We're called Progressive for a reason. We're true to our name because we're always moving forward and improving how we serve our customers, employees, and the community. Like at many companies, the concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) started out to help us learn how to appreciate our differences and work better, together. And now, 15 years later, it's at the foundation of our workplace.
Because we're not only true to our name, Progressive. We're true to you, our people.
true words
A Message from our CEO
Diversity, equity & inclusion goes beyond good business
For years, we've been saying there's a very real and important business case for DEI. It's been proven time and time again that a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization drives profit and productivity by creating brands, products, and services that are more relevant and desirable in our competitive and multicultural marketplace.
While still an important reason, that explanation feels incomplete. Because DEI, first and foremost, is about people. It's about you and me and who we are. It's about our backgrounds and cultures, our personal identities, our life experiences, and our perspectives. And it's about finally getting rid of the destructive “isms” and “phobias” in the world around us that keep us from living our best lives and flourishing together.
Yes, of course, the business case for DEI is important, but it's not just a business case. It's a human imperative.
That's why...
we're committed to a diverse workplace where there's fair and equal access to learning and career opportunities, and where everyone feels comfortable introducing new ideas and different points of view. Being able to speak up, debate important issues, and find common ground and creative solutions is key to our success.
That's why…
we work hard to create an environment where our employees and all people feel safe, valued, and respected. With so many acts of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia in our communities, this is more important than ever. We stand in solidarity with communities of color, the LGBTQ community, and other marginalized groups, and we encourage our people to discuss these all-too-prevalent issues with our leadership team, one another, and our Employee Resource Groups.
And that's why...
we believe our nation is strongest when everyone has a voice and a vote, and when we're all treated fairly and equally under the law. We encourage and enable our people to exercise their right to cast a ballot. And we stand against efforts to prevent any person from fully participating in our democracy.
Strong words need to be backed by real action and our company takes pride in what we've done to create one of the most highly recognized corporate cultures for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we're taking this even further through my personal involvement in the Business Roundtable and as a member of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion.
Tricia Griffith
President & Chief Executive Officer
true calling
Our Culture
We love that our name, Progressive, means forward-thinking and forward-motion
It keeps us looking for what's new and next to better serve our customers and work with each other. To maintain this level of energy and engagement, we strive for diversity in our teams, equity in our practices, and inclusion in our culture. For sure, diversity, equity, and inclusion may feel like ambitious words, but for us, DEI means we make sure all voices are heard, act with kindness, invest in relationships, and make intentional changes to get better at what we do every day.
These are the true words that form our inclusive behaviors and create a culture of connection. And this is essential to our Core Values and why we're here…to be true to our name, Progressive, and true to our people.
A culture of inclusion makes it easier for us to speak up when we have new and different ideas or question and disagree about things that don't feel right. To encourage this, we have companywide Courageous Conversations and Dare to Disagree programs and a DEI Speakers Bureau, where presenters and facilitators lead work teams in discussions around biases, stereotypes, and the development of inclusive behaviors.
Last year, we hosted over 700 Speakers Bureau and Courageous Conversations sessions across the country. Candid discussions like those at Speakers Bureau events are commonplace at Progressive and reinforce our commitment to an open environment where we not only encourage but expect our people to share their opinions and perspectives.
Although most of us were dispersed in home offices during 2021, we came together as a company in ways many of us couldn't have imagined. We experienced a record turnout for our popular annual Inclusion Week—its focus for 2021 being allyship—and we saw continued growth across our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
Inclusion Week at Progressive
In 2019 we began hosting an annual weeklong event focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, where employees can attend webinars and panel discussions, take part in group activities, listen to podcasts featuring Progressive employees, and more.
true connections
Our Employee Resource Groups
We're committed to creating an environment where our people feel welcomed, valued, and respected
Progressive employees explain ERGs in their own words
It is made by groups of people in order to bring awareness about certain cultures, certain elements of society that they want to talk about.
Megan:
It’s an opportunity for people that may not identify with that particular group to then learn about it.
Angela:
The coolest part about an ERG is you don’t have to belong to the demographic to attend an event or to be part of the ERG.
