Asia Pacific Institute of Corporate Leadership launched for top performers
A range of initiatives designed to improve career development opportunities for employees across the Asia Pacific region will shortly be launched by BASF, one of the world's leading chemical companies.
The initiatives are designed to support an ambitious growth plan for an employee base ranging from senior chemists and business managers to management trainees and technical staff. In line with the business expansion targets set out in its Asia Pacific Strategy 2020, BASF plans to create 5,000 new positions in the region over the next decade. Including hires for replacements, the company plans to recruit a total of around 20,000 staff by 2020.
"When top performers join…we aim to give them the support they need to develop individual career paths that fully leverage their skills and talents," said Saori Dubourg, President, Regional Functions & Country Management Asia Pacific. She added, “We have set ourselves a clear target to accelerate the development of our future leaders from within the organisation in Asia Pacific.”
Among the initiatives announced this month are a new employee-manager dialogue tool designed to explore employee motivations and ambitions in depth, in order to form a clear development plan; and a BASF Asia Pacific Institute of Corporate Leadership, a project to enhance the professional development and training for future skills on offer to managers. Peter Johann, Vice President, Human Resources Asia Pacific, explained the motivations behind the changes to the training offering, "We are launching the Institute in order to provide employees with the hard and soft skills they need to become future leaders in BASF. By combining industry-leading professional training with the wide range of job opportunities and career paths we can offer, we will be able not just to recruit the best talent, but also to keep them motivated and part of the future of the company. Flexibility is the key, because not everyone learns effectively in the same way, so it is important to provide a range of training methods: classroom training, online training, and on the job training."
Other initiatives include updates to the existing programme for high potential talent, to align it with business strategy; the introduction of a more formalised mentoring system; and various tools to support and encourage career movement internationally and across different job roles and areas of expertise where suitable.
Dubourg concluded, "By improving the opportunities, training and support for our local employees within the organisation, the company will benefit by enhancing the excellence of our talent throughout the region. At the same time, by cultivating future leaders among our existing employee base, we can keep our strong values and culture intact during a period of rapid growth by promoting from within.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
