PPG Recognized for Employee Opportunities and Career Advancement

PPG announced its inclusion in the inaugural American Opportunity Index, which measures efforts to create opportunities for employees. PPG ranks #44 among the largest 250 U.S. public companies. The focus of the assessment is on workers’ access to role, wage and career advancement.

“At PPG, we know our greatest strength is our people, who are focused on fulfilling our purpose and protecting and beautifying the world every day. We protect their well-being and ensure our employees are safe, healthy, engaged and valued for the diverse talents they bring to PPG,” said Kevin Walling, PPG vice president and chief human resources officer. “Our inclusion in the American Opportunity Index recognizes our efforts to make opportunities available regardless of education, as well as our competitive wages and benefits.”

The index, developed by Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work, the Burning Glass Institute and the Schultz Family Foundation, measures which companies are most likely to create opportunities for workers in roles open to non-college graduates across three criteria: access (who is able to join the company); wage (how well they are paid); and mobility (how far a worker will advance—either at that company or once they leave for another company). PPG scored top marks in providing a career launchpad – hiring workers without experience, training them, and enabling them to move on to better positions – and growing talent – filling roles by promoting from within, and whose managers and executives are mostly likely to have risen from within.

PPG has more than 6,000 positions in the U.S. that do not require a college degree, of which the vast majority are in sales, retail and at manufacturing and distribution center locations. The company offers a variety of education, training, networking and advancement opportunities, including:

• Providing specific on-the-job trainings for different roles. For example, in manufacturing plants there is a series of process trainings.
• Offering access to a PPG-run mentoring platform and PPG’s online Learning Management System with nearly 25,000 digital learning resources.
• Supporting and funding PPG’s eight Employee Resource Networks (ERN).
• Offering tuition reimbursement for continuing education and certifications.
• Making available various external platforms, including LinkedIn Learning, Rosetta Stone for language skills, and Udemy for upskilling in areas of interest.

In addition to the American Opportunity Index, PPG has been recently recognized for its employment efforts in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, Forbes Best Employers for Women, Forbes 2022 America’s Best Employers, FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies list.

PPG’s ranking of #44 is based on its overall index score, which is a weighted average of nine measurements of opportunity a company affords workers or helps create beyond it, based on access to work it provides, ability to advance within the company, and wages.