Excellence in employee conditions earns BASF West Africa recognition

Once again, BASF West Africa has been recognized for its excellence in employee conditions and awarded Top Employer Nigeria 2018, in the African category, by Top Employer Institute, the global certifier of excellence in employee conditions.

The recognition and award which took place at a ceremony held at the Sandton Convention Center recently made it the third consecutive year that BASF West Africa has received this recognition.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company that creates chemistry and has been doing so in Africa for over 90 years. For corporate and administrative purposes, it has divided Africa into four country clusters, with headquarters in Midrand, South Africa for Southern Africa; Nairobi, Kenya for East Africa; Lagos, Nigeria for West Africa and Morroco for North-West Africa. BASF employs about 1600 people in Africa and, since 2016,  its African headquarters has been based in Nairobi, Kenya.

But the company, according to Jean-Marc Ricca, managing director of BASF West Africa, who spoke in an interview with BusinessDay in Lagos, has found Nigeria a compelling story after two years in the country. “Our challenge now is the ability to convince our organization that there is a compelling story in Nigeria. We want them to just come to Nigeria, not Kenya, not Morocco or anywhere else. We want to propagate that story which defines the future”, he said.

The annual international research undertaken by the Top Employer Institute globally certifies excellence in the conditions that employers create for their people. Integral to the Institute’s programme is that participating companies must complete a rigorous research process and meet the required high standard in order to achieve the certification.

Ricca explained in a statement in Lagos that this certification serves as confirmation that BASF West Africa operates at global standards and places its people first which is in line with its values.

“Our focus is on fostering the individual’s unique talents and meeting that person’s development objectives in the best possible manner, thereby allowing BASF’s corporate objectives to be fulfilled at the same time,” he said.

“Considering that we are getting this recognition for the third consecutive time in the five years of our existence as a legal entity, is a great reinforcement that we are doing well with our people management. As we continue to expand our operations, we will continue to optimise our employee conditions, and continue to recruit, retain and attract the best employees”, he disclosed.

The research topics included talent strategy; workforce planning; on-boarding; learning and development; performance management; leadership development; career and succession management; compensation  and benefits; and organizational culture.

To reinforce the validity of the process, all responses were independently audited and the outcome of the research verified BASF West Africa as having outstanding employee conditions and earned her a coveted spot amongst a selected group of certified Top Employers.