At BASF, we all belong to something bigger
Our promise to our customers, industry, society and each other is to deliver our best. We can only do that by being open to the full range of experiences and perspectives that our differences provide. Diversity + Inclusion are cornerstones of our corporate values: creativity, openness, responsibility, and entrepreneurial spirit.
At BASF, diversity means, among other things, having people from different backgrounds working at our company who can draw on their individual perspectives and skills to grow our business. Diversity increases our creativity and boosts our teams’ motivation, performance and power of innovation.
Today we are proud to restate our public pledge to continue to make meaningful change towards achieving gender diversity within our organisation.
Since last year’s pledge, we have made progress towards achieving gender parity in several ways.
We have:
- Completed a review of the gender pay gap to identify ways to further reduce it
- Expanded our Parental Leave policy to increase paid leave to 14 weeks and to allow equal access to employees of all genders. Since updating this policy 50% of male employees have taken additional parental leave (beyond the traditional two weeks at the birth of a child), up from 0% in 2020.
- Launched an Everyday Sexism education program and call out phrase to encourage a ‘speak up’ culture and to reduce offensive comments and gender stereotyping
- Led a mentoring program for 38 participants, with females representing 50% of the mentees and 44% of the mentors
- Increased the participation of women in our internal talent development program to reach 50%
- Actively participated in the Champions of Change Coalition
- Shared our D + I journey, key learnings and best practice with other like-minded organisations
- Led ‘Future Ways of Working’ workshops, to re-educate our people about the flexible working options available and to empower them to make decisions about when and how they work
- Expanded the focus area of our D + I Council to include Pride at BASF, Indigenous Peoples, Women in BASF, Mental Health and Everyday Sexism.
- Become a corporate member of Diversity Council Australia
In reaffirming our commitment towards achieving gender balance in key decision-making roles, we will continue to progress by:
- Improving the way in which we recruit for roles, to remove unconscious bias and appeal to applicants from diverse backgrounds to help ‘widen the net we cast’
- Encouraging the uptake of flexible working by colleagues of all genders to help balance working life and family responsibilities
- Identifying new development initiatives internally that provide broader depth and flexibility for women, including the offering of female-focused leadership development programs
- Only participating in panels that have an equal representation of women to men, or otherwise acknowledging the imbalance prior to proceeding
- Ensuring our leaders are committed to driving this change through bold and inclusive leadership
- Setting gender equality targets that will be monitored as part of ongoing performance
We are proud to be supporters of the National Farmer Federation Diversity in Agriculture Program and its vision to achieve transformational change in the representation of women in leadership positions within Australian agriculture.