The commitment of our more than 190,000 employees worldwide forms the basis of our success. Their achievements, skills, and dedication help our business segments to hold leading positions in their respective markets. We want to continue attracting, retaining, and integrating talent at Fresenius. To this end, we need to consolidate and build on our position as an attractive employer in a market environment characterized by a shortage of personnel. Employee-friendly working conditions, attractive benefits, and a dialog-oriented corporate culture all help us to achieve this. 

As a global company, we create various incentives for our employees depending on the country and location. These include flexible working time models among others. We pay attention to diversity and promote international and interdisciplinary cooperation. We aim to comply with internationally recognized labor and social standards in all aspects of our operations. This is set out as mandatory in our Code of Conduct and our Human Rights Statement.

Employee development

We offer our employees the opportunity to develop professionally in a dynamic international environment. To this end, we use different concepts and measures for personnel development - depending on their own customer and market structures. We constantly adapt our approaches to current trends and requirements.

In ­addition to Group-wide mandatory training courses on the respective Codes of Conduct and on integrity, there are mandatory training courses on environmental management, and occupational health and safety in the business segments, and, where appropriate, quality management.

Attracting and retaining outstanding talent is crucial to our success. That's why our HR development measures are rounded off by segment-specific talent management and individual further training offerings for employees and managers.

Occupational health and safety

As a healthcare Group, we are responsible not only for the well-being of our patients, but also for the health and safety of our employees. We have implemented numerous management systems and measures throughout the Group to prevent employee accidents and work-related illnesses. Creating a safe and healthy working environment is our priority.

In health protection, prevention is our guiding principle; this is why we offer our employees comprehensive programs that promote their health and prevent occupational diseases.

The Fresenius Code of Conduct states that we must take the necessary measures to protect our employees and to prevent work-related accidents. All business segments focus on preventive measures and promote employees’ responsible conduct when it comes to occupational health and safety. Occupational safety concepts are adapted to the specific business models of each business segment. Our concepts focus on occupational health and safety within production, as well as occupational health management for employees in our healthcare facilities or administration.

Employee participation and exchange with employee representatives

Trust and cooperation between management, employees, and employee representatives is well established at Fresenius and is an integral part of our corporate culture. An open and ongoing dialog between management and employee representatives, as well as unions, is important to us.

In recent years, we have established various dialog formats to strengthen communication between management and employees – both at Group level and in the individual business segments. This allows the Management Board to provide employees with information on important issues personally. In addition, we promote our feedback culture and the constructive exchange of ideas.

Employees liaise with their supervisors, but they can also turn to their HR or compliance officers, as well as to the works council, their union representatives, or other employee representatives for assistance. In Europe, about 84% of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. On a global basis, about 74% of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Digitalization holds great promise in the areas of automation, big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The MedTech market is shifting towards a focus on connectivity and integration, moving beyond product-centric approaches. The tech paradigm shift is driven by advancements in technologies like AI, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and predictive analytics. The rise of new technologies is accompanied by the generation of a vast amount of real-time health data, leading to a paradigm shift in data. Health data combined with advanced analytics are key elements for the implementation of predictive, personalized, preventive, and participative medicine, an approach that will leave a mark onhealth delivery and significantly improve treatment outcomes.

Digital trends

Our markets are changing rapidly. This is particularly true with regard to digital trends in healthcare, which have been further accelerated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are seeing increasing demand for new digital services along the entire value chain. Patients increasingly want to receive remote diagnosis and healthcare services on demand. Data-driven decision-making is increasingly integrated into everyday clinical practice, and the proportion of digital components in medical devices is growing. The associated cybersecurity risks also highlight the need for standardized and resilient IT infrastructures.

Digital processes and applications

We develop devices and applications in various medical fields to support ongoing digitalization, for example, in hospitals. These solutions not only have to be optimized in their core functions, but need to be embedded into the specific IT systems of healthcare facilities. To this end, we will continue to focus on increasing the share of software in medical technology and its application area.

Digital solutions are continuously being developed along the entire value chain to make internal work processes more efficient and simplify them. In various areas, such as compliance, supply chain, purchasing, and production, we are increasingly relying on intelligent automation and AI to improve business processes in administrative functions, e. g., by using chatbots, intelligent document processing, or recommendation and prediction applications. We have already implemented various solutions and identified potential savings that can be successively realized. Since September 2023, a chatbot has been supporting the global IT service desk, through which IT problems can be reported and, in some cases, resolved directly.

Innovation

The Fresenius Group sees innovations as a driver for aligning products and services with the changing needs of patients, for consistently improving them, and for continuously adapting them to the respective market conditions. The aim is to offer patients high-quality, safe, and innovative products on a global basis.

We pursue an integrated approach to innovation: it takes place along our value chain on key topics. Innovation leads to:

• Improved access to healthcare
• Modernization and digitalization in healthcare
• Improving treatment options through research, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence

In this way, we aim to strengthen our position with a focus on innovation in the healthcare sector, recognizing the importance of the services of our employees they provide to society.

We increasingly focus on the opportunities offered by digital solutions. Through innovative, safe, and user-friendly products and systems, we can further improve the quality and efficiency of treatments.

 

The safety of our patients is our priority, and it plays a central role in our management approaches. In our medical services, for example, disruptions in the process flow, such as natural disasters or technical failure, pose a significant risk to patients and the healthcare facilities. In addition, there are also operational risks, for example due to potential hygiene deficiencies.

We counter these risks through structured processes, training, and quality management systems, among other things, and work to continuously improve patient and product safety. Transparent information for the public is also part of our safety and quality commitment.

The application of the highest possible quality and safety standards, the effectiveness of products and service offerings, and adherence to regulatory assessment and compliance requirements are essential prerequisites to support our ambition: to secure long-term corporate success and enable the care of patients. To achieve this, we set ourselves specific targets in the business segments.

We have established sophisticated processes that are geared to the safety of our patients and efficient workflows. In quality management, we focus on monitoring, managing, and improving these processes performance indicators. Each business segment aligns its quality management individually to its business model and sets corresponding priorities.

Our quality management systems meet or are based on various standards. Internationally applicable standards such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) are particularly important for our production sites. In our clinics and healthcare facilities, we measure the quality of patient care using various indicators.

Hygiene management in hospitals

Hygiene management focuses on close monitoring of infections and pathogens, regular hygiene training for hospital staff, for example on correct hand disinfection, monitoring antibiotic consumption (available in German only), and training physicians as antibiotic stewardship (ABS) specialists. The implementation of and compliance with hospital hygiene measures in the clinics is accompanied and monitored by our specially trained staff - e. g., hygiene specialist nurses, hospital hygienists, and hygiene officers.

The clinics monitor their hygiene status continuously and transparently: every six months, Helios Germany publishes figures for each clinic on the occurrence of the three most important multi-resistant and infection-relevant pathogens (German language only).

Hygiene management in rehabilitation and care

Protecting patients from infectious diseases during their stay in rehabilitation clinics and care facilities is a key objective for Fresenius Vamed. Newly established healthcare facilities follow systematic guidelines from day one to prevent infections breaking out or spreading. Clearly defined procedures are followed and compliance with hygiene regulations is strictly controlled.

In Germany, Fresenius Vamed's hygiene standards are based on the recommendations of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO) of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These recommendations take into account all legal requirements for hygiene.