Our Early Careers Programs remain a strong source of talent, allowing us to cultivate the next generation of leaders through internships and other opportunities.

In 2024, we hired 333 interns, who made valuable contributions throughout our four global regions. We continue to build our intern talent pool, partnering with leading organizations that increase our visibility to attract candidates:

• Developed students and young professionals in the New York Tri-state area through the Year Up program to help attract young adults from all backgrounds.
• Worked with the 10,000 Interns Foundation in the United Kingdom to offer paid internships to more than 20 individuals through their internship programs.
• Participated in career fairs and information sessions at Carnegie Mellon University and Fordham University to engage with students through campus recruiting.
• Partnered with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to host campus recruiting and offer market intelligence for educational and research purposes, further strengthening their educational experience with hands-on business tools and helping to develop the next generation of leaders across all backgrounds.
• Through our Reach People Resource Group, we continued our partnership with the Commodity Insights division to host students with disabilities as interns. Throughout the internship, we worked with VISIONS: Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a New York City-based social service organization, to support accessibility and a positive learning experience.

Our EssentialTECH and EssentialINNOVATION teams bring opportunities for all colleagues to build the skills, capabilities and mindsets to address the business and career development needs of today and tomorrow. As part of S&P Global’s comprehensive strategy to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) at scale, we are building a culture where all people, roles and teams have the opportunity and responsibility to innovate with the technology.

In 2024, we leaned into social and experiential learning around AI, along with our core learning areas – Agile, Automation, DevOps, Cloud, Data Science, Cyber Security and Innovation. We focused on AI and GenAI learning activities targeting priority skills development for technical roles, as well as learning for employees at every role and level. Team members experimented and innovated through the use of S&P Global’s Spark Assist GenAI platform for all colleagues, and SparkAIR, a similar tool available to S&P Global Ratings colleagues. Forty-eight percent of our people were active users (reporting that they had used the tools within the prior 14 days), as of year-end.

As a key initiative, we collaborated with Accenture to develop the Spark AI Academy and introduced it to all our people beginning in September. The Spark AI Academy underscores our commitment to innovation and empowering everyone at S&P Global, with learning paths designed for People Leaders and executives, along with a mandatory path for our entire global workforce. Colleagues learn about GenAI fundamentals, the practical skills of prompt authoring and how S&P Global is leveraging GenAI capabilities. Read more about how we promote our people’s future-readiness in Challenging Interns to Innovate With GenAI and in the Supporting Our Leaders in AI Transformation box, left column.

In addition, we continued to create space for colleagues to find innovative solutions to real business needs through targeted initiatives:

• Supported 100% of our colleagues through EssentialTECH learning programs.
• Engaged 40% of our people in 116 activities via the S&P Global Innovation Platform.
• Hosted the fourth annual, cross-enterprise Spark Tech & Data Expo, with the general theme of “Sparking AI Awareness and Innovation.”
• Provided opportunities to learn about the importance of patenting, identify patentable ideas and access assistance with the patent process through the S&P Global Patent Program. 

* All tech training metrics exclude automotiveMastermind, CARFAX and Kensho, as well as nonpermanent employees.

S&P Global’s award-winning Thrive performance management system is designed to cultivate meaningful conversations year-round, personalize career opportunities and accelerate performance. We continued to embed this simpler, more flexible and continuous performance experience into our culture and processes in 2024. 

After successfully launching the Thrive full-year performance story (FYPS) in January ahead of annual compensation planning, we expanded the program to encourage our people to put themselves forward for promotion. In January, every colleague submits their performance story, allowing them to reflect on the past performance year by summarizing their achievements and impact on business results based on performance notes and discussions, as well as stakeholder insights that they have actively sought. People leaders then add their comments to the FYPS. If team members want to be considered for promotion based on their progression and performance, they can submit their promotion story during any of a few specified times throughout the year. FYPS stories help People Leaders make salary increase, bonus and, if applicable, stock-equity recommendations, without the use of performance ratings.

The FYPS process has been well-received, giving our people a greater sense of control in their career progression and development path. VIBE Annual Survey data also reflects that colleagues continue to feel supported by their leaders.