Principal Financial Group®: Leadership and Development
Encouraging professional growth and developlment for our employees
Originally published in Principal Financial Group 2024 Sustainability Report
Leadership and development
We encourage employees to expand their knowledge, build new skills, and continuously develop by providing a variety of opportunities that best suit their needs. This includes formal development opportunities, experiential and on-the-go education, and professional relationship building.
Our approach
We offer employees a wide array of development opportunities including new hire onboarding and ongoing role-specific training that includes asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities, simulation and role-play, videos, and e-learning courses.
New leaders in the U.S. experience 20 hours of onboarding related to being an effective and inclusive leader, and we offer numerous ways for leaders to continue to refine their leadership skills over the course of their career.
Employees can engage in learning within a broad range of topics, such as growing technical skills, enabling high-performing teams, and building inclusion and career development capabilities. Employees have access to sessions focused on life skills through our EAP provider.
Short-term growth assignments are also available to learn and apply skills outside their formal role. Additional opportunities exist for role rotations, job shadowing, mentoring, and pursuing further education or skills training.
We also offer a collegiate internship program and a variety of rotational programs for recent graduates.
Leaders provide feedback to employees and engage them in reflection and development planning annually. We promote a culture that encourages employees to reflect on their performance, provide feedback to their peers, and share development recommendations to their managers.
Learn more on our careers site
Our actions and performance in 2024
Progress on our goals
We continue to find ways to expand access to and engagement in the core development programs we offer.
By the end of 2025, we aim to:
- Increase overall employee participation in core enterprise learning and development programs by 15%.
- Capture and centrally manage engagement data for 100% of our core enterprise learning and development programs in a common location, positioning us to better analyze key business outcomes based on our findings.
- Make 50% of core enterprise learning and development programming available in Spanish.
- Cross-train facilitators on 50% of core enterprise learning and development programming.
In 2024, we made significant progress toward these goals.
- 75% of core programming is available in Spanish (exceeding our goal of 50%).
- We attained our goal of cross-training facilitators on 50% of our core programming.
- We’ve made progress on our goal surrounding learning data. One hundred percent of our core program engagement data is captured, and we’re on track to have the data centrally managed by the end of 2025.
- We’re below target for our participation goal in core programming. Participation across all programs decreased an average of 23% in 2024.
We are continuing to market our programs and align them with business and employee priorities to help increase participation in these programs. Additionally, as we enhance our engagement tracking capabilities, we will also refine our targets to ensure they are aligned with the realities of our business and employee needs.
Learning and growth opportunities
In 2024, our employees participated in 92,924 hours of voluntary learning and development, which is equal to about 4.7 hours per employee. Leaders specifically engaged in 13,382 hours of voluntary learning and development in 2024.
In 2024, approximately 162 employees participated in our educational assistance program that offers employees financial assistance with their job-related educational pursuits. In 2024, this totaled over $993,799 in investment by the organization.
We hired 219 interns in 2024 and continued our focus on early and mid-level career opportunities. Our conversion rate for interns to full-time roles was 69%.1
- 13,382: hours leaders spent in voluntary learning and development in 2024
We have partnerships with a wide range of organizations, including Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG), Girls Who Invest, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, the Organization of Latino Actuaries (OLA), the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), and the International Association of Black Actuaries. These partnerships help us build relationships and educate potential job candidates on the career opportunities available at Principal®.
In 2024, we also piloted a 12-month immersive apprentice program for early career roles, broadening our talent investment among individuals without four-year degrees or experience in financial services. We’re excited by the first few months of the program and look forward to sharing the outcomes after the first cohort completes the program.
In 2024, 96.1% of global employees received a rating as part of an annual performance review process which allows employees and their leaders to reflect on the prior year’s performance, and setting goals for the year ahead.
What’s next
In 2025, our plans include:
- Investing in strategic upskilling of employees in the areas of data and AI literacy
- Implementing new programming to support talent readiness and succession planning health
- Evolving our learning technology and data platforms to improve employee experience and drive better insights into measuring the impact of learning on business results
- Increasing the visibility, accessibility, and global reach of learning programming
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.
1Based on full-time eligibility and offers extended and accepted
