Principal: Empowering People to Drive Positive Change for the Future
Principal Asset Management | June 21, 2023
At Principal®, we are drawn to people who bring unique perspectives, passion, and expertise to help us advance the financial security and well-being of our customers, transform our growing business, and drive positive change in the communities where we live and work. As part of our collaborative culture, we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), shared values, and genuine support for every employee around the world. All our employees contribute to a thriving environment of authenticity, action, and accountability—which reverberates within our company and our communities.
Principal has a long-standing commitment to DEI. We added our first person of color to our Board of Directors almost 45 years ago, and one year later, we added the first female to our Board. Our longest-serving female Board member joined in 1992 and retired after 30 years of service in 2022. Today, 62% of our Board members are diverse in their gender, race, or national origin. Forty-six percent of management positions are filled by women, and 54% of our global workforce are women. People of color make up 16% of our U.S. workforce, a 50% growth rate over the last five years and slightly under industry benchmark.
Pay equity is central to our compensation practices and policies. We conduct an annual global pay audit to identify unexplained differences in pay between employees doing similar work in commensurate positions. To ensure that the findings are objective, a credible third-party conduct the audit. On a global level, our pay review and evaluation includes a gender pay gap assessment. In the U.S., where most of our employees are based, our pay review and evaluation includes both a gender and a racial pay gap assessment. While we do not currently disclose the specific results of our pay review and evaluation, we continue to be proud of our gender and racial pay equity performance, which support that our pay aligns with our stated non-discriminatory compensation philosophies.
To promote pay transparency, in 2022 we began posting the minimum and maximum salary ranges for all open positions in the U.S.—both internally and externally. We believe that disclosing the salary
range for all U.S.-based open positions is not only crucial to giving individuals more agency, especially women and people of color, but it is also a necessary step to reducing pay disparities, creating a fair application and recruitment process, and finding highly qualified candidates.
Our commitment to fair hiring practices goes beyond compliance with equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) regulations. We have initiatives that attract, retain, and promote women and other diverse employees. We are proud of our recruiting efforts; as of December 31, 2022:
Women at VP level and above comprise 36% in the U.S. and 32% globally
52% of our new hires were women in 2022
Women represent nearly 57% of our U.S. employees and 54% global employees
As a result of our current DEI efforts, Principal was recognized in 2022 for the following: one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity (Forbes); Women’s Choice Awards 2022 Best Companies to Work For in the categories of diversity, women, and millennials; and number four spot in the Diversity MBA Magazine release of the 50 Out Front: Best Places to Work for Women and Diverse Managers.
Principal Real Estate (the commercial real estate trade name of Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC, of Principal Asset ManagementSM) seeks to provide educational opportunities to continue attracting and retaining diverse candidates to commercial real estate. Principal Real Estate has given scholarships to 9 students for a total of $49,900 since its inception in 2020 and also offer the following to help us reach our CREW Network’s CRE Pledge for Action:
Girls Who Invest
Girls Who Invest (GWI) is an early-stage program, focused on college sophomores, to help attract women to careers in investments through education, mentoring, internships, and a supportive community. Principal Asset Management and Principal Real Estate began supporting this group in 2022 by hosting interns as part of the Girls Who Invest summer intensive program to help them explore a career in finance and investment.
Rotational Analyst
Principal Real Estate launched a new program for incoming analysts allowing them to rotate through all four quadrants of commercial real estate: private equity, private debt, public equity, and public debt. The analysts spend time developing their knowledge and skills in each of the areas, so they have a broader view of Pour real estate operations prior to starting their careers in any one of the areas. In accepting participants into this rotational program, we give diversity and inclusion a heavy weighting.
Women in Real Estate
To help attract, retain, and advance women in the organization, in 2016, Principal Real Estate established Women in Real Estate (WIRE). The mission of WIRE is to create development and networking opportunities that attract, develop, advance, and retain women, promote an inclusive and diverse organizational culture, and cultivate leadership in the global real estate investment management industry. The group hosts regular events focused on professional development topics such as public speaking and career path development as well as networking, skill building, and service opportunities. Additionally, WIRE offers a formal mentoring program each year that provides participants the opportunity to learn from senior members of Principal Real Estate.
Principal Employees as Members of CREW Iowa
Principal Real Estate supports both the Iowa chapter of CREW as a sponsor and employees’ membership expenses for involvement in the organization. 80% of Principal Real Estate’s CREW Iowa members are active on the CREW Iowa Board or committees.
Eight Principal Real Estate employees are on the CREW Iowa Education and Outreach committee, which seeks to expose the next generation to the wide variety of career opportunities in commercial real estate, with the ultimate goal of fostering an environment in which women and diverse individuals are better represented in the next generation of Central Iowa commercial real estate professionals. This includes programs such as UCREW (a day-long conference for college students, consisting of career roundtables, property tours, and networking) and high school field trips (shortened versions of UCREW offering a broader introduction to commercial real estate careers), among other events. Principal Real Estate’s interns attend UCREW each year to gain broader exposure to commercial real estate and expand their professional networks.