How Fresenius Medical Care Rewards, Motivates, and Inspires High Performers
Improving Retention and Keeping the Spark Alive in Key Leadership Roles
THE CHALLENGE
The mission of Fresenius Medical Care sounds simple but is anything but. It’s to deliver superior care that improves the quality of life of every patient, every day, setting the standard by which others in the healthcare industry are judged. They recognize that to make their mission a reality, they need to surround themselves with high performers in key roles.
But how do you reward, motivate, and further develop these leaders? How do you protect, nurture, and show genuine appreciation for them? In a profession that has felt the effects of COVID-19 firsthand, how do you reignite the spark that may have diminished in the past few years?
These questions and concerns aren’t being felt by Fresenius alone. It’s a common issue felt by healthcare providers. Quality care, turnover rates, and business success are all dependent on keeping those in key roles satisfied, motivated, and inspired to continue to do their best.
But how do you do that — particularly in trying times?
THE SOLUTION
Fresenius Medical Care recognizes the value of key performers and is committed to appreciating their value within the organization. Fresenius pinpointed clinical leaders who are running dialysis clinics, as well as providing home therapy and inpatient services in their roles as facility administrators, as key contributors to the success of their organization. Typically, these pivotal, high performer positions are filled by RNs who have been promoted from within and have already completed leadership training. Fresenius wanted to take their training a step further and recognize these key individuals by giving them exposure to senior leadership in a learning environment.
For this pilot program, Fresenius nominated 16 out of 3,500 eligible employees to take part in LEAP, an acronym for Lead, Energize, Accelerate Performance and a joint collaboration between Fresenius, Skillsoft, and Career Pathways. Because of the small number of employees selected to take part in the program, nominations were viewed as a great honor within the organization.
LEAP leveraged the Skillsoft Leadership Development Program, powered by MIT Sloan Management Review, and delivered through Skillsoft Percipio. It consisted of one week of independent learning followed by one week of facilitated learning. The second week included panel interviews and breakout rooms with senior leaders in attendance. It was important to include senior executives in the program so that participants could get to know upper-level management and management got to know participants by name.
At the end of the program, participants were asked to make presentations to the senior leaders demonstrating a combination of critical and innovative thinking. While the initial intent was to have senior leaders observe, many became actively involved in the presentations and extended invitations to other top executives.
This support was recognized by participants and greatly appreciated as they left the pilot program inspired and with a newly ignited sense of value and worth within the organization. They returned to their regular duties knowing they were being seen and appreciated. Meanwhile, management recognized that their key leadership competencies of leading yourself, leading others, and leading the business were being met from every angle.
An unforeseen benefit was that participants were exposed to the Fresenius Leadership Academy, powered by Percipio, and saw the value firsthand. Many reported that they would be more likely to engage and consume additional learning in the future.
HOW WILL THE LEAP PROGRAM IMPACT THE BUSINESS?
Participants predict improvements in:
84%
Employee Retention
81%
Clinical Outcomes
81%
Building Internal Business Relationships
81%
Individual Engagement
61%
Customer Retention
Managers were asked whether participants were successful in applying the content:
WHAT DO OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE TO SAY?
I’m most proud that we were successful in letting participants know how much they’re valued. They are now on a first name basis with senior executives, which is very exciting.
Kristin Massicot, Director
Director, Center For Leadership And Professional Development
I am more self-aware, emotionally intelligent, and mindful and more prepared to advance in my career. I utilized the program material and the leader panel responses to guide me in my professional and personal interactions.
Program Participant
WHAT’S NEXT
The pilot program was deemed an unequivocal success with all aspects receiving top scores in participant evaluations. The nominated key performers left feeling seen, valued, and recognized for their efforts. There was also a tremendous personal and organizational benefit in internal networking which is all too often forgotten as a powerful retention tool.
Fresenius Medical Care plans to move forward with LEAP 2.0 and will open the pool to 24 nominations with some minor tweaks to the program:
- Expanding to add more executive presence to help teach participants about how to share their personal brand
- Condensing the program to serve up learning in smaller parcels and a more expedient timeframe
- Scheduling breakout sessions earlier in the program to optimize value
- Adding a new topic on self-awareness based on Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment that will introduce participants to leadership styles
- Creating a more social learning element to complement the way participants interact on a daily basis
The eventual goal is to increase the program to three or four groups a year.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILLSOFT’S LEARNING SOLUTIONS
Has Fresenius Medical Care's story inspired you? Learn how you can unleash your organization’s edge by working with Skillsoft.
- Skillsoft Coaching, executive-quality coaching to accelerate the professional growth and development of all leaders.
- Skillsoft's Leadership and Business Skills Portfolio, for building effective leaders at all levels of your organization.
LEARN MORE ABOUT Fresenius Medical Care
Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s leading provider of products and services for individuals with renal diseases. They provide dialysis treatment for over 3.8 million patients worldwide. They pride themselves on bringing together expertise in patient care with the development of industry-leading technologies, products, and services, as well as providing superior care to patients.