Learning and Development

• Lifelong learning concept
• Focus on virtual learning and digitalization

Learning and development are essential success factors for a strong company culture. The skills and competencies of our employees are critical for profitable growth and lasting success. For this reason, we want to further modernize our learning culture and step up our efforts to promote lifelong, self-directed learning. Employee development at BASF is guided by the belief that talent is in everyone. This means that development opportunities and support are open to all employees. In our understanding, there is more to development than a promotion or a job change – it encompasses the development of personal experience and abilities.

In regular development meetings, which are held as part of our annual employee dialogs, employees outline ideas for their individual development together with their leaders and determine specific measures for further training and development, which focus on personal and professional competencies. Our learning activities follow the “70-20-10” philosophy: We apply the elements “learning from experience” (70%), “learning from others” (20%) and “learning through courses and media” (10%). Our learning and development offerings cover a range of learning goals: starting a career, expanding knowledge, personal growth and leadership development.

Digital learning formats play an important role in our development offerings. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, training for leaders and employees was updated to meet the challenges of the digital transformation and modern working life with appropriate learning formats and content. For example, the Digitalization & Me platform was established as a central resource where employees and leaders can find a wide range of online training, learning paths on LinkedIn Learning, or virtual continuous professional development events. Both target groups can also hold joint workshops in an avatar-based 3D working and learning environment.

We enable our employees to take responsibility for their own professional development within the company with digital and novel offerings. To support multidisciplinary teams in the development of products, services or business models, workshops on design thinking empower participants to find creative and innovative solutions to complex problems. This fosters an agile learning and working culture, which will ultimately also help us to master the digital transformation.

To harness the opportunities of the digital transformation for BASF, the #liveitleadit initiative for leaders focused on agility in 2020. Over 3,000 participants discussed methods, best practices and insights into agile working and digital leadership in monthly digital events.

In addition, more and more academies in the divisions and service units, which teach specific professional content, offer virtual training. We have offered virtual presence training since 2018, which gives all employees the opportunity to attend professional development courses via digital communication channels such as virtual meetings.