Our People

We are proud of the diverse, engaged, and collaborative team that we have built. Their combined skills, when brought together with the people we care for as our North Star, result in growth, development, and better outcomes. We believe in fair and equitable pay, good benefits, work-life balance, training and development, and opportunities for growth — all within a safe, diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment.

At Fresenius Kidney Care, we recognize the heightened stress and exhaustion our nurses face given this unrelenting time and have developed a multifaceted approach aimed at recruitment and retention.  Our efforts have included:

• Launched new benefits and healthcare options for our care teams and our nurses. For example, we've placed an emphasis on the development of wellness programs that support both the physical and emotional well-being of our nurses. 
• Developed university relations teams that introduce students to nephrology nursing earlier in their nursing program and created placement programs that bring students into the dialysis units to introduce them to and get them excited about nephrology nursing as a great career option. 
• Educated employees about tuition reimbursement programs and other college reimbursement stipends that are available.  
• Raised awareness about nephrology nursing in the community through strong strategic partnerships with industry partners like the American Nephrology Nurses Association. 
• Enhanced the development of nephrology nursing professional advancement pathways for our more than 20,000 nurses. 

We’ve built a nurturing environment that welcomes every race, gender, age, ability, lifestyle, background, and cultural tradition. From advancing policies and programs that encourage inclusivity, to endorsing a diverse range of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), we’re creating a workplace that helps us meet new challenges, provides a broader view of the world, and enables us to deliver the best possible care to all patients.

From the moment the COVID-19 pandemic struck, our primary focus was the health and wellbeing of our employees and patients. We initiated programs and provided resources to ensure safety protocols were met and the unique professional, financial, medical, and personal challenges presented by the pandemic were addressed.

We added a dedicated COVID-19 page to our benefits website, providing employees and their families easy access to resources supporting physical and emotional health, financial assistance, and work-life balance. 

We provided resources to employees to address financial challenges and overall wellbeing. We also delivered childcare and eldercare stipends, as well as emergency pay totaling more than $96 million.

To show appreciation for our frontline teams during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate employees “adopted” locations throughout the country to share random acts of kindness. 

When an unexpected tragedy or emergency occurs in the life of one of our employees, they can turn to the CARES Fund. With a dedicated call center and 48-hour turnaround, this employee hardship fund provides financial help to eligible employees when they need it most. The CARES Fund receives financial support from employees across all levels and divisions of the company.

All employees are encouraged to work toward a happy and healthy self by participating in initiatives like our digital wellness program. The program inspires employees to focus on nutrition and healthier eating, mindfulness and sleep improvement, stress management, and more. All employees can earn incentives to participate, which can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards. Employees who enroll in our medical coverage can earn up to $250 toward eligible healthcare expenses. In 2021, employees completed more than 78,000 activities and earned a combined $4.3 million in incentives. 

Our Emotional Well-being Corner, a resource on our intranet, supports the mental health of employees at all levels. Employees can learn how to identify the signs of mental health needs for themselves and for others, and quickly access resources to support their life at work and at home. Resources include tools to assess work-life balance and stress levels, as well as tools that can help manage a variety of personal needs including support to help handle family situations or financial setbacks, and programs to overcome substance use, loneliness, and more.

Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) supports all employees and their family members. Our EAP gives employees the opportunity to talk with specialists 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support emotional needs for things like anxiety, depression, grief, and stress. They additionally help employees find care partners for loved ones as well as navigate to both legal and financial counseling. Our EAP also offers access to on-demand resources covering topics from coping with a crisis or traumatic event to eating healthy on a budget. 

In addition, all employees and family members receive free virtual cognitive behavior health coaching from home. The program encourages participants to complete tasks at their own pace, ultimately helping improve sleep, manage health conditions, build resilience, and more.

On Donate Life Living Donor Day (April 6, 2022) we announced a significant update to our paid donor leave benefit. Eligible employees who decide to undergo a qualified organ donation or bone marrow transplant procedure will receive six weeks of full pay (formerly one week) to support their decision to become a living donor. As a result, in 2022, we were named to the American Society of Transplantation’s Living Donor Circle of Excellence, an achievement given to companies that support employees who choose to be living donors.

We believe in leading by example and nurturing an environment where employees feel cared for. By putting our people first, we enable them to better care for our patients and each other. 

Since 2014, nearly 8,000 leaders have taken part in our Leading with Values experience, developing behaviors that promote greater goal identification and achievement, collaboration, and empowerment of self and others. Ultimately, the focus of a serving leader is on their team and how — together — we serve our diverse customer base. 

Knowledge Pathways is a professional development and continuing education program for nurses, care technicians, dietitians, and social workers that promotes knowledge, understanding, and proficiency in caring for people with kidney disease. 

The Academy is an online learning library with educational resources to help employees achieve their professional and personal growth goals. With the Academy, employees can earn academic credit toward undergraduate degrees, gain continuing education units (CEUs), and take courses to become certified in a wide variety of subjects and programs. Content includes courses, videos, book summaries, audiobooks, and more. We are committed to developing our talent and providing collaborative learning experiences to advance skills and careers. More than 22,100 employees (33 percent) accessed the Academy’s content in 2021. Our goal is to provide 100 percent of our employees with development opportunities through the Academy by 2025.

The Clinical Advancement Program (CAP) represents our commitment to provide career advancement for the clinical nurse. Fresenius Kidney Care is the first dialysis provider to establish a professional development program for registered nurses. CAP provides a standardized clinical pathway to guide the nurse into advancing their nephrology career from novice to expert.

We work closely with the American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA) leadership team to provide funding that enables our nurses to become ANNA members, attend meetings, advance their education, and work toward certifications in nephrology. 

Our partnership with the National Association of Nephrology Technicians/Technologists (NANT) underscores our investment in education and career development for our more than 21,000 patient care technicians (PCTs) and biomedical technicians (biomeds). We offset the cost of NANT membership dues and underwrite participation in NANT’s DialysisTechConneXion (DTX), the only industry conference planned by technicians and for technicians. 

Our Tuition Reimbursement Program helps helps PCTs launch their career as registered nurses. To overcome the two biggest challenges to earning a degree — money and time — the program reimburses employees for their nursing school classes, provides schedule flexibility, and is available to both part-time and full-time staff. Developed to empower PCTs and encourage success along the way, the program offers an increase in compensation for every 25 percent of their nursing degree completed.

In 2021, 2,143 employees applied for tuition reimbursement for degree programs, including 614 for masters and graduate programs. In addition to providing tuition reimbursement, in 2021, we launched a Student Support resource site to help our employees through the approval process required to conduct research in one of our locations. In 2022, we plan to expand the program to all advanced degree students, in addition to those conducting research.

Our Clinical Mentor Connection Program pairs experienced clinical managers with new clinical managers to provide support, firsthand knowledge, and guidance. The program helps new clinical managers achieve success in their new role through one-on-one coaching and support. The program had 124 participants in 2021. 

In 2018, we launched our Women’s Employee Resource Group Mentoring Program. In 2021, the program had 240 participants actively engaged in the program representing mentors and mentor partners. Topics include individual development, career development, collaboration, and leadership. Based on the success of this program, we plan to expand it out to other Employee Resource Groups in 2022. 

Through our recruitment efforts and promoting from within, we go to great lengths to hire and retain talented staff who have a passion for improving the lives of others. As part of our listening strategy, we leverage digital surveys to monitor engagement of our employees. We strive to reach each employee to gain insights on work environment, organizational culture, and overall employee experience.

Our Nurse Residency Program: Transition to Nephrology Practice was developed by the education team in response to the University Relations outreach to new nurse graduates. This innovative program introduces new graduate nurses to nephrology with a 12- to 15-month residency focused on developing the nurse resident's confidence and competence in nephrology nursing. This program allowed Fresenius Kidney Care to recruit nursing students and onboard 256 nurse graduates in 2021, with a goal of 330 more in 2022.

Our First Year Focus program aims to improve the selection, onboarding, training, and development of new employees, and create a world-class employee experience. In 2021, First Year Focus impacted 11,025 clinical staff.

Our scholarship fund grants children and grandchildren of employees scholarships worth up to $3,000 per year. In 2021, we awarded 420 new scholarships totaling $1.2 million and 589 renewals totaling $1.6 million.

Our online “edutainment” program, The Kidney Kid, uses superhero-themed games and activities to teach young children about their kidneys and staying healthy.

All sustainability data is from Fresenius Medical Care North America for 2021 unless otherwise noted.