Principal Financial Group®: Employee Engagement

Originally published in Principal Financial Group 2024 Sustainability Report

Engaging our employees

Attracting and retaining talent

Our employees are our most valued asset. We take a comprehensive approach to attracting top talent and prioritize the health and wellness of our employees.

Our approach

To deliver on our purpose, we must equip our teams with the best talent in the market. We do this by actively engaging with top candidates, providing strong opportunities for development and growth, and enhancing our employment brand to attract top talent, particularly in priority hiring areas.

We are dedicated to bringing out the best in our employees by investing in what matters most to them. This approach enables us to proactively engage and retain a high performing workforce at Principal. Our employee value proposition emphasizes the key elements that matter most to our employees, including a flexible approach to work-life balance, opportunities for development and growth, and a deep sense of connection to our purpose.

Learn more about our careers at Principal®

Attracting the right talent

We believe every candidate deserves an equal opportunity to be considered for their desired position, and we are committed to providing a fair interview process that selects the best-fit candidate. We achieve this by training interviewers to mitigate bias and use a consistent set of questions for all candidates, ensuring a fair and unbiased interview experience.

Our actions and performance in 2024

Talent attraction

In 2024, we launched a revamped career site to provide prospective employees with an easier and more engaging way to explore life at Principal, showcasing our employer brand and values. Additionally, we focused on enhancing our Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and refining our employment brand to attract top talent, particularly in technology and sales, through targeted campaigns highlighting our culture, values, and growth opportunities.

To enhance our hiring experience, we provided comprehensive training for leaders equipping them with skills to evaluate candidates based on key competencies. To streamline hiring, we adopted texting for scheduling interviews and introduced self-scheduling tools, enhancing efficiency and candidate experience. We also introduced candidate surveys to gather feedback from both hired and non-hired applicants, helping us improve the talent acquisition process.

Employee Engagement Index

Our Engagement Index measures employee satisfaction across our global workforce. In 2024, our engagement index had a score of 77%, shy of our goal of 79% with an increased response rate of 86% from 85% in 2023. Our score indicates that across the questions that make up our Engagement Index, there were 77% positive responses. We assess the results in a variety of ways to ensure we are creating a work environment for employees to thrive and a consistent employee experience that aligns with our employee value proposition and core values.

Engagement Index (%)
(2020-2024)

• 2020: 83%
• 2021: 79%
• 2022: 78%
• 2023: 79%
• 2024: 77%

In 2024 both our female and male employee base had 77% engagement, which is consistent with results in prior years. Our goal remains to reach an Engagement Index of 79% in 2025.

In 2024 in the U.S., our engagement index score for employees of color was 77% and 75% for white employees. This is the second consecutive year that POC engagement index results have been greater than or equal to their white counterparts. POC response rates have continued to increase from 57% in 2021 to 78% in 2024.

When setting our annual goals, we take into careful consideration our historical engagement performance data, as well as internal and external trends we’ve observed over the past several years to inform our future goal. We also collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure our goals align with other enterprise and business level goals.

Engagement and retention

As we respond to the challenging talent landscape, we continue to use employee and leader exit survey insights to guide retention tactics and inform decisions around talent planning, employee value proposition activation, and employee experience. Since the global exit survey was launched in 2022, we’ve been able to positively impact the engagement and retention of our workforce through various initiatives.

We continue to invest in programs that have measurable impacts on engagement and employee retention like our global mentoring program. The mentoring program is open to all employees and helps individuals achieve outcomes like expanding their network, building leadership skills, and improving business acumen. Collectively, since we began measuring in 2021, this program has resulted in a 47% improvement in retention for mentoring participants compared to non-participants. We also invest in critical talent development for select employees. Our enterprise high potential talent program, for example, shows a 92% overall retention rate for participants since 2021.

In February 2024, we conducted a comprehensive worksite employee experience survey at our world headquarters. The valuable feedback gathered has given us a clear understanding of how we can further enhance the in-office experience. Our goal is to ensure that employees benefit from purposeful design, innovative solutions, top-notch food services, and seamless technology across the workplace. With these new insights we are excited to make targeted improvements that will elevate the employee experience in 2025 and beyond.

In April 2024, we launched a streamlined and automated onboarding process across the U.S., India, and the Philippines, significantly enhancing the global onboarding experience. By centralizing onboarding tasks and introducing an engaging interface, the new process has simplified navigation and delivered a seamless onboarding experience for both new hires and their leaders. As a result, we have seen notable cost savings, driven by improved time efficiencies for new hires, internal teams, and leaders globally.

Overall, between 2023 and 2024, our global turnover remained at 17% and increased slightly from 10% to 11% in the U.S.

For a full tenure breakdown see the appendix

What’s next

As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to continue enhancing the employee experience by making thoughtful improvements to both our digital and physical workplace environments. Based on valuable feedback from our 2024 worksite employee experience survey, we’ve already taken steps to elevate our onsite dining offerings. Starting in January, a new service provider will bring a wider variety, better quality, and competitive pricing to our menus, alongside exciting employee engagement initiatives such as pop-ups and chef’s table events throughout the year.

Our efforts to improve the physical workspace, combined with upgrades to digital interactions, are designed to foster a more collaborative, welcoming, and efficient workplace. These changes will not only streamline daily tasks but also enhance engagement, productivity, and overall satisfaction, driving positive outcomes for both our employees and the organization as a whole.

To learn more, read the Principal Financial Group 2024 Sustainability Report.

Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Company®. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Principal Securities, Inc., member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Referenced companies are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.

20887-092025