Principal Financial Reviews

Pros

* good work/life balance
* onsite fitness center - at the corporate headquarters
* great people to work with
* flat organizational structure gives lots of opportunity for decision making

Cons

* compensation is mediocre
* elimination of some benefits and salary cuts have made PFG a less attractive employer
* technical training is largely a thing of the past
* limited advancement for technical staff without switching to management

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up! Principal is no longer viewed as a safe company to work for and you aren't giving your good employees enough reasons to stay. Non-monetary benefits will only go so far.

Pros

Decent benefits package, Prinpay (bonus), workout facilities, free parking, on-site child care

Cons

Job stagnation, be careful where you get hired, make sure you have somewhere to move up to

Advice to Senior Management

Keep in touch with your employees, don't take them for granted

Pros

They seem to actually care about the employees

Cons

There is very little opportunity for advancement.

Pros

Great perks and benefits, encouraged work/life balance, many opportunities for professional development (but not necessarily promotion). This is an ethical company, and executive leadership makes employees feel valued.

Cons

Field employees are detached, lose out on a lot of the perks, and have very limited opportunity for advancement. As with any large corporation, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle and things tend to move slowly. Pay is low compared with similar companies. Technology and equipment is not up to date.

Pros

Principal is a very conservative and ethical company

Cons

I was downsized because Principal exited the Medical Market, along with about 1500 other employees.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe we should have stayed in the medical business for at least another year. It was a bad idea to be the first carrier to exit the business because of Obama care.

Pros

The benefits are among the best I've seen. Product line up was good and getting better.

Cons

Found HR to simply be a tool of management and not responsive to employee needs. In my personal case, management re-wrote an annual review to better serve their needs. I brought this along with evidence in the form of e-mails and other dated and signed documents to HR, but could not get a return call. I understand that I work in an "at will" state and can be let go for any reason, but was sad to see the lengths that management went to to fabricate situations and re-write history to make their case. That is not the way that you treat any employee, much less a top producer in your division.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Make sure that HR looks out for the employee's rights 2. Lying and fabrication of stories should not be tolerated in any employee.

Pros

Work/life balance is great
Flexible work weeks
Telecommuniting
Benefits are good

Cons

Low pay for level of work expected
Little to no recognition for above average work
Promotions not a all based on job requirements, but on time in company, not time in the discipline.
IT department is very unorganized and does not follow procedures.
Organizational structure is constantaly changing.

Advice to Senior Management

Start looking at your job requiremets and look at the peoples experience and then consider promotions.

Pros

Flexible work schedules for non call center employees.

Flat organizational structure in IT gives everyone a voice.

Benefits have been recently cut but would still rate them as slightly above average.

The people you work with are generally smart, nice, and fun to work with.

On site fitness centers.

Cons

Flat organizational structure in IT limits advancement opportunities at a point just below management level. At that point, your career becomes a job.

Heavy process in some IT units limits productivity. In some areas a lot of red tape needs to be cut to get things done. There are priority committees for the priority committees that then need to talk to priority committees at the organization level.

Salary is below average in the Des Moines market. Company tries to make up for it wih flexible schedules and offerring a good work/life balance . However, if you spend your time working on dashboard projects you may find it hard to maintain a work/life blance.

Advice to Senior Management

People who make extraordinary efforts to implement projects on dates arbitrarily set by management need to be rewarded beyond their base compensation. When people are working 60, 70, 80, and even 90 hours works weeks for 6 weeks to implement urgently needed solutions, the reward needs to be more than a pat on the back.

Pros

Benefits are good
Flexibility is great
Encourage you to volunteer in your community

Cons

Salary and merits are low compared to other companies
Management experience

Advice to Senior Management

Consider the employees making less than 40K before putting more money into the pockets of the wealthy employed at PFG.

Pros

If you get in the right area of the company, there are wonderful leaders and senior management that truly care and reward you for what you give. Not the IT area IMO. Very difficult to get anything accomplished or done, lack of organization, no follow through.

Cons

They used to hold my respect. They don't any more. When they switched from a Mutal Company to a Stock Company they stopped caring about employee and only care about their stock price.

Advice to Senior Management

Care about your employees again. A lot of good employees are going to be lost as other companies WILL take them, pay them, and reward them. Hopefully you see this and correct it before it impacts the service to our customers!