Working at BASF

UN Global Compact

Our employees are key to implementing the “We create chemistry” strategy. We want to attract and retain talented people for our company and support them in their development. To do so, we cultivate a working environment that inspires and connects people. It is founded on inclusive leadership based on mutual trust, respect and dedication to top performance.

115,490

Employees around the world

Life-long learning

On center stage

3,103

Apprentices¹ in around 50 occupations

Strategy

Best Team Strategy focuses on excellent people, workplace and leaders

The Best Team Strategy is derived from our corporate strategy and plays a key role in achieving our goals. We want to form the best team. To achieve this, we focus on three strategic directions: excellent people, excellent place to work and excellent leaders. Emphasis is placed on our attractiveness in worldwide labor markets, personal and professional development, lifelong learning, and supporting and developing our leaders. We are committed to complying with internationally recognized labor and social standards worldwide. In addition, BASF reacts early to external trends and challenges such as the advance of globalization and the increasingly rapidly changing environment, especially as this relates to the digitalization of work.

The Best Team Strategy also addresses the balance needed between the inherently local nature of human resources issues and regional or global requirements (concept, structure, process) for the human resources topics that are of overriding importance for BASF.

Number of employees

At the end of 2017, BASF had 115,490 employees (2016: 113,830); of these, 3,103 were apprentices (2016: 3,120). The higher headcount was primarily due to the acquisitions of Grupo Thermotek, Monterrey, Mexico, Rolic AG, Allschwil, Switzerland, and the western European building material business for professional users from the Henkel group.