Cengage

3.0

16 Nov 2014

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

* Good Location * Good Co-workers * Some interesting projects to work on. * Some work flexibility in terms of hours or work-from-home options, but company trying to move away from that.

Cons

* We are trying to be an Ed Tech company, but salaries still seem based on publishing standards. I couldn't find a qualified employee for an open position that also would accept the salary we were offering. * My yearly bonus is not tied to how successful my product is - but how the company does as a whole. So, even if your team works hard to make a successful release cycle, we end up with the same bonus as everyone else. * Our merit increases are not incentivizing. With our yearly merit increases ranging from 1-2%, our yearly goals have no really impact on anything. Even if you exceed or greatly exceed your annual goals, merit increases aren't allowed to exceed the 2% company average (e.g., the increase you get for just doing your job). In my group, there is also no clear pathway for career advancement beyond waiting for someone to leave. * Our strategies seem unclear more often than not - we're either working at a break-neck speed to hit an aggressive deadline (because the strategy was figured out so late in the game) or we're waiting for a strategy and told to 'enjoy the downtime'. I'd much rather that we're working at a more even pace, rather than these peaks and valleys. * There seems to be a lot of siloing of group - despite the corporate idea of encouraging collaboration. So, the product management team will set up strategies without any of the insight of the content developers - who, at least in my group, have an extremely in depth knowledge of the content. In one case, when the content team was eventually informed of the strategy, we pointed out a pretty significant structural hurtle in the plan that left the product team scrambling to come up with something new. While we've been told that we're just content developers and we should let the product managers sink/swim based on strategy, I wish we were encouraged to help the whole group succeed - even if that means acting outside our traditional roles.

Cengage Response

11y

Thanks for this detailed feedback. I agree on several points. First, I believe strongly that compensation should be market competitive. Returning to role-based incentive plans for a number of senior product and marketing roles is part of that. Due to Chapter 11 and our exit, we have focused our strategic planning on the business turnaround itself, and have made tremendous strides there. Given that, we on the Executive Team felt that individual goals on those teams would have been put in place too late in the fiscal year to be fair to plan recipients. Instead we determined that a company metric in those plans was the most equitable option. I also agree that top-notch content is essential to our success. The depth and accuracy of our content is one of our strongest advantages, and, you are correct, the best strategy would sink without the quality content that undoubtedly you and many in your role help us develop every day. I would encourage you to give any feedback you think would valuable to your product manager. Don’t wait for permission. Feel free to ask your product manager what he or she is working on and offer constructive feedback. With regard to career pathing, although we do have a number of structures in place, this too depends very much on the individual. Of course timing and available openings play a role, but options like moves to another part of the organization may provide you with tremendous career benefit. Many of the executives I know have varied backgrounds from different parts of a business; as you advance, this can be a significant career asset. I hope you will consider discussing your specific situation, including your skills and goals, with Human Resources. They can often help identify roles in other parts of the company for which you may be suited, and/or identify gaps in skills that we can help you develop to put you in a strong position to make a move. I am also looking forward to hiring a new Chief People Officer to help guide us broadly in this capacity. Thank you for taking the time to post.

Unclear Direction, feels like working for a non-profit. - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

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