Cengage Group’s Total Rewards Philosophy

 

As a global education technology company focused on developing learning products and services that enable student choice, Cengage Group’s employees drive our ability to impact the lives of millions of learners around the globe every year. As a result, attracting, motivating and retaining talented employees is foundational to our success as a business. Our total rewards philosophy provides a framework that ensures we remain focused on offering market competitive, equitable programs that meet the needs of our diverse employee population.

“Our employees are our greatest asset, and their success is an essential driver to our overall business success,” said Jeri Herman, Chief People Officer, Cengage Group. “At Cengage Group, we strive to create an environment where all employees feel valued, respected and empowered to make a difference in their work and the lives of the learners and educators we serve each day.”

 

What is a Total Rewards Philosophy?

When considering a job offer, oftentimes prospective talent jump to compensation as the driving factor in their decision. However, there are many other benefits and offerings that can make or break an individual’s overall satisfaction with their job. A Total Rewards Philosophy looks to capture this broad view and offer financial and non-financial programs to attract and retain talent. This can include compensation, career development opportunities, recognition programs, health & wellness offerings and more. A successful total rewards strategy takes a holistic approach to cater to employees' diverse needs and preferences.

At Cengage Group we routinely evaluate existing and new programs to offer our employees to ensure we are taking a well-rounded approach to our Total Rewards strategy. Fundamentally our philosophy is anchored on ensuring our programs enable us to attract, motivate and retain talented individuals to drive our business and serve our customers.

The Pillars of Our Total Rewards Framework

At Cengage Group, our total rewards framework provides a comprehensive offering of both financial and non-financial programs. We strive to deliver market-competitive, equitable compensation programs that reward strong individual performance. Our total rewards program includes several pillars around which we base our employee offerings. 

 

Compensation

Cengage Group fosters a performance-based culture where we reward employees based on meaningful and impactful outcomes. As part of our overall Total Rewards Strategy, we strive to offer market competitive, equitable compensation programs that reward strong individual performance, recognizing Company success drives our ability to reward.

Our Total Rewards compensation programs are anchored around the following key guiding principles:

• Our Total Cash Compensation is designed to align with applicable external market benchmarks to maintain competitiveness in the job market; this includes regularly reviewing our compensation strategy and approach against external market data.
• Our base pay structure considers geographic variations in labor costs, enabling us to retain and attract top talent in high-cost labor markets.
• We link annual merit increases to strong individual and business performance to ensure that we recognize and reward performance.
• Promotions are awarded to individuals taking on higher-level positions or broader responsibilities in line with our business' specific needs.
• In cases where an employee's total compensation is not in line with internal equity and external market benchmarks, base pay market adjustments may be implemented to address any discrepancies and ensure fair compensation.

Benefits

Cengage Group offers comprehensive benefits programs as part of our Total Rewards framework. This includes medical, dental and vision coverage; retirement plan; life insurance and disability coverage; mental health and wellbeing resources; and more. You can find a full list of our benefits and learn more here.

Our benefit offerings support our employees as they prioritize their well-being physically, emotionally and financially. We believe such benefits are essential to supporting overall employee happiness and job satisfaction, leading to long-term individual and organizational success.

Talent Recognition & Professional Development

Our culture of recognition is an integral part of rewarding our dedicated employees. Through our global recognition program employees and managers recognize accomplishments, anniversaries, birthdays and other important events in our employees’ lives.

We also recognize the importance of professional development with regard to employee upskilling & reskilling. Cengage Group's Education Assistance Program allows employees to use funds annually for certifications and college coursework. Internally, we offer a broad catalog of self-paced skills courses and other learning opportunities for employees and People Leaders.

Work/Life Integration

Supporting work/life integration is vital to our total rewards package. We encourage employees to disconnect from work outside of working hours as taking time away is critical to achieving a healthy work-life balance. A few of the time off programs we offer include:

• Primarily virtual-first and hybrid working environments
• Volunteer days
• Paid vacation
• Paid, company-designated holidays
• Wellness days (Employees have the week off at the end of each year)
• Paid sick time
• Parental Leave

Community involvement is also essential to our total rewards model, encouraging employee engagement and social responsibility. In addition to the volunteer time given to employees each year, Cengage also matches donations that employees make to causes they care about. Additionally, we have several Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) formed around shared interests, social issues or personal backgrounds. ERGs act as resources for our internal communities and support members' personal and professional growth through various internal programs.

Benefits of Working at Cengage Group

Our focus on fostering a culture of transparency ensures our employees can be comfortable providing open and honest feedback. We have systematic avenues for employees to give feedback outside ongoing conversations with employees. This includes annual employee engagement surveys, Glassdoor reviews, ERGs, and more.

Historically, Cengage Group has outperformed industry benchmarks for employee benefits and was recognized as a Best Place to Work by the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards in 2024, marking the third time in five years that the company has received this recognition. Cengage was the only company recognized as a Best Place to Work in the edtech sector in 2024, and one of only three companies in 2023. In addition, in 2023, Cengage Group was recognized by Gallagher as a Best-in-Class Employer for the second consecutive year. Gallagher’s benchmarking analysis identified Cengage Group as an organization that excels in optimizing employee and organizational wellbeing.