Employee Engagement
We remain true to our roots as a start-up company. We believe in open lines of communication from the bottom to the top of our organization, where everyone has a voice.
Our Chief Executive Officer is available to all employees and conducts bi-weekly town hall meetings on which he receives and responds to a variety of employee questions.
On weeks where our CEO is not schedule to meet, a rotating member of our executive team hosts a similar online town hall to answer questions from employees.
Training and Development
We are committed to providing our employees with the skills and knowledge that need to succeed in their roles. As part of our commitment to professional development, we have a sales training and enablement department that provides online and in person training to our sales force. Currently, our training team consists of 14 Regional Learning Managers (RLMs) available around the world; a ratio of sales reps with less than 12 months of tenure to RLMs is 23 to 1; and two sales trainers are dedicated exclusively to training our sales managers.
Training includes two weeks of live, interactive training during the first six months of employment; a structured, online curriculum with cash bonses for successful completion; on-demand, online training modules; and certification courses in specialized services. In 2020, Cogent conducted 5,177 hours of sales rep training and 1,040 hours of management training. In addition, 26 certifications were earned by 26 different employees.
We believe our employees should have a path to finding a position within our organization that best fits their skills, ambitions and professional development. Approximately 7% of employees at Cogent changed positions in 2020 and, in the last five years, approximately 46% of employees at Cogent have changed positions at least once during their tenure with us.
Compensation and Benefits
We offer a comprehensive compensation program that includes market-competitive pay, healthcare benefits, retirement savings plans including partial 401(k) match and paid time off and parental leave. We provide nearly all employees with equity incentives in the form of stock options or grants of restricted stock.
At the beginning of 2020, all employees with at least one full year of tenure received a 2% cost of living increase, 18.7% received a one-time cash bonus and 14.2% received a merit-based salary or salary rate increase. Our sales employees are able to earn bonuses and salary rate increases during the year based on their performance.
Human Rights
We ask that our suppliers comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct or to adopt an internal policy that is commensurate with our Code of Conduct. Our Supplier Code of Conduct asks our suppliers to act with integrity, respect human and employees' rights and safeguard confidential information.
Please also see our Statement Concerning Modern Slavery (UK).