Balancing Personal and Professional Life

Our identity as an employer includes our belief in supporting our employees in balancing their personal and professional lives. A variety of offerings that support employees in different phases of their lives help achieve this.

Parents often face special challenges in their everyday routines. Maternal health before and after childbirth is especially important to BASF. This is why BASF has introduced global standards for maternity protection: With at least 14 weeks of maternity leave – including a minimum of 6 weeks after childbirth – BASF exceeds local legal requirements in many countries. In addition, all employees can take the parental leave they are legally entitled to, giving them more time with their families. 

 

At the largest Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, BASF provides a wide range of offerings to help employees balance personal and professional life. The BASF SE nursery LuKids is one of the largest company childcare facilities for children under the age of three in Germany with a total of up to 260 places and offers demand-oriented full-day care. To support families during school holidays, various age-appropriate holiday programs are available for employees’ children between the ages of 3 and 16.

BASF has defined global guidelines to give employees more flexibility on where, when, and how they work. These opportunities have become an integral part of employees’ day-to-day work, where the job permits them. Options include flexible working hours, part-time work, job sharing, remote work, and various leave arrangements. Desk sharing concepts also encourage collaboration by offering both private spaces for focus and interactive areas where people can exchange ideas and work creatively together. Furthermore, there are internal and external coworking opportunities that employees can take advantage of.

 

At many sites worldwide, BASF offers employees professional support with stressful situations in their personal and professional lives. In Germany, for example, this is done by the BASF Stiftung’s social and life counseling service and is increasingly also offered at sites outside of Ludwigshafen. As part of our global Corporate Health Management initiative, support is provided to employees by strengthening both their mental and physical well-being, as well as by teaching them how to modify behaviors that can influence health where appropriate.