Employee engagement and empowerment are key to BASF’s success. We want to attract and retain talents and support them in their career growth. For years, BASF has been committed to creating an inspiring working environment that connects and fosters talents and enables them to perform at their best. 

Recruitment

• Launched the “Blooming in Zhanjiang” program for graduates across China
• Continued school-enterprise collaboration for developing operational talents
• Enhanced the hiring experience through innovative recruitment solutions

BASF's success relies on its capability of matching the right people to the right jobs. In Greater China, we have implemented multiple recruitment strategies to attract potential candidates.

Launched in 2022, the "Blooming in Zhanjiang" Graduate Program aims to identify young talents across China and develop them for the BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site. New graduates will benefit from a systematic training program, working alongside experienced leaders and colleagues in their professional field. Each graduate is supposed to bring their passion and play a vital role, adding their unique ideas to the implementation of the Smart Verbund concept and sustainable production at the Zhanjiang site.

Strategic school-enterprise collaboration is also crucial to developing operational talents for BASF in China. Over 400 students have been selected and enrolled to BASF Classes in four collaborative vocational schools from southern, central, and north-western regions of China. In 2022, BASF continued in-depth collaborations with vocational schools to build up an operational talents pipeline for its Zhanjiang Verbund site. Students from these schools participated in their tailor-made curriculums, internships and and relevant technical trainings. Guidance from experienced mentors helped to improve their professional knowledge and practical skills.

BASF HR digital transformation launched a new cloud-based recruitment management system in 2022. The new solution improves hiring experience and recruitment effectiveness with innovative functionalities, such as resume matching, artificial intelligence interviews, online assessment, and talent pool management. The end-to-end recruitment processes are extensively integrated into this system, providing a user-friendly experience which is already receiving positive feedback. For example, applicants can complete their applications with just one click. Since the system went live, more than 96,000 job applications have been received.

Career development

• Learning and development: adopting multiple learning approaches
• Technical Leadership Talent Development focuses on enhancing the necessary skills to build a sustainable production pipeline
• BASF micro-learning fosters self-driven learning 

Learning and development are key success factors for a strong and future-oriented company culture. Learning can be in various formats and places. In Greater China, we are committed to empowering employees and promoting a culture of openness, collaboration, and continuous learning.

To support BASF's expanding production footprint in Greater China, we implemented the Technical Leadership Talent Development program, with heavy emphasis on its leadership pipeline. Through the program, talents from the technical community enhanced their capabilities in five dimensions: work management, influence and cross boundary impact, business acumen, team leadership, technical expertise and operational results. By the end of 2022, around 400 participants – including shift leaders, plant managers, production supervisors and managers – had attended the related programs.

The Micro-Learning program in Greater China has proven to be a highly effective solution for self-paced learning. Covering topics including business, leadership, and workplace skills, it is designed to meet the individual learning needs of employees with great flexibility and offers employees an abundance of bite-sized online learning resources. In 2022, the Micro-Learning program offered over 1,300 courses and 16,000 online audio and video files, representing a seven-fold increase over 2021. The total learning time of employees in Greater China has surpassed 40,000 hours, a three-fold increase compared to the previous year.

Prizes and awards

In recognition of our commitment to sustainability and social engagement in Greater China, BASF received the “Best Corporate Citizenship” award from the 21^st Century Media Group for the 18^th year in a row and was named an “Outstanding Responsible Enterprise” by Southern Weekly for the 15^th consecutive year.

BASF’s Joncryl^® HPB (High Performance Barrier) coating solution was named one of the winning cases of the 2022 APEC “Sustainable Consumption and Production”.

BASF Haptex^®, a solution for synthetic leather with zero organic solvents, was enlisted as a case of excellence in low-carbon development in the Shanghai Foreign-Invested Enterprises Green and Low-Carbon Development Report.

BASF was also named China's Top Employer 2023 for the 13^th consecutive year.