Brett:
What do the ERGs have to offer?
Bronte:
You can learn about challenges that those groups face, you can learn, um, how to be an ally to support those groups and actually what those groups are doing for their individual communities.
Megan:
I gained a lot of mentors throughout my career from being a part of ERGs which is actually how I landed my last job.
Angela
You know, you’re new to the company, you don’t really know what to expect. You start off just attending events. The more active that I became, and like, the more, like, roles I wanted to take on, the more responsibility in the ERGs, the more engaged and connected I felt to not only my day job, but, like, to Progressive, like this is such an integral part of why I’m still here.
Javier:
You have a safe place to belong. You’re able to bring your whole self to work and belonging to an ERG gives you the opportunity to just be yourself.
Brett:
Every ERG event I’ve ever been to, I’ve learned something new. It’s just, you’re really able to interact and engage with people just on a whole other level and really take away something that really made me a better person.
Everyone's voice matters when creating an inclusive workplace, and ERGs are a great place to be heard. They enable us to build community, raise awareness, and promote positive change. Our ERGs also act as a valuable resource for our business by providing first-hand knowledge and information about our customers and the marketplace.
Currently, we offer nine focused ERGs, each welcoming all employees.
Asian American Network (AANET)
Disabilities Awareness Network (DAWN)
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Plus (LGBT+)
Military Network (MILNET)
Network for Empowering Women (NEW)
Parent Connection
Progressive African American Network (PAAN)
Progressive Latin American Networking Association (PLANetA)
Young Professionals Network (YPNet)
Since their inception, Progressive ERGs have grown in both influence and size. While our Progressive population grew 18% over the past two years, overall membership of Progressive ERGs grew 28%, an impressive 42% of Progressive people belong to at least one ERG today. We believe our ERGs and our outsized participation rates compared to benchmarks (Diversity Inc's Top 50) are a significant contributing factor to several people metrics at Progressive. In fact, our data demonstrates that:
Our ERG members are more engaged
They're more likely to stay at Progressive
They're more likely to apply for promotions
Our ERGs are also committed to our communities, and each year they choose to focus on an organization that they believe can help the world around us. These included national organizations like The Arc, Together We Rise, CenterLink, and Family Promise.
truth in numbers
Our Progress
Our commitment to diversity is paired with real, measurable progress
Our words are genuine and true, but as a culture beating to an analytical heart, we feel strongly that our passion should translate into measurable performance. We look to four primary DEI objectives to evaluate our success.
We maintain a fair and inclusive work environment. At Progressive, we're committed to creating an environment where our people feel welcomed, valued, and respected.
We reflect the customers we serve. To serve our customers, we must understand them. We seek to be diverse in our employee demographics, experiences, and perspectives.
Our leadership reflects the people they lead. Our goal is for our leaders to represent the people they lead, and we aspire to double the representation of people of color in senior leadership by the end of 2025.
We contribute to our communities. We'll use Progressive's resources to support meaningful change in pursuit of equality.
We're serious about these goals and have been proud of our progress. After almost five years of significant growth and hiring, the gender and racial demographics of our workforce are closely aligned with the U.S. adult population. There's obviously more to diversity than just gender and race but these are the two demographic factors that we currently measure for all Progressive people.
Women in the U.S. vs. at Progressive (as of Dec. 2021)
U.S. populationProgressive employees
Women in the U.S. vs. at Progressive
U.S. population
Progressive employees
52%
57%
People of color in the U.S. vs. at Progressive (as of Dec. 2021)
U.S. populationProgressive employees
People of color in the U.S. vs. at Progressive
U.S. population
Progressive employees
38%
37%
From this, we can focus on the recruiting and development efforts that have proven to be most successful over the past few years.
Employee representation by race & ethnicity (as of Dec. 2021)
U.S. population percentageProgressive employees percentage
Race & ethnicity
U.S. population percentage
Progressive employees percentage
White
62
63
Black
12
19
LatinX
17
12
Asian
6
3
Other
3
3
Each year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requires us to submit an EEO-1 Report. While we don't use this report to measure progress, we're making our current report publicly available.
