Wellness

Female employee passing through finish line in running race

PPG is committed to engaging our employees by fostering a global culture of health.

2024 highlights

11

global wellness awards for innovative wellness program initiatives from PPG sites around the world

134

sites recognized for high performance wellness programs and exhibiting PPG’s culture of health

A healthy, engaged workforce is key to supporting our people and our purpose to protect and beautify the world. At PPG, our wellness programs are designed to drive employee engagement through activities that underscore physical and mental wellness. This ultimately leads to healthy, stress-resilient employees with fewer injuries, less time off work, increased productivity and a feeling of belonging.

Wellness program evolution

We are investing in building a global culture of health by enabling our employees and their families to prioritize mental and physical wellbeing through active participation in site-specific wellness programs. Examples of wellness programs offered to employees include a hydration challenge with useful ways to remember to stay hydrated, "Know Your Numbers" and mammogram screenings for early detection and intervention of disease, team sporting events at sites and scavenger hunts that enable employees to learn more about health and safety.

PPG's wellness strategy remains focused on addressing our four wellness absolutes – nutrition, exercise, health screenings and mindfulness/stress management.

Building on the PPG vision put forward in our Global Wellness Strategy, we focused on enhancing the structure of our wellness program over the last year, driving global engagement and developing ways to measure our progress. We launched a comprehensive set of internal wellness goals at the start of 2024. These goals reflect our well-established wellness priorities, while introducing more defined objectives and success metrics to track performance of our wellness program over time.

Global collaboration

As our wellness programs continue to expand and mature, we are focused on documenting lessons learned by site leaders and socializing success stories across PPG. Our internal wellness website serves as a vital hub for cross-site collaboration, allowing facilities to share successful initiatives and resources.

Regional leaders are helping to bolster engagement by meeting with employees in their regions, participating in global wellness councils, and tracking program development and adoption in our internal management system. To drive awareness and continuous education, our wellness team also publishes a quarterly newsletter focused on one of the four wellness absolutes.

Recognition and celebrating successful wellness initiatives

Our global wellness team is committed to helping each of our sites to develop a culture of health. Recognizing that a successful wellness program requires significant planning, coordination and engagement across a variety of dimensions, for a wellness program to be recognized as mature, it must include:

An active site wellness team with at least two members, quarterly meetings and agendas
A minimum of 20% overall site engagement in wellness initiatives throughout the year
Quarterly wellness initiatives that cover at least two of the four PPG wellness absolutes

In 2024, 134 of 184 sites met these criteria and qualified to submit applications for our sustainability awards, of which wellness is a category. From a pool of 141 applications, 11 winners from regions around the world were recognized as best practices. Examples included a program at our Gravataí, Brazil, facility that focused on the prevention of occupational accidents, as well as a "Fresh Start" hygiene drive for the local community in Mojave, California. Our Plasticos Envolventes S.A. de C.V. facility in Latin America was recognized as the overall wellness winner in 2024 for their focus on mental health programming.

Two employees in factory wearing pink tshirts for Abilities First Network

Empowering wellbeing: Employee Resource Networks in action

PPG's eight global Employee Resource Networks (ERNs) support our global culture of health by hosting events that support mental and physical wellbeing. Events in 2024 included:

The Women's Leadership Network celebrated Women's Health Month, dedicated to promoting physical, mental and emotional wellbeing among women. The month featured discussion groups on menopause, webinars and tribute trees to raise awareness for breast cancer.
The Abilities First Network drew attention to hidden disabilities in the workplace, where over 900 employees learned about the organization, Hidden Disabilities and their Sunflower program. A pilot program was launched in PPG’s U.S., U.K. and France businesses, to provide a voluntary tool for employees to indicate that they have a disability or condition that may benefit from additional support, understanding or more time to accomplish tasks.

An important aspect of employee wellness is inclusion and ensuring that everyone at PPG feels a sense of belonging within the company. Beyond the highlights above, our ERNs work year-round to build community and create an inclusive and supportive workplace culture throughout PPG.

