Attracting, retaining, and supporting employees: Our approach
Every day and all night, the skills and dedicated approach of our employees contribute to the success of our company in our healthcare facilities and in production, as well as in administration and IT. We want to be the employer of choice in the highly competitive healthcare market. Individuals are encouraged to submit job applications and retain their enthusiasm for working at Fresenius because we offer them a job that goes way beyond the average.
Early career
68
opportunitiesfor vocational training: 37 apprenticeship vocations and 31 dual study programs.
On average
41.3
years oldwere our employees in 2023.
A total of
193,865
people were employed by the Fresenius Group in 2023, amounting to nearly 5,000 more people than in 2022.
Internationally positioned: Employees by region
How we find the right people for Fresenius
Current and future employees need to perceive us as a reliable employer offering flexibility and acting as a gateway to a diverse set of experiences. We cast our net wide so that we attract a wide range of different talents. When we’re looking for the right person to fill a specific role, we target potential high flyers in a strategic approach.
We look within our organization for individuals who want to advance in a specific area and whose profile matches a vacant position. External candidates are also on our radar and we rely on a digital presence on social media and career websites. The business segments also collaborate with schools, universities, and universities of applied sciences. Moreover, our representatives for various disciplines are present at career fairs. Additionally, we hold our own job events to augment these measures. Our policy is to communicate transparently and clearly in all our activities. They are intended to show potential applicants that we take them seriously, and value an exchange of views in an atmosphere of trust.
Recruiting and human resource planning: Using networks
Our business segments are networked in many countries and they also focus on the international stage when carrying out recruitment. When a new recruit from abroad starts working at Helios in Germany, for example, specially trained integration managers provide assistance in completing applications and finding language schools. Our aim is to make life easier for newcomers as they get started in an unfamiliar landscape. There can be a short-term shortage of personnel if a lot of employees take sick leave, for example in the flu season, or during the long summer vacations. Sometimes replacements for employees on parental leave or temporary support for a particular project cannot be sourced from within the company’s own ranks. In cases like this, our business segments deploy agency staff, for example in nursing or production.
Enhancing retention among our employees – over the long term
One thing is absolutely clear when it comes to the continued existence and innovative strength of Fresenius. We need motivated, qualified, and high-performing employees within the company. This requires attractive working conditions and appropriate compensation, as well as voluntary additional benefits, and responding to as many individual requirements as possible. Different areas of our Group offer targeted benefit components to match the market and region.
Our benefits – a few examples
- Financial provision: pension plans, company pension, tariff-based future payments
- Bonuses: employee benefit programs, profit-sharing bonuses
- Flexible working: part-time models, mobile working, compensatory time accounts, job sharing
- Health and well-being: preventive care, internal offers promoting physical and mental well-being, discount for gyms, discounted hotel cards
Employee shares: Good investment
Since 2023, all employees – from trainees to executives – in the companies involved in the Corporate segment and at Fresenius Kabi can join the Fresenius SHARE program.
The program consists of two components:
On the one hand, participants can purchase a share package of ordinary shares in Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA at a significant discount each year.
Additionally, participants receive a defined amount in ordinary shares, if certain targets are achieved. The targets include an increase in the Group’s net income, participation rate in cybersecurity training, the concrete value of a cybersecurity rating, and the result of the Audit & Inspection Score. Three of four targets were achieved in 2023 and employees receive an appropriate proportion of the shares.
Offering tailormade benefits
The main beneficiaries of advantages like home office and flextime models are all those people who are employed directly by Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, or who work in the administrative areas of the business segments. Offering similar benefits in the area of healthcare services is difficult or indeed impossible. Here it is important to offer needs-based incentives and provide adequate rewards. For example, Helios and Quirónsalud offer benefits such as private supplementary medical insurance policies and then retirement provision. Employees can also convert parts of their salary into defined benefits. Helios offers employees support in the area of childcare. Overall, 35 nurseries offer childcare places for their little ones during working hours.
Since the fall of 2022, somebody working at Fresenius Kabi in the United States can take leave from work for a short period of time for reasons such as the birth or adoption of a child, for the care of children placed in foster care, or for the care of an immediate family member with a serious health condition. Employees are entitled to take extended paid family leave of up to eight weeks. There are no statutory options like parental or care leave in the United States as there are in Germany.
Listening and getting feedback
We want to listen to our employees and include them. This encompasses asking for feedback, entering into dialog with them, and putting words into action. The roadmap for this involves individual feedback discussions focusing on matters such as future collaboration, or individual planning for further and advanced training opportunities. We also collect feedback on the working environment in our Group-wide employee engagement survey and in regional surveys. The survey encourages employees to provide positive feedback, express their criticisms, and make suggestions for improvement.
Combating a shortage of personnel: Focus on individual development
For many years, there have been ongoing staff shortages at lots of locations particularly in the nursing sector. At Fresenius, we are constantly working on minimizing the effects of this situation. Our focus is on measures directed toward training and development. Helios and Quirónsalud primarily train nursing personnel in their own training centers, or recruit them from training cooperations. Employees can undergo training at the Helios Academy, 34 of its own training centers, and in other training programs of the business segments offered in other countries. The training centers and other training programs also offer staff a wide range of further and advanced training opportunities. Since 2022, Fresenius Kabi has been offering employees in the Asia-Pacific region a learning program to develop and extend competencies.
Many individual further training measures and mandatory training courses are now provided as webinars or e-learning courses. They facilitate fast, up-to-date, and tailored learning. If somebody in Germany doesn’t have their own computer or a quiet work environment, they can complete the training at specially set up learning locations. There are also hybrid or in-person formats that focus on personal interaction.
Anybody who wants to change career can undergo individual further training at their existing place of work and also gain international experience. For example, employees from Fresenius Kabi can develop their professional and personal profiles through short-term or long-term assignments abroad.
We also offer all managers two Group-wide programs to promote our high flyers in the upper management levels and retain them within the group. Middle management can participate in training through collaboration with the University of St. Gallen. This is primarily focused on strategy implementation, change management, and collaboration. The fundamentally revised Top Executive Program is directed toward the most senior management levels. This program will be delivered for the first time in conjunction with the Harvard Business School in 2024 in a new form. There are also development programs in each of the business segments for potential, new, and experienced managers.
Our joint success: Certifications and awards
Our commitment as an employer was once again honored with various awards in 2023:
STEM Minded Company 2023
STEM Minded Companies promote STEM talent in a particular way. Fresenius was nominated by STEM students, graduates, and talented high flyers. Initially, we were successfully audited by audimax MEDIEN GmbH and succeeded in subsequently completing certification by signing the ten-point declaration STEM Welcome.
Potentialpark 2023 Germany Talent Communication Ranking
Market research company Potentialpark awarded Fresenius for the twelfth time in succession as one of the companies with the best Internet portals for applicants in Germany. We took second place among 140 ranked companies.
Top Employer Institute
In 2023, Fresenius Kabi received the externally audited Top Employer certification in nine countries (Austria, China, Dominican Republic, Poland, Switzerland, United States, India, Philippines, and Puerto Rico), as did Quirónsalud.
