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      Cengage

      Engaged Employer

      Cengage reviews

      2.9

      31% would recommend to a friend

      (2,401 total reviews)
      avatar

      Michael Hansen

      39% approve of CEO

      24% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Cengage has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 2,401 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Cengage employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      2K reviews
      2.0
      Sep 7, 2023

      Appearance of a Great Place to Work but Not Reality

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - The employees at Cengage are some of the best of the best and they deserve more than what this company can offer. There is a real sense of community and belonging among many of the employees. - The CEO is very transparent. Maybe too transparent even basically telling employees there will be lots of change and layoffs soon. He was really great at connecting with employees, but seems to have lost touch a bit more recently. - Benefits are really good. Lots of vacation time, company holidays, sick time and wellness days. Healthcare, 401K and parental leave all seem pretty solid for todays market. - Ability to work from home is great. Leadership has put a big emphasis on continuing with remote work and it works well at this company. Although remote, you still feel very connected and most people are respectful of work from home privileges. - Good work life balance depending on role you are in. Most managers are pretty easy going as far as managing your own work load.

      Cons

      - The market is really tough. Although, leadership tries to reassure you that things are going to change for the positive here soon, it never seems to. Pretty much constant decline in sales and enrollments. Leadership just keeps changing the way they look at the failure to make it seem not that bad. - The leadership team just can’t seem to figure it out and constantly make changes in departments. Every 2 or so years, they say “we got it this time”, lay-off half the team and then change job titles and responsibilities. When it doesn’t work out they rinse and repeat. Basically affects all areas of the organization, but especially higher ed. - The pay is below average and they continuously eliminate others roles so your responsibilities are constantly being added on to with no change in salary. Only promises of advancement opportunities (which are rare) to encourage you to go above and beyond on your workload. - The products are subpar. I don’t think anyone working there actually thinks they are good. They just convince educators to use them and then force students into purchasing them. Pretty much everyone hates them but fakes it for the sake of their job.

      avatar
      Cengage Response
      2y
      Thank you for taking the time to candidly share your experience. I am happy to hear that you enjoy the many benefits we provide including wellness days, parental leave, and remote work. Regarding the topic of change, I want to assure you that our strategy, and the work we all do to support it each day, is having an impact. In fact, we’ve seen two consecutive years of revenue growth which has reinforced our strategic approach and investment in growing education markets like skills training and English language learning. We are focused on transforming our operations to ensure efficient and impactful delivery amidst the evolving market landscape to ensure we can sustain and accelerate this growth going forward. We understand that change can sometimes create feelings of uncertainty. That's why we believe that creating space for open dialogue is the best approach. By embracing change and innovative technologies, we will secure our position as a market leader, sustaining and accelerating our overall success. If you have any specific questions or concerns, I encourage you to reach out to your manager or share your feedback with me directly. We value your insight and feedback about your experience. Best, Michael Hansen, CEO
      3.0
      May 5, 2023

      There is better out there for you

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The people are some of the best I'd ever worked with. Good flexibility and reasonable people.

      Cons

      The industry is declining, they expect a lot of work out of you for little pay. They sell it with the "culture" - which is not wrong - but culture doesn't protect you from frequent layoffs and downsizing to control costs while the market and revenues continue to shrink. My advice to anyone looking at this company is to try to find a healthy company first. Cengage is great, but it can't overcome the mechanisms of the shrinking market and that will always be reflected in pay and job security. It's very stressful and it took me getting away to really see how stressful. Career advancement isn't great and in many cases is blocked by budgets year after year.

      avatar
      Cengage Response
      3y
      Thank you for reviewing your work experience at Cengage Group. I am pleased to hear that you enjoyed your colleagues and that found your work to be flexible. Regarding layoffs, the education industry is one of constant change, yet our strategy of delivering affordable high-quality materials to students remains the same. We periodically evaluate our approaches, and that sometimes results in difficult decisions about colleagues and teams. That said, these decisions are not taken lightly; we value every employee and the contributions they have made. Thank you for your more than 8 years of service, I wish you the best in your next endeavors. Best, Michael Hansen, CEO
      1.0
      Aug 12, 2021

      Great pay and benefits that you will pay for with your mental health

      Designer
      Recommend
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Money is Good Benefits are Great Hardware is new and shiny Some people are really nice

      Cons

      I received no training other than HR onboarding. My boss promised me that she would train me, as in walkthrough individual projects with me and what was expected, but that never happened. Instead, she went on vacation and I was expected to get everything I needed from my partners in another department. I raised my hand for help twice and only received the answer that 'I would get used to it'. What I really needed was a little more time with my supervisor to flesh out what was expected with the deliverables. I was having panic attacks every day because of my established disability and the lack of clarity around what I was doing. I ended up giving notice of leave and their only answer was that 'it was for the best'. I was told that there were people to help me, but my role was new and the only person who had experience was my manager - yeah the one on vacation. They also expected me to be a web developer when I was clear about my experience in my interviews.

      avatar
      Cengage Response
      4y
      Thank you for taking the time to share this feedback about your experience - it is good to hear that you were happy with the benefits we provide, and felt welcomed by colleagues. I am saddened to hear that you did not receive adequate training. This would be considered a management failure, and an anomaly. As part of our onboarding process, we expect that managers will fully prepare for their new hires arrival by creating specific and thorough onboarding plans for each person. These onboarding plans should be created outside of the overall Cengage onboarding process and program, and to help in this process we offer a comprehensive onboarding site that provides information to new hires and supports managers in acclimating new team members. Additionally, we have a robust Professional Development philosophy and site with access to workshops and self-paced learning, which provides further learning and development opportunities for employees. I want to acknowledge that this is an area where we are all continuing to learn, especially during the times of COVID where it has been more challenging to onboard remotely. We are all human and facing the unknown together here, and are actively working to continue enhancing our templates and support for managers in role-specific onboarding. Your feedback will help guide that continued work, so thank you for commenting. I wish you all the best in your next endeavor. Michael Hansen, CEO
      Viewing 283 - 285 of 2,401 Reviews
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