Quick 5 Interview with Fresenius Medical Care’s Monika Garg
Team AdvantageClub.ai
February 12, 2026
In today’s dynamic work environment, HR leaders are constantly evolving to keep up with the ever-changing employee experience landscape.
In this edition of our Quick 5 Interview series, we spoke with Monika Garg, Associate Director, Global HR Operations Support at Fresenius Medical Care, who talks about her people-first philosophy and highlights the importance of staying humble and curious to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement in the workplace.
Monika shares how the evolution of employee experience has shaped her approach to rewards, recognition, and culture-building. From sharing interesting and innovative ways to keep employees motivated and engaged, she talks about how AI has made wellbeing smarter and seamless, and workplaces more inclusive.
Here is the excerpt from the candid conversation with Monika Garg, a seasoned HR Operations and Shared Services leader with over 20 years of experience transforming how organizations design and deliver people processes. Having led diverse HR functions across multiple industries, she currently manages HR Operations Support teams spanning APAC, EMEA, LATAM, and the US. Her expertise includes HR governance, HR operations, payroll operations and transformation, compensation & benefits, quality assurance, HR audit & compliance, HR service management and reporting, and global Workday implementation.
She is also a winner of AdvantageClub.ai’s Most Admired Women Award 2025 in the Pioneer category.
Read below
Q. Do you have a personal life mantra or philosophy that guides your decisions at work and beyond?
A1. I wouldn’t say I have just one mantra that drives me in my professional career. There are many, and I keep changing as we navigate different phases and workplace challenges. I think, for me, I’m currently focused more on a people-first approach, and I truly believe that when we take care of them, the results follow. That is a straightforward mantra.
And another thing I really believe in is staying curious and humble. The continuous improvement of your personality, of your knowledge through learning, is very important. So I always tell this to everyone who works with me, to ask questions. Unless you ask a question, the answer is no. Do reach out to people, learn from everyone, because learning is continuous. It’s not as if I have learned everything; you learn continuously.
Q2. You’ve had a remarkable journey in HR leadership. Looking back, how has the evolution of employee experience shaped your approach to rewards, recognition, and culture-building?
A2. Nowadays, if I compare, we have moved from transactional to emotional, seen from the employee experience perspective. So it’s more connected with emotions now. I still remember, I learned this from one of my managers: People don’t remember the solution; they always remember the way you treat them.
So I think people-first employee experience becomes a priority. Also, when it comes to rewards and recognition, they have moved beyond compensation, beyond paychecks, to being more well-being-driven.
People have started looking for personalization in the various things they use every day. They are looking for purpose now. I think it’s very important that the rewards are customized. At the same time, since we are dealing with different generations working together in the workplace, it’s very important that we offer a variety to cater to everyone, because recognition should provide instant gratification for everyone. People don’t wait until the end of the year for the annual awards to take place.
They need quick gratification and quick recognition. Peer-to-peer recognition has also evolved. At the same time, recognition has become global, no longer confined to a conference room. Now it’s like we have public platforms where it is being announced. All these things have changed a lot. And I think I’m also looking at what organizations are doing currently to build it up, which is very much needed in today’s environment.
Q3. As the nature of work changes, what innovative approaches are you taking to keep employees engaged and maintain a sense of belonging, especially in a hybrid or remote environment?
A3. That is a very apt question for me, as I’m currently managing a team with people from different nationalities. I have a team from different countries reporting to me, and it’s very important for me to keep them engaged and make them feel connected to the organization and the purpose we are driving. So, I currently engage them through various Teams calls and regular check-ins. We sometimes conduct virtual brainstorming and collaboration sessions.
Also, I connect the team members with one another on various projects. That helps them work together and collaborate. I think making yourself available is most important as a manager for your team, as well as when working with different stakeholders. Regular check-ins are very important.
I know many teams are also working on virtual coffee, which might not be possible when they are in different time zones. But I always try to find a common time when we can collaborate, connect, and, apart from work, talk about different topics. So these are the things that we do.
In the past, I have also included the team in virtual wellness runs, where they placed second across APAC. It was a kind of wellness effort, but it gave instant gratification of being recognized at that level. So I think those connections are very important.
So I keep doing various things that help them feel connected to the team and make them aware of the purpose they are driving within the organization. So it’s more about making them aware of the value they add and what the organization gets in return for their work. So I think that’s very important to tell them.
Q4. AI is increasingly playing a critical role in employee well-being. How do you see platforms powered by Agentic AI, like AdvantageClub.ai, shaping the future of workplace wellness and recognition?
A4. It’s really redefining workplace wellness. For example, you may get so busy at work that you forget small things. I have seen regular reminders from AI-driven tools, like “drink your water” or “take an extra step.” Agentic AI also provides a customized outcome based on your personality and daily routine.
I think it is driving greater inclusiveness, where it can consider all cultural and physical variations of a person and still provide suggestions around that. I think it’s very, very important to have intelligent tools that can design something for you that suits your personality, your routine, and your health requirements, and provide you with some options.
Honestly, a lot of organizations haven’t started including that. I think it’s very important that we start exploring it. It makes recognition easy.
It also makes your health and wellness care easier by reminding you of important things. You can customize your plan. You can ask for any kind of requirement. I think it’s more inclusive now than earlier. Earlier, HR used to design a plan and roll it out for everyone, which might not work for all. I think these tools are easy to access and suit your requirements as well. That’s why I feel these are the future of the workplace.
Q5. What is one legacy you hope to leave in your HR career, and how do you plan to build a sustainable future for both employees and the organization?
A5. Okay, I might touch on all the aspects. So, when I talk about the workplace, it’s very important that it values new people and includes you. So it’s very important also to empower people, because organizations are built with the people they work with. So it’s very important that organizations are inclusive, and they empower their people.
Another thing is, if I talk about the resources, the people who are working with me, I would like to leave them with a lot of resilience and adaptability to deal with the changing environment. It’s a VUCA world now; things are changing, you know. There is a lot of adaptability needed, and at the same time, these traits are also disappearing as Gen Z and other generations come up.
I really feel resilience and adaptability take you a long way. So it’s very important that I always try to teach them, whoever I’m mentoring right now, the people who are in my teams, I would really like to leave people with those traits, and at the same time, inculcate the culture of continuous improvement and continuous learning.
These skills are very important, and having technical skills is important because something or the other in technology keeps on coming and going. Today it’s AI, tomorrow it will be something else. Yesterday it was something else. You keep on learning that. But what will guide you through all these upcoming and challenging things are these very important skills.
And I also feel that we used to talk about emotional intelligence, right? Nowadays, it’s very important to be culturally intelligent, because we are in a global environment. We are dealing with global teams. It’s very important that we have that cultural intelligence as well to understand and accordingly navigate through the various discussions.
Conclusion
This candid conversation with Monika reveals her approach to leadership, built on empathy, adaptability, and continuous learning. She emphasizes empowering employees, harnessing AI for personalized recognition, and cultivating ‘cultural intelligence’ to ensure a sustainable future for both employees and organizations.
As workplaces continue to evolve, Monika’s commitment to nurturing a people-first culture and adapting to change is both inspiring and forward-thinking.
We have many more such interesting conversations lined up for you. Stay tuned!
