Our people are our most important competitive advantage

Our ability to increase our global footprint, grow organically and create breakthrough innovations is built on the diverse knowledge, skills and commitment of our people living The PPG Way.

We continuously invest in learning and development initiatives to ensure our employees are properly trained, productive and engaged at every stage of their careers. We prioritize internal promotions to leverage skills across businesses, while also onboarding new talent to bring diverse ideas into the business.

Our approach to training and leadership development focuses on experience, exposure and education. This model, which emphasizes on-the-job experience, caters to the varied requirements of the organization and teams while still accommodating individual interests and needs. As part of this, we offer a wide array of development opportunities that include:

• Performance and learning plans;
• Extensive on-the-job training;
• Ongoing formal and informal feedback;
• Structured development programs;
• Virtual classroom training;
• World-class online training;
• Peer learning opportunities;
• Coaching; and
• Mentoring.

We seek to develop capabilities in three main areas: engaging the organization, cultivating a customer focused culture and driving growth and profitability. We focus our strategy on delivering our training to the right people, at the right place and at the right time. This umbrella approach develops organization-wide capabilities while also catering to individual needs and interests.

Throughout 2021, we continued to expand virtual learning opportunities across the organization, including a range of virtual facilitator-led workshops and external learning platforms. We also continued to optimize Evolve, our Learning Management System (LMS) available through Workday.

In 2021, different facilitators offered more than 4,150 learning opportunities to employees in multiple languages globally. In total, we have nearly 25,000 digital courses that employees can access on various topics ranging from technical training to leadership skills. When they've completed a course, our employees have the option to rate each training, giving our dedicated training team an indication of how we can improve the platform over time.

Learning Space

As part of our One PPG learning approach, we continued with the Learning Space initiative. This initiative consists of a series of short webinars to help employees adapt and embrace the changing workplace. The 45-minute interactive modules provide practical tips on flexible/hybrid working and return to office that could be applied to any work environment. This was especially helpful when managing the challenges of work-life balance related to the pandemic. Our global learning team delivered more than 40 Learning Space sessions to more than 1,000 managers. We will host these initiatives into 2022 as we continue to build our capability to lead a hybrid workforce.

External Global Learning Platforms

In 2021, employees took advantage of access to global learning platforms. This enabled a focus on personal and professional development, such as language skills. Looking forward to 2022, we will begin to explore creator platforms, which are e-learning platforms where industry experts can upload content for a global audience.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is one of the world’s largest online learning platforms featuring topic-specific content created by leading experts. Courses offered cover many aspects of professional and personal development. To date, approximately 10,000 PPG employees worldwide have utilized LinkedIn Learning. In 2021, 54% of learners were repeat users viewing an average of 30 videos per month, for a total of nearly 1.5 hours per month per learner. Top skills that learners looked to develop included leadership, time management, Microsoft Excel and enhanced communication. We continue to focus on building adoption for LinkedIn Learning as we progress our learning offering.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone, known for its immersive, best-inclass language programs, is also available to PPG employees. Currently, employees can participate in eLearning and live tutorials covering 24 languages. Last year, children of PPG employees were also offered free access to Rosetta Stone for three months to supplement their remote learning resources.

To date, 10,455 employees have accessed Rosetta Stone, with English being the most popular language. In 2021, 78% of learners were based in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. We are focused on building user adoption for the learning platform moving forward.

Unconscious Bias Training

As part of our overall efforts to further drive diversity, equity and inclusion, more than 4,600 people managers and employees attended facilitator-led, interactive workshops on unconscious bias. These sessions focused on understanding the harmful prejudices that stem from the tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing groups and people. Sessions were offered in four languages.

Sales Capability Building

Throughout 2021, we continued to build the capability of our sales teams via virtual learning. We adapted our best-in-class sales training programs to digital learning modules and virtual instructor-led sessions, which we launched across all regions. More than 1,000 colleagues on the sales team took the Selling Skills learning module, and 130 sales leaders completed Professional Sales Coaching.

Leadership Development

Essentials of Leadership

In 2021, we launched our first virtual facilitatordriven Frontline Leadership Program: Essentials of Leadership (EOL). EOL focuses on ensuring global alignment and consistency in developing managers and supervisors. Delivered in six modules, EOL provides new leaders with the right mindset, skillset and toolset to lead more effectively, which ultimately builds employee engagement. Twelve internal facilitators completed the certification to deliver courses that support our program in three different languages. More than 800 managers have registered for EOL, of which 363 had completed all six modules by the end of 2021.

Emerge

Our unique Emerge Leadership Program focuses on project-led learning to equip emerging leaders – our largest leadership talent pool – with the skills needed to lead in today's uncertain and complex world. The curriculum consists of a 10-month virtual journey accompanied by four facilitated sessions including action learning projects, peer coaching sessions, mentorship from the leadership team and networking online. We had 89 global participants across all businesses and functions in 2021.