Pros
The company's treatment of hourly people has been abysmal but seems to be changing as the US branch will continue to match the corporate culture of the parent company. The US branch used to be a small American pharmaceutical company which was purchased by Fresenius Kabi. A lot of the problems are related to the fact that a lot of the people in positions of power are from the old regime, and are used to none structured and pushy management style with short term goals and lack of respect for employees, but that too is changing. But change is very slow and painful here, as upper management is set in their old ways of doing things. The German parent company has noticed the abnormal employee turnover rates and all the problems that are associated with bad turnover.(Lack of knowledge base, no knowledge transfer, no Subject matter experts, overworked employees, past due project etc.) As a result there have been some initiatives to slowly but surely change the culture over time and make Fresenius Kabi US a place people actually want to work at. In all fairness it is not a terrible place to work at for salaried employees as there are advancement opportunities as the company is investing heavily and is planning on making their US manufacturing base their biggest in the world. The company is also placing long time Fresenius Kabi employees from their other plants in strategic positions in the US in an effort to synchronize their US branch with the Fresenius Kabi way of doing things. Also most of large capital projects are being coordinated by the corporate engineering group out of Germany which works in a very structured way but is building up an engineering team in the US to cover all north American projects. There has also been many changes at the US corporate office and all the groups that work there. Generally speaking most departments are getting additional headcounts and some departments are split up or consolidated in order to stream line responsibilities. I would add the following points as Pros -Salaries in line with other Pharma (Good salaries for engineers) -Benefits are average with 3% 401KMatch, Good Health Insurance Options, 3 Weeks Vacation to start with -Due to the lack of resources you go through baptism by fire and learn a tremendous amount within a short period of time. These 2 points are not related to this company but are industry specific, they both can be a con or pro at the same time -Very complex industry-->many different system to work on and a lot of scientific aspects to consider). At the same time project implementation takes a lot longer. -Very Regulated Industry-->exposure to regulations and documentation for injectable pharmaceutical manufacturing which is very niche. At the same time regulation and paper work brings everything to grinding halt and is unmatched by any industry that I know (with the exception of the nuclear maybe)
Cons
-Turn over -Turn over -Turn over No month goes by without an employee quitting in each department. Mostly due to lack of resources and the resulting lack of work life balance. Upper management sets unrealistic goals and pushes employees to their limits to fulfill their unrealistic promises to the board. -Politics The amount of backstabbing and unnecessary politics between employees gets worse the higher you go on the management chain. It is the worse amongst directors. That is a result of the leadership style that is currently in power and encourages such behavior. -Lack of recognition Employees are not acknowledged or recognized for their hard work. -Work/Life Balance non existent at the moment. I am optimistic that this will get better as the company is willing to hire many more people, but the process will take time. -All decisions are made in Germany The corporate engineering group from Germany makes all the decision with little to no input from the plants and then expects the plant personnel to maintain the equipment. -Lack of standards I am used to other Pharmaceutical companies where there are Hardware/Software/Equipment standards in place. At FK there aren't any, the German corporate engineering team buys any variation of electrical, software or mechanical components under the sun based on whatever is cheapest on that day and what they prefer working with instead of considering the skillset and the installed assets at the US plants. -Lack of mentorship or clear career paths The HR department in this organization is sub par and is not comparable with other big companies. They do not know how to find the right talent. Once talent is brought in they do not have proper structures to provide mentorship or different career paths employees can pursue that makes them want to continue their career here instead of leaving. Merit raises are average at best and when someone does get promoted HR limits their raise to where the promoted individual who is being paid below market gets the experience and then leaves the company.