Fresenius offers employees at corporate and business segment level a fair and appropriate basic compensation. This is defined, for example, on the basis of collective agreements or internal remuneration guidelines. In addition, we offer various benefit components, for example employee benefit programs, profit-sharing bonuses, pension plans, compensatory time accounts, and tariff-based future payments. Not all elements are implemented equally within the Fresenius Group, but can, however, be accompanied by local benefits depending on the market and employee requirements and regulatory provisions.

The focus of development is for the rewards to reflect the relative value of each job and support career progression in line with market trends and local requirements.

Due to the ongoing reorganization measures within the Group, the management approaches to employee retention focus on creating structures that support the long-term success of the company. After successful implementation of the planned measures within the framework of #FutureFresenius, further employee retention activities can be implemented as needed. In addition, Fresenius is working intensively on positioning and strengthening its employer brand.

In the reporting year, the new employee participation program Fresenius SHARE was introduced in Germany. It applies equally to all employees of the participating companies: The segment Corporate / Other, including Fresenius Digital Technology GmbH and Fresenius Versicherungsvermittlungs GmbH, as well as all German companies of the business segment Fresenius Kabi – regardless of whether collectively agreed or non-tariff employees, executives, or trainees and temporary staff. The program consists of two components: on the one hand, participants can annually purchase a share package with ordinary shares of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA at a significant discount. Secondly, four targets have been set, upon achievement of which a certain amount will be issued in ordinary shares of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA. In addition to increasing the Group’s net income, the targets include the topics of cybersecurity (training and internal rating) and quality. The first shares will be issued in 2024, corresponding to the achievement of the targets in the 2023 fiscal year.

Our efforts in employee development and retention should also lead to improved employee key performance indicators (KPIs) in the long term. To achieve this, we will continue to invest in our employees. The average employee expense was €51.9 thousand in 2023, compared to €50.1 thousand in 2022.

In 2023, the proportion of employees who voluntarily left^{1, 2} the company decreased to 10.4% (2022: 11.1%). This KPI was positively influenced by the transformation processes at Group and business segment level, the need for qualified personnel while the stressful labor conditions in the healthcare sector impacted the development in voluntary turnover.