Cobalt Group Reviews

Pros

A few people I met here are some of the best and the brightest.
A great place to develop skills, if you get on the right team.

Cons

Most folks here are mediocre due to the average pay and weak hiring practices.
Choice of business focus is lame. Competition is going to win in the long term.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep an eye on your real impact to the bottom line. There is a tendancy to focus on metrics that support people keeping their jobs versus real impact to the stakeholders (long term wealth), etc.

Pros

Great atmosphere and work environment. Most dealerships were fun to work with.

Cons

Many of the same people would receive awards when it was clear that other people who worked just as hard or harder were never recognized for their achievements. I lot of Account Advocates cheated their monthly quotas to "complete their work on time."

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to what the reps have to say about what realistic expectations are.

Pros

Always busy, there never was a time that the queue wasn't full of work that needed to get done.
Overtime was offered frequently to keep the work queue in check when levels got too high.
Great environment, even after bought out by ADP. Relaxed attire which was a nice perk.
Location was nice, though the commute from the north end not so much.

Cons

Commute of over an hour. Told when hired on the office would be in Lynnwood.
Pay was terrible and raises were non-existent.
Lack of recognition for talent and skills.
Lack of accountability for employees that didn't pull their share of the work load.
Team had lack of pride in work they did. Get it done was more important than get it done right.
Compensation was very poor, though they did provide the Orca card for mass transit.
Low-level managers were always in meetings and could never put out a consistent message to the workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Reconginze the talent you have on your team and reward the work they do, if not they leave and all that you have left are the employees that cannot get hired anywhere else due to their laziness and lack of work ethic.

Pros

Great atmosphere and some great perks. Everyone is friendly and treated fairly for the most part. Nice location with onsite gym.

Cons

Benefits could be better. Especially since Cobalt is now owned by ADP. Career paths could be better defined. Some of the low level management need more experience before becoming managers.

Pros

Challenging work in a fast paced environment that attracts diverse employees and fosters out of the box thinking to succeed.

Cons

Low pay & poor benefits. Scorched Earth policy towards employee development long term. Inconsistent focus on business objectives and lack of transparency from one department to the next. Conflicting goals from one department to the next often set individuals or business units at odds. Leadership hypocrisy is notable and much emphasis is placed on an employee's perception rather than reality of value delivered. Employees often fall victim to attrition or set up to fail as a result.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your existing employees professional development instead of replacIng them once used up. Foster loyalty and trust among your workforce. Take ownership of leadership weaknesses and correct them rather than ignore.

Pros

Friendly coworkers, for the most part--Good knowledge sharing.

Cons

Salaries are low. Mangement not very interested in promoting from within. Very little positive feedback or constructive criticism.

Advice to Senior Management

Perform better evaluations of management.

Pros

Convenient location, good work/life balance, casual atmosphere, ability to work on large accounts with industry recognition

Cons

Lack of internal communication between departments, senior management and teams creates an environment of confusion. No clear path for career or professional development. Senior management is disconnected from teams, very much a top down management approach. Since ADP acquired Cobalt in August 2010, the health benefits, paid holidays and company culture (Seattle office) have suffered greatly.

Advice to Senior Management

Cobalt has grown considerably in the past 3+ years and can no longer operate as if it's still a "start up". Senior management needs to re-engage with their departments and teams to develop company-wide processes, along with clear paths for advancement and professional development.

Pros

Casual atmosphere, relaxed schedules and good people.

Cons

Leadership unfocused, silo-ed working atmosphere, confusing directives, unclear path to advancement, bad benefits and pay that's not up to industry standards.

Advice to Senior Management

Enhance visibility between groups in the company, define paths to advancement with more than just HR seminars, provide clear goals and directives for the entire company that trickle down in a meaningful way to the departments.

Pros

For the most part, I really enