More Caring in America: Taking Care of Customers Starts with Caring for Employees

Fresenius Kabi is doing More in America to keep its workforce engaged and working hard for healthcare providers and the patients they serve. “The only way we as a company can fulfill our mission of ‘caring for life’ is through our employees,” says VP of HR Administration, Deborah Browne. “It means helping employees understand on a daily basis how they affect the customers and patients we serve. When our dedicated teams come to work at Fresenius Kabi, they know they are making an impact on someone’s life.”

Step one in caring for our customers is caring for our employees. We look at employee health and wellness as a powerful, strategic business investment. According to the Service-Profit Chain theory from Harvard University, engaged employees take better care of a company’s customers.1 Research also shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level improves. That’s why Fresenius Kabi actively engages employees­­ – listening to them, responding to their needs and acting on them – to help them feel supported in their work so they can care for our customers to the best of their ability.

We believe that recognizing great work motivates more great work. So, we strive to cultivate a culture of appreciation across the company through the total employee experience. Through our Caring is You peer-to-peer recognition program, employees applaud their peers for great works, large and small. People are lifted up when their work is noticed and appreciated. This culture of caring for and appreciating each other promotes caring for our customers as well.

While creating a caring community at work is important, it’s also important to help our employees be part of caring for their communities at home, so Fresenius Kabi supports our employees in contributing to causes that matter to them. Each employee receives a volunteer day every year where they can choose a community support activity to participate in. 

Finally, a skilled workforce is more resilient and agile when challenges arise. We value and support our people’s desire to grow through our tuition reimbursement and other job training programs. In fact, Fresenius Kabi employees participated in over 168,929 hours of training last year (which averages more than 48 hours per employee, far above industry standards). We invest consistently in educating our entire workforce to foster the resilience and agility our customers appreciate.

The result is that, in a historically high-churn job market, Fresenius Kabi is proud of the many long-tenured employees who started in entry level jobs and, through effort and education, grew careers at the company. These long-time employees, from manufacturing floor to C-suite, become examples to others and keepers of our values. They are part of the fabric that bonds us together as we strive to care for life. Tessa Aquino-Ramos, a manager in regulatory affairs, says, “I’m thankful that I was able to meet outstanding people at Fresenius Kabi who give me the opportunity to show my skills and talent, who help me improve those skills through mentorship, and who challenge me to grow.”

We must be doing something right. Our employees are engaged! In 2015, we began surveying our employee engagement across the company. Last year, in 2020, 85% of our employees participated, far above industry benchmarks. The survey helps us engage in a companywide dialogue about what’s working and what needs improvement. Our people participate because they know we listen, and we act on what we learn to make performance and work life better.

“I think it’s important to note that, while other companies are offshoring many of their manufacturing capabilities, Fresenius Kabi is growing and making capital investments right here in America,” says CEO John Ducker. “That means we are securing jobs and hiring more exceptional people at all levels of the company in locations across the U.S.” Fresenius Kabi has been doing More in America for its employees so that they, in turn, will serve our customers well. This is how we come together to fulfill our purpose of ‘caring for life.’ 


1 Harvard Service-Profit Chain Business Model looks at the connection between Employee Satisfaction, Productivity, Customer Loyalty, Profitability.