Integration with existing systems

To drive awareness and engagement within PPG, wellness programming is formally integrated into our EHS management system - establishing PPG's culture of health as a fundamental component of site operations. Each of our sites receive a score based on how well they implement programs that effectively engage employees. These scores are incorporated into their EHS scorecards and are regularly reviewed by management.

In 2024, we further integrated wellness objectives into our HR benefits system. Through our global Employee Assistance Program, employees around the globe have access to counseling, mental health and other health and wellness services.

Looking ahead

PPG's wellness program has evolved into a mature, high-quality initiative with demonstrated impact on employee wellbeing. As we look to 2025, our focus will be on expanding adoption across our facilities and continuing to improve program effectiveness.

For more detailed information about our ongoing approach to wellness, see the bottom of this web page.

Our approach to wellness

PPG people are the foundation of a healthy, productive growth culture. We understand that employees who are provided resources centered around physical, mental and financial health are more engaged, confident, productive and satisfied. This ultimately leads to healthy, stress-resilient employees with less injuries, less time off work, increased productivity and a feeling of belonging.

PPG's approach to wellness is based on four wellness absolutes – nutrition, exercise, health screenings and mindfulness/stress management – which research identifies as key to overall wellbeing. Our Wellness Culture Program Strategy reflects the evolving structure and vision for our wellness programs, defines the roles and responsibilities of our wellness leaders, and articulates our strategy for addressing the four wellness absolutes.

Every wellness program and tool we offer addresses one or more of these four absolutes. Empowering people at each of our locations to determine the best wellness initiatives based on employee needs, sharing their successes globally, and recognizing their achievements all support our culture of wellness.

Wellness tools

PPG’s Wellness Culture of Health Catalog and strategy includes a collection of wellness programs offered at our sites around the world. The catalog, which features sections for each of the four wellness absolutes, allows our employees to share successful ideas and describe how best to implement them. Program examples include the hydration challenge (nutrition), stretching sessions (exercise), know your numbers (health screenings) and massage therapy (mindfulness/stress management).

A critical component of wellness is mental health. PPG values work-life balance and aims to support our team members as they navigate their varied work and home responsibilities. To meet the evolving needs of our employees, we offer mental health initiatives, including our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) resources and wellbeing materials to support employees and their families. This program provides employees and their household members with access to confidential resources, including counseling and virtual talk therapy, designed to help with anxiety or depression, work-related stress, family or relationship concerns, childcare and eldercare assistance, financial or legal issues, parenting concerns and more.

Wellness program key performance indicators

We define and review our wellness program goals through a combination of internal research and external partnerships. Recognizing that a successful program requires both continuous engagement and a variety of initiatives, our wellness goal focuses on helping each of our sites develop a mature wellness program. According to our internal guidance, a mature wellness program must include:

An active site wellness team with at least two members, quarterly meetings and agendas
A minimum of 20% overall site engagement in wellness initiatives throughout the year
Quarterly wellness initiatives covering each of the four PPG wellness absolutes over the course of the year.

To drive engagement within PPG, wellness programming is integrated within our environment, health and safety (EHS) management system. Each of our sites receives a score based on how effective their programs is at generating employee engagement. These scores are incorporated into their EHS scorecards and are regularly reviewed by management.

Wellness program governance

The Global Wellness Council sets the overall strategy and tracks our progress against the above metrics globally. This team of employee volunteers meet at least quarterly to develop wellness resources for employees and their families, provide feedback on past programming, share leadership responsibilities and integrate wellness throughout the company.

Our manager of occupational health and wellness oversees the implementation of the company's global wellness programs. They work closely with our PPG Benefits and Total Rewards teams to create programming and raise awareness for initiatives aimed at improving the health and well-being of our employees.

PPG recognizes the importance of delivering wellness programs and services in a way that allows everyone at PPG to participate in our global culture of health. Each of our sites are encouraged to maintain a wellness committee, program and champion to communicate our wellness messages and implement the various global, regional and local programs. We also maintain a dedicated email address that offers support for wellness programs to any PPG employee.