With the commitment they demonstrate day and night, our employees are a key factor in our success. In a market environment characterized by staff shortages, we are finding creative ways to attract new talent. To ensure that people enjoy working for us and remain enthusiastic, we offer them more than just an average job. It is important to us that we promote their professional and individual development.
179,884
peoplewere employed by the Fresenius Group in 2024.
41.1
– was the average age of our employees in 2024.
67 %
of our workforce were women in 2024.
Internationally positioned: Employees by region
Countering the staff shortage: How we identify talent
In many areas of healthcare, particularly nursing, there is a shortage of skilled staff. In our search for the right person to fill a specific role, we approach high potentials in a targeted and appreciative manner. We look for suitable candidates both inside and outside the company, using digital platforms and partnerships, such as with schools, universities and technical colleges. We also support our employees with their career changes. By publishing job vacancies internally, we enable them to move within the Group and internationally. This helps them to develop further and retain their specialist knowledge.
In our healthcare facilities, in production, and in administration, our employees make an important contribution to our company. Their skills and energy are the key to our success.
Strengthening individual professional competence
We focus on training and development to meet the current and future demand for qualified employees in our hospitals, production, and administration. Throughout the Group, we offer various training and development opportunities, enabling us to train our own nursing staff, for example.
In Germany, employees can undergo basic, advanced, and further training at the Helios Academy and numerous training centers. In Spain, qualified nursing staff can further specialize in various fields, such as occupational health care or obstetrics and gynecology.
We also use creative methods to counter staff shortages. Find out more in our Highlight story: A strong team for the future.
Equal treatment and opportunities for all
At Fresenius, we support equal opportunities for all people and firmly oppose discrimination of any kind: We have clearly stated in our guidelines that we reject all forms of discrimination.
In addition, the Management Board signed the Diversity Charter for Fresenius in 2023. The overall aim of the Diversity Charter Initiative is to promote the recognition, appreciation, and inclusion of diversity in the world of work in Germany.
Retaining our employees – over the long term
We believe that a good working environment is essential to ensure that our employees stay with us for the long term. That is why we offer appropriate compensation and attractive working conditions, including pension plans and employee participation programs. To help our employees achieve a good work-life balance, we also offer them flexible working hours, working from home, part-time work, and job-sharing wherever possible. These offers may vary depending on country and business segment. For employees approaching retirement, we offer transition programs, for example based on long-term time accounts.
Personalized benefits for our hospital employees
Working from home and flexible working hours are not feasible in our clinics due to the nature of this work. We offer other benefits here, such as private supplementary health insurance and retirement benefits at Helios and Quirónsalud. Helios employees in Germany can also have their children looked after in our own and affiliated kindergartens.
Supporting families where legal regulations are lacking
In the United States, Fresenius Kabi offers employees up to eight weeks paid family leave following the birth or adoption of a child. This also applies to the care of foster children or of seriously ill family members.
The social commitment of our employees is important to us
Volunteering in one’s free time calls for a great deal of commitment and empathy, which we value highly. To encourage social commitment among our employees, Helios launched the “Herzenssache” (Matter of heart) program in 2022. “Herzenssache” refers to activities in which our employees support charitable associations or organizations for the benefit of their communities – and which they can submit for consideration in the program. In 2024, a wide range of such activities were supported with a total of €50,000. In addition to supporting important social projects with “Herzenssache”, we also want to show our appreciation for the commitment of our employees.
Knowledge management: Retaining, extending, and sharing know-how
We support the individual development of our employees with various learning opportunities. These include mandatory training in areas such as environmental protection, quality management or integrity. We also promote digital expertise among our workforce, as technology plays an increasingly important role in our day-to-day work.
Our aim is to increase the average training rate:
Details on our goals can be found under Our sustainability ambition.
We believe that internal exchange in specialist groups is essential for the continuous development of our employees. By pooling expertise, we can also take a more holistic approach to patient care. This can help to improve treatment outcomes. Doctors from various specialist disciplines come together in, for example, so-called tumor boards, where they discuss the course of cancer patients’ illnesses and examine individual treatment options.
Find out more about the promotion of professional exchange in our Spanish hospitals in the Highlight story: Clinical sessions: Online training for clinical professionals.
Strengthening feedback culture and initiating discussion
We listen to our employees and take their opinions seriously. In regular feedback meetings, we not only plan individual career paths or advanced education and training courses, but also give our staff the opportunity to express their wishes and criticisms. Our Group-wide employee survey also encourages people to give us feedback – either positive or negative. A regular exchange also takes place with employee representatives and works councils.
Understanding what drives our employees
We want to find out what our employees value about their working environment and where we as an employer can improve. We therefore evaluate the results of our employee survey in detail and derive specific measures. We use the Employee Engagement Index (EEI) to measure how strongly employees identify with Fresenius as an employer and how committed they feel to the company. The EEI serves us as an important indicator of our employees’ satisfaction.
Details on our goals can be found under Our sustainability ambition.
Direct line to the Management Board: communication at eye level
In the #FutureFresenius chat, employees can ask questions directly to the Management Board – either in person or via a live webcast. This format is held several times a year with different members of the Management Board. A dedicated intranet blog The Board Hub, also provides regular updates for employees around the world.
Safety first: How we protect our employees
We are responsible for the safety of our employees and use management systems to ensure that we comply with legal requirements and internal occupational health and safety guidelines. Our employees are required to report any violations. We use risk assessments to identify potential hazards and to evaluate associated risks, and also assess psychological and psychosocial risks in terms of health and safety.
All business segments carry out training for specific workplace risks. In the clinics, the training courses cover basic safety aspects and special topics such as hand hygiene, safely handling medical instruments, protection against infection, or dealing with emergencies. The training courses at our production sites cover topics like proper handling of work equipment and chemicals.
Get an insight on how we use innovative methods to prepare employees for specific working environments, in our Highlight story: Virtual reality training at Fresenius Kabi.
Taking health and well-being seriously: physical and mental preventive care
We use various measures to prevent illnesses. Our employees can be vaccinated, for instance, and have check-ups by our company doctors. We also take their mental health very seriously: Hotlines provide a first point of contact for inquiries or support needs. Helios also offers courses in which employees learn how to deal with emotional stress situations in their everyday working lives. When employees return to work after a long period of illness, we support them according to their individual situation, for example by adapting their workplace or offering them new roles.