Principal Financial Group® ranks 59 on this year’s InformationWeek Elite 100 – a list of the top business technology innovators in the U.S. This is the 17th consecutive year Principal® has been on InformationWeek’s list, formally the InformationWeek 500.

“We have a huge opportunity to help streamline and simplify complex issues for our customers, advisors and employees,” said Gary Scholten, executive vice president and chief information officer at Principal. “Our IT and business teams are working together to solve problems every day, and their great work continues to help us grow.”

IT innovations that helped put Principal on the InformationWeek Elite 100 list include:

  • Easy benefit enrollment – the Principal team fused psychology, behavioral economics research and user experience design to develop an easy, personalized way for customers to digitally enroll in voluntary benefits. The experience has significantly increased the number of employees signing up for voluntary benefits offered by employers.
  • Employee turnover forecasts and dashboard – to help meet the challenges presented by the tightening U.S. labor force, Principal brought together psychologists, HR and IT teams to create a predictive algorithm that forecasts when employees might leave the company to help enable more proactive workforce planning.

“As business success becomes even more dependent on the ability to innovate in information technology, being represented on the InformationWeek Elite 100 list is one of the biggest honors a company can achieve,” said Susan Nunziata, editorial director of InformationWeek. “It’s a validation of efforts by the business to make IT a game changer.”

This is InformationWeek’s 28th year identifying and honoring the nation's most innovative users of information technology. The InformationWeek Elite 100, formerly the InformationWeek 500, research tracks the technology-based investments, strategies, and results of some of the best-known organizations in the country. Unique among corporate rankings, the InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights the power of business technology innovation.

Additional details on the InformationWeek Elite 100 can be found online at http://www.informationweek.com/elite100.

About Principal®
Principal helps people and companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals – offering innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us at principal.com.

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