We believe that engagement begins when our people rise into leadership roles and inspire others to lead, and our talent management and acquisition processes remove any barriers to increasing the representation of women and people of color in management.
Representation of women in leadership (as of Dec. 2021)
U.S. populationProgressive leadership
Representation of women in leadership
U.S. population
Progressive leadership
52%
47%
Representation of people of color in leadership (as of Dec. 2021)
U.S. populationProgressive leadership
Representation of people of color in leadership
U.S. population
Progressive leadership
38%
23%
To focus our efforts in 2020, we introduced an ambitious goal to double the representation of people of color in senior leadership from 10% to 20% by the end of 2025. During 2021, we increased this senior leadership representation from 13% to 16%, more than halfway to our goal.
We don't just strive for demographic representation. We expect our leaders to respect and value our people and appreciate new perspectives and ways of thinking. We address this through rigorous attention to leadership competencies, our DEI objectives, and inclusive leadership training.
Progressive understands that engagement and retention depend not only on inclusive leadership and job satisfaction, but on our people knowing that there's room to grow in their careers.
EQUAL PAY
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 co-workers.*
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, 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 (Gainshare) and stock awards. These are point-in-time measures (as of February 2022) that include all Progressive employees other than our CEO and C-level executives, whose compensation is approved by the Board's Compensation Committee. For information on executive compensation, please refer to our Proxy Statement.
true opportunity
Our Focus on Learning
We foster new opportunities so our employees can grow their careers right here
National trends show that lack of opportunity is a top reason why employees leave their employers. We take these trends seriously, and our numbers prove it. Last year, we filled approximately 72% of our open positions above entry level by promoting from within, including just over 2,000 managerial positions.
To increase job learning and opportunity, we launched a bold new career advancement channel for sought-after technology and analytical jobs called the Progressive Boot Camp. In 2021, we held an IT Programmer Boot Camp and an Analyst Boot Camp, which included rigorous in-class and on-the-job training programs. We're deliberate in encouraging participation by women and people of color—two demographic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in these jobs. We consider these boot camps to be a key component of our DEI efforts and it has been extremely satisfying to see successful candidates take on new roles and move into rewarding new career paths.
Another DEI-focused learning opportunity that has been successful for Progressive and our people is our Multicultural Leadership Development Program (MLDP), which we've been offering since 2014. Since then, participation has nearly tripled and MLDP graduates are nearly two times more likely to advance in their careers versus their peers. There are now three different programs—one for managers and two designed to accelerate the careers of aspiring leaders.
And we must be doing something right to keep people here. As of December 2021, over 15,000 employees, nearly a third of our workforce, have over ten years of tenure with Progressive. We believe this continues to pay dividends with their institutional knowledge of our product and stewardship of our culture.
true to our word
Our Success
We know that our investments in our people and culture drive our business results
But it's always nice to receive recognition from professional organizations across the country, including the following:
2022 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®**
2022 Forbes Best Employers for Diversity
Gallup® 2022 Exceptional Workplace Award
NACD Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award
Best Workplaces for Parents: Great Place to Work (2021)
Best Workplaces for Women: Great Place to Work (2021)
Military Friendly Company (2022)
Military Times Best for Vets (2021)
Best of the Best: Black EOE Journal (2022)
Best of the Best: Hispanic Network Magazine (2022)
Best of the Best: Professional Women's Magazine (2022)
Best of the Best: Top Veteran-Friendly Companies (2022)
For us, Progressive means always striving to do better. And when we make equal opportunity, mutual respect, and an appreciation for new and different ideas an intuitive part of how we work and live, we believe that we're not only making a better company, we're creating a better world.
living our truth
Our People
We encourage our employees to bring their whole selves to work by creating a welcoming environment
Warren
WarrenAssociate Manager, Claims Administration Support, 7 years at Progressive
In his six years at Progressive, Warren has found that his coworkers are some of his biggest supporters, both on and off the stage. Warren, who performs as Aurora Thunder, said he first started doing drag when he played dress-up as a kid. It wasn't until he got a little help from YouTube, a college fashion show, and his sister, that he truly began to see himself as a drag queen.
