Bayer – an employer who offers more than just work
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Our products can be found in nearly all areas of life. With their knowledge and innovative capability, our employees aim to actively help shape the future based on common values. The organizational structure of the Bayer Group provides optimal prerequisites for this endeavor.
Excellent perspectives at a global player
Bayer and its subgroups Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience and Bayer MaterialScience are among the world’s leading companies in their fields of business. Yet it is not just our customers and stockholders who benefit from the tremendous performance capability of our company, but also in particular our employees – through demanding and varied tasks, extremely attractive compensation concepts including many additional benefits, and a wide range of career and personal development perspectives. Bayer is a leading international company headquartered in Germany. We uniquely combine professionalism and a cosmopolitan approach with a culture of responsibility for our employees that has developed over many decades. For a long time now, this combination has made Bayer one of the most attractive employers and will continue to characterize the company in the future. Bayer offers its employees a wealth of excellent career opportunities both in Germany and around the world. As a modern employer, we take great care to ensure that our employees are able to balance the exploitation of career development opportunities with their personal life planning. For example, our innovative worktime systems enable our employees to achieve a very high degree of flexibility and design freedom when organizing their activities within and outside of the company.
By joining Bayer, you are creating the best foundation for a successful career.
Compensation
Compensation should be adjusted systematically to performance
Every employee at Bayer makes a contribution to the company’s performance. An ability to work independently is very important.
Rewarding achievement
We reward the contribution made by every individual employee to the company’s business success by paying them a performance-related bonus in addition to their basic salary. A uniform compensation structure has been developed for all employees. This is a transparent, modern system that provides competitive rates of pay and performance-oriented compensation at all levels. Performance-related bonuses are based on both corporate and personal performance.
Deferred compensation
Bayer offers all employees the chance to convert some of their gross income into additional pension savings. Participation in these deferred compensation plans in conjunction with personal financial planning helps improve retirement income. As an additional benefit, managerial employees can opt to use part of their monthly salary to lease a car for their own private use. This enables them to benefit from low corporate leasing rates and insurance premiums and reduces the likelihood of unexpected expenses.
Stock ownership plans
Stock ownership plans are an important addition to our overall compensation policy. Owning Bayer stock gives employees a share in the company’s business performance and at the same time helps them save for their retirement. Attractive long-term stock ownership plans have been designed for all employee groups to encourage investment in the company.
Innovation
Innovation comes from expertise. We're open to innovation, and we're steadily expanding our expertise.
“Bayer: Science For A Better Life” is more than a corporate slogan. It’s a call to action. A truly ambitious goal. Innovation is among the most important objectives of Bayer’s corporate stratetgy. Research is key to success, which is why Bayer’s R&D budget is the highest in the German pharmaceutical and chemical industry. The fruits of this research are reflected in an average of three new patent applications every workday. More than 11,700 of Bayer’s employees carry out research and development in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Nearly one quarter of these people are based in the United States, and about 65 percent of them in Europe. Germany remains Bayer’s principal research location, with more than 5,800 R&D staff. We place special importance on the experience and the skills of all our employees. That is the only way to come up with innovations that take our customers forward and benefit us at the same time. Not only do numerous innovations from the inventor company Bayer help to enhance the quality of life – true to the slogan "Bayer: Science For A Better Life." Sustainability and environmental protection also have a central role to play. For example, modern materials from Bayer enable the auto industry to make lighter and better cars, and Bayer insulating materials help protect the environment by saving energy. And research never stops. The company’s scientists are constantly on the track of innovations to address future challenges. And it is this that defines the fascination of Bayer.
Equal opportunity
Equal opportunities for everyone – because diversity and success go hand in hand
As an inventor company Bayer lives off the ideas and experience of its employees. Creativity is fostered by diversity – of ideas, people and lifestyles. That’s why equality of opportunity for all employees is an integral aspect of our corporate culture, and of our Values and Leadership Principles. For us that means respecting and encouraging the ability, potential and personality of individuals – regardless of gender, age, faith, nationality, marital status and disabilities.
Equal opportunities for men and women
Our efforts in this area include promoting equal access to the company and increasing the number of women utilizing professional development opportunities. Our commitment is paying off: the proportion of women working for the company has risen steadily over the past ten years to almost 23 percent – and the upward trend is continuing. However, we would like to see more women opting for science and technology careers. One area of focus is therefore to encourage young women to develop an interest in these fields. At Bayer, equality of opportunity also means equal opportunities for career advancement. We have had considerable success in this field. Within ten years, the proportion of women in leadership functions has virtually doubled from 8 percent to around 15 percent. In 2006 Bayer was awarded the “Total E-Quality” accolade for the fourth time by an independent jury for its enormous commitment to equality. Awards like these show that our activities to promote equality are proving effective and strengthen our resolve to move forward along this road.
