employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Principal Financial Group

Engaged employer

Mediocre management undermines talented employees' potential - Associate Manager Principal Financial Group Employee Review

1.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good company, great values, excellent customer centricity, strong financials.

Cons

Employees who are great actors and know manager ego massage techniques have a long career here. Employees who are smart intelligent qualified and add value have a short life. In short mediocre minds are promoted and smart minds are made to work for mediocreticity minds. The management only collects reports, god knows what they do with so many reports. I feel it's not a insurance company but a report making company. The managers seeking these reports hardly understand or read the reports. Once I was frustrated and ended up giving a totally wrong report, I was appreciated for sending the report ! They have a IT team they say. I have never seen the team making any tool. I think the IT team is just on paper. Few leaders started excellent initiatives which have extreme potential but the managers with lesser minds filled these initiatives with garbage only to score numbers. The senior managers are so dumb with mathematics they are incapable even to fudge data. I wonder how the top management agrees to such dumb reports. Promotions are made on face value and not on actual value that have been added because there is no measurement of actual value. The definition of leadership is so lame that even a class monitor will seem a better leader.

Explore other reviews about Principal Financial Group

5.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good FTO policy good opportunity for career development flexible work arrangements

Cons

health insurance sucks - United annual reviews- everything's made up and the points don't matter more and more pressure to be in-office despite team members being remote

avatar
Principal Financial Group Response
5d
Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. Your input is valuable as we work to improve as an employer.
2.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent work life balance and benefits. Principal offers a pension which is unheard of in today’s age.

Cons

Pay is below average and Principal does not offer inflation raises. Once you hit the midpoint of your salary, you will get a 0% raise until you’re promoted, which will take multiple years regardless of performance. Performance reviews are vague and often used against employees to avoid promotions. At least in my department, I’ve yet to see any of the remote workers be promoted. This is starting to affect attrition and we’re already starting to see people leaving. It’s well known at this point that the best way to get promoted is to leave Principal and get rehired, which even leadership has stated publicly. This is a huge frustration and blow to morale, as it starts to feel like employees need to compete against their co-workers for raises.

1
avatar
Principal Financial Group Response
2w
We appreciate you sharing your feedback. As a leader in retirement solutions and employee benefits, we strive to provide our employees with a competitive benefits package. Our global pay philosophy is guided by market-driven principles. and we leverage third-party market data to ensure our base salary and incentives remain appropriately competitive.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All