Now he performs in the Cleveland area, creating intricate and inspiring performances, often with his coworkers supporting him in the audience. "Art can be a human being in motion," he said, "and my goal is to spark an emotion with the audience."
Manishi
ManishiProduct Manager, 20 years at Progressive
Whether it's at Progressive or in a meditation class, Manishi is committed to doing meaningful work and finding balance. He shares his approach with others by teaching meditation and happiness workshops locally and for his Progressive coworkers — even virtually.
Manishi's favorite thing about teaching is seeing how his students transform. "When your mind is strong, it's easier to deal with life's challenges."
Marcia
MarciaSubrogation Specialist, 14 years at Progressive
A role model for women at work and online, Marcia started an inspirational blog years ago to document her life and share her journey. She posts on everything from self-discovery to fashion and beauty tips.
By sharing her story, Marcia has become so much more than a fresh voice; she's also a role model to women of all ages. Her posts radiate positivity and give us a lesson in what it means to be confident. "If you're looking to be inspired," Marcia says, "let the journey begin!"
Ann
AnnIT Systems Engineer Consultant, 22 years at Progressive
Managing Progressive's IT servers and training guide dogs takes work, dedication, and a passion for what you do; Ann does both every day. Before the pandemic, her seventh service dog, Wish, went everywhere with her from libraries to nursing homes and even her Progressive workspace.
Ann's commitment to these dogs and their training started eight years ago when she saw an ad in the paper for dogs in need of seeing-eye training. An animal lover with an interest in helping others, Ann knew she had to jump at the opportunity. "I love a good challenge," Ann said, "whether it's working in a new mobile platform or teaching a pup to cross the street for someone."
Michael
MichaelData Analyst, 3 years at Progressive
Many Progressive employees remember Michael from behind the coffee bar because it was only a couple years ago that he was serving up lattes at the Campus 2 café. Turns out, whipping up delicious drinks isn't the only skill Michael brings to the table.
In fact, he mentioned to a café customer one day that he was getting a degree in information technology. She told him they were hiring summer interns and encouraged Michael to apply. He received great advice from his customers on how to excel in his interview, and now he's a systems analyst with Progressive.
These days, Michael is building a new data center with project teams, validating applications and servers, and meeting with subject matter experts across the company. "I've always loved talking to people. This time, it really paid off."
Eliani
ElianiPhoto Estimator, 4 years at Progressive
Born in the Dominican Republic, Eliani feels right at home at Progressive. In fact, when it came to taking her American citizenship exam, her coworkers were her greatest cheerleaders.
"My family at Progressive is so tight and supportive. I never expected it to be so welcoming here." Now, as part of Progressive's Photo Estimation group, Eliani helps customers get back on the road after an accident.
"Progressive sets the bar high, and I'm proud to be a part of that."
Garon
GaronSenior Claims Manager, 9 years at Progressive
When Garon walked into Progressive's doors a decade ago, he came ready to turn his job into a career. He was quickly promoted from claims generalist associate to claims manager, but Garon took it a step further. He sought out a mentor using Progressive's development program.
Garon's mentor helped him prepare for his first leadership role: "I wasn't a shoo-in, but I took the feedback from that first interview and prepared myself to become a stronger candidate." It worked!
Today, Garon works from his home in Texas and is a board member of our Young Professionals Network. "I knew when I interviewed that I really wanted to work for this place. I love the energy here. It keeps me going."
Daniel
DanielManager, Commercial Lines, 7 years at Progressive
When Daniel started at Progressive, he knew it was a company that would nurture his career. He didn't expect it would also nurture his passion.
A veteran of the Air Force, Daniel found community in our military-focused ERG, MILNET, and our Keys to Progress® program, which gifts vehicles to veterans.
As a part of MILNET, he started a speaker series called "MILNET Means," which invites veteran speakers to share how their experiences mirror their careers at Progressive. "I've found the same camaraderie at Progressive as I had in the military. Our people truly care about making an impact, and we believe in what we do every day."
