Forward thinking, forward moving
Being Progressive means moving forward, promoting change, and constantly improving. We live up to our name, not just by being an innovator, but by embracing our different backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and ways of thinking.
We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues and all communities of color.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are fundamental to our core values and to an environment where all people can bring their authentic selves to work and feel safe, welcomed, valued and respected. We actively encourage employees to discuss critical issues such as racism through Employee Resource Groups and other forums, which you can learn more about on this site.
This June, we donated $1M through our foundation to the Equal Justice Initiative in support of the organization’s goals to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment and racial injustice. We know our words and actions aren’t enough to bring about broader change, so we are working to help enact change at a higher level through my involvement with the Business Roundtable and as a member of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion. We know that much work lies ahead in our communities. We must and will do more.
Tricia Griffith
President & Chief Executive Officer
We're driven to always do better—for our customers, agents, and each other—while staying true to who we are.
Our culture is rooted in our Core Values. These values aren’t just words on a poster – they guide our decisions and define how we treat our customers and each other. Read more about our Core Values.
Our unique backgrounds and viewpoints mean we naturally have differing opinions. We see this as a good thing and have created programs to provoke substantive conversations. Our Courage at Our Core and Dare to Disagree workshops, as well as our internal Diversity and Inclusion Speakers Bureau, demonstrate our commitment to an open environment where we not only encourage, but we expect our people to share their opinions and perspectives. Our Employee Resource Groups also host Courageous Conversations allowing us to tackle conversations related to bias, social injustice and microinequities.
We go beyond simply providing unconscious bias training. We’re focused on intercultural competence, meaningful discussions around bias, developing our skills as allies, and creating a community where employees and customers feel welcomed, valued and respected.
Over the last few years, we were honored to receive many awards for being a company that values diversity and inclusion:
Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a key part in leveraging our differences to support an inclusive culture and provide insight into our customers. ERGs act as a resource for employees, providing personal and professional support, and a resource for our business.
Employees who participate in an ERG are more engaged, more likely to apply for a promotion, and more likely to stay with Progressive.
To serve our 20+ million customers, we must understand them. We seek to be diverse in our demographics, our experiences, and our thinking.
As Progressive people continue to advance their careers at the company, we expect that our entire workforce will reflect the communities, backgrounds, and experiences of our customers.
In 2019, we hired more than 8,400 people and promoted more than 800 new managers. The growth in our business has created tremendous opportunity for advancement and more than one-third of Progressive people moved into a new position last year. Promotion from within isn't new to us, it's part of the fabric of our culture. Last year alone, we filled more than 80% of our jobs above the entry level by promoting our own talent.
As we continue to develop and promote our own, we'll continue to make progress diversifying our leadership. We recognize this as an opportunity and we're investing in development programs and on-the-job experiences to accelerate our progress.
One very successful example of these efforts is our Multicultural Leadership Development Program. More than 60% of graduates of this 18-month program have been promoted into new positions and are advancing their Progressive careers.
Our commitment to pay equity is straightforward—we demand it of ourselves. We’re proud to report that for Progressive employees with similar performance, experience, and job responsibilities, women earn one dollar for every dollar earned by men, and people of color earn one dollar for every dollar earned by their white coworkers.*
We recognize that our commitment to pay equity requires our constant attention and we take regular steps to ensure that our people’s compensation reflects their performance, experience, and job responsibilities, and nothing else. We’ll report our pay equity measures annually.
*In evaluating pay equity companywide, we use a regression model that considers the following components of compensation: annual salary, bonus (Gainsharing) and stock awards. These are point-in-time measures (as of January 2020) that include all Progressive employees other than our CEO and the C-level executives whose compensation is approved by the Board’s Compensation Committee. For information on executive compensation, please refer to our proxy statement.
What being Progressive means to us, is not just being an innovator, but embracing our different backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and ways of thinking. We encourage our employees to bring their whole selves to work, and through this idea our company flourishes.
When it comes to diversity and inclusion, Progressive already has an infrastructure in place and I’m honored to contribute to it.
JamieBoth in and out of work, you could consider Jamie an experienced coach. In her personal life, she's currently training for her first half-ironman after tackling many shorter-distance races. At Progressive, she puts her coaching skills to work by using her diverse perspectives to help others get comfortable with their unique viewpoints and identities. What does that mean?
When Tracey started her career as a high-achieving young graduate, she never expected she'd be told in her first job interview with another company, “We don't hire people like you.” That's when she realized she wanted to work for a company that shared her values of diversity and inclusion—a workplace that not only made her feel safe, but made her feel welcomed.
If you ask Kalisha about her passions, she'll tell you it's always been about helping people. A 21-year Progressive employee, Kalisha led our Progressive African American Network and helped encourage dialogue around differences:
“We developed a program called Courageous Conversations, which provides an opportunity to openly talk about biases and how they impact us and our work.”
Trevan doesn't have many strict rules in his home. But, there is one: “You have to backpack the Grand Canyon before you're 10,” says the HR consultant who's been with the company for 20 years. With four kids—Cayden, Chase, Cassady, and Kayla—Trevan and his wife Mandy have become a whole crew of explorers.
One thing is certain: Hilda doesn't sit still or settle. At a young age, she watched as family members ran their own businesses in her home country of Guatemala. That entrepreneurial spirit was instilled in her and is one reason she is constantly looking to grow, learn, and share with others.
Progressive was supposed to be just a job for Susan. She has a background in rehabilitation psychology, but decided to give Progressive a try while searching for a job in her field.
That was 16 years ago. Susan fell in love with the company and the culture. She eventually earned her MBA while working full-time with the support and flexibility of her managers.
Ham loves to share his favorite phrase: “If you're not intentionally including, you could be unintentionally excluding.” He applies this adage to his work and his personal life.
When Lance thinks back on what he learned growing up, one phrase sticks out: “It’s always about doing the right things for the right reasons.” It’s a phrase Lance carries into everything he does, whether that’s making an impact as a Diversity & Inclusion/ERG specialist or adopting his new puppy, Buddy, who was rescued from a Florida hurricane.
Charan will never forget the day he moved to Cleveland to start a new life in Ohio and a new job at Progressive. “It was December 2004,” he said. “When we left Dallas, it was sunny and 65 degrees. And then, two and a half hours later … I haven’t seen that much snow, ever.”
We all have passions we’d like to pursue outside of work, but busy schedules often get in the way. For Maureen, a founding board member of Progressive’s Network of Empowered Women (NEW), she couldn’t find time for her love of art. So, she brought art to the office.
