How to Reward, Motivate, and Inspire High Performers

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?

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 Leap, 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.