BASF Group - Strategy development for social engagement

The aim of the con­sult­ing project was to align BAS­F’s increased social com­mit­ment with the cor­po­rate strat­e­gy so that all employ­ees feel a sense of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and their engage­ment has an even greater impact on soci­ety and the com­pa­ny. Based on a glob­al engage­ment strat­e­gy, a dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed local engage­ment strat­e­gy was then to be devel­oped at the main plant in Lud­wigshafen, which would also serve as an exam­ple for oth­er nation­al affiliates.

We accom­pa­nied the BASF team on the way to this glob­al and local engage­ment strat­e­gy, struc­tured and facil­i­tat­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion process­es and con­tributed our exper­tise in the area of cor­po­rate citizenship.

Project part­ner: BASF Group | Dura­tion:

In order to involve inter­nal stake­hold­ers, we con­duct­ed indi­vid­ual inter­views and work­shops with sev­er­al depart­ments. At the same time, we pre­pared a bench­mark analy­sis that depict­ed the social engage­mentof cor­po­ra­tions of com­pa­ra­ble size.

Based on the find­ings, we assist­ed BASF in design­ing gen­er­al guide­lines and more pre­cise tools for the prac­ti­cal imple­men­ta­tion of the Social Engage­ment Strat­e­gy in indi­vid­ual projects.

The key ele­ments of the new ​“Social Engage­ment” strat­e­gy is a strong needs analy­sis and a joint plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion of projects — both using an impact-ori­ent­ed and learn­ing-ori­ent­ed approach. Inter­nal and exter­nal part­ners as well as local employ­ees are also to be more active­ly involved than in the past in order to shape and breathe life into local social engagement

All results were elab­o­rat­ed, improved and coor­di­nat­ed in sev­er­al work­shops. Since dif­fer­ent depart­ments and hier­ar­chi­cal lev­els were involved, the strat­e­gy was also sub­se­quent­ly met with great approval.

BASF now has a tar­get-ori­ent­ed mod­ernSo­cial Engage­ment Strat­e­gy — both at glob­al and local lev­el — and a cor­re­spond­ing imple­men­ta­tion plan that is in line with the cor­po­rate phi­los­o­phy and strat­e­gy. It is sup­port­ed by the rel­e­vant oper­at­ing divi­sions and active­ly involves the employees.

“Togeth­er with PHI­NEO, we at BASF have suc­ceed­ed in devel­op­ing a coher­ent strate­gic approach for our non­prof­it activ­i­ties that focus­es on impact ori­en­ta­tion and the cre­ation of learn­ing opportunities.”

Karin Heyl, Social Engage­ment & Work-Life-Man­age­ment, BASF