 45001 management system. This supports occupational health and safety at Fresenius Kabi so that it can be certified in accordance with this standard.

We are currently working on creating a uniform occupational health and safety management system in all business segments of the company in order to optimize occupational health and safety in a standardized framework. We achieved this ambition in the reporting year.