Employees with health problems
Equality of opportunity includes fostering the employment of severely disabled employees and those with health problems. Modern integration concepts take their interests into account and make sure they are given due consideration when we are looking to fill vacancies.
Family and career
Flexible worktime models are important to help employees find a balance between their work and their private lives. Bayer offers suitable solutions for almost any situation – from flextime through part-time employment to teleworking. Our childcare facilities and generous arrangements on time off to raise young children enable employees with children to benefit from professional opportunities.
Equality of opportunity and diversity are international issues
Equality of opportunity is a philosophy that extends beyond our German operations. We employ a large number of people around the world, so our activities to foster equal opportunities are as diverse as our employees. Naturally, they take account of local conditions and customs. At the same time, we have a clear cross-border focus, as demonstrated by the "Declaration on Diversity at Bayer", which was recently adopted by the Bayer European Forum, our platform to foster social dialogue between employee and employer representatives.
Pension
Your career has an impact on your life: ideally on your retirement as well through old age saving
You put a lot of effort in your career development and consequently the continuing success of your company. Therefore it is only fair if your efforts have a sustainable positive effect through your entire life. Bayer provides employees with a competitive occupational pension package which in combination with the other two pillars - social security and individual retirement saving - enables employees to improve their living standard in old age.
BayerPlus Pension Plan
Bayer provides employees in line with the BayerPlus pension scheme with a basic pension via the "Rheinische Pensionskasse" and a supplementary pension which are financed by employee and employer contributions. All employees are eligible for a basic pension. The supplementary pension is designed for employees with an income above the social security contribution ceiling that means for the income parts for which no state pension is paid. One-off payments and retirement saving/deferred compensation. Furthermore, employees are given the opportunity to participate in salary conversion via the Bayer initiatives "one-off payments and retirement saving" for employees covered under the collective agreement and "deferred compensation" for senior staff and managers. This enables employees to build up additional savings for retirement.
Individual Saving
Bayer also provides assistance regarding individual saving such as the provision of favorable building loans or DEGEF Bayer employee funds. Similarly, employees can acquire Bayer shares or take out a life assurance or a private pension policy under favorable conditions.
Other benefits
Effective support goes beyond career development
As well as extensive employment opportunities and sports and cultural activities, Bayer offers its employees a range of additional benefits.
Personal advisory services
All subgroups and service companies offer access to social and psychological advisory services to help employees facing personal, professional and financial difficulties.
Catering
Bayer also offers its employees a wide range of restaurants, providing varied and inexpensive meals and beverages.
Housing
Bayer’s subsidiary Gesellschaft für Wohnen und Gebäudemanagement mbH (GeWoGe) has over 70 years' experience of building family homes and apartments.
Owner-occupied property:
GeWoGe builds homes that really feel like home; its condominiums, terraced houses and apartments take account of individual requirements and purchasers can be sure they will obtain an attractive price when they put them on the market. Details of the properties currently for sale can be found on the GeWoGe homepage.
Rented housing:
GeWoGe relieves you of the time-consuming task of looking for suitable rented housing. You simply register details of your preferred type of housing, standard and location and you will be informed immediately of any suitable accomodation offers.
Hostels:
GeWoGe also arranges temporary furnished accommodation and rooms in hostels for trainees and interns.
Corporate history
Interested in how it all began? Then take a look at our history.
Our strengths
Our employees and our human resources policy are our key strengths
“We know that the skills, commitment and motivation of our employees are the keys to our corporate success. One of our main tasks is therefore to create tools that encourage these qualities, in other words, performance-based systems that promote initiative and reward achievement.” (Dr. Richard Pott, Labor Director and Member of Bayer’s Group Management Board) These principles have made Bayer a major international company. To build on our achievements, we have geared our human resources policy to present-day needs. Bayer deploys modern concepts to make sure that its human resources policy meets changing market requirements. New ways of working, new organizational structures, new technologies and new markets are catalysts for change. Established processes have to be reviewed and modified to reflect the company’s success and international competitiveness, or replaced by completely new methods geared to the future. Change management therefore plays a pivotal role in our activities. Our managers and employees actively shape and support change. The cornerstones of our everyday work are our management ethos, Responsible Care, flat hierarchical structures, constructive cooperation and value management. Those are the roots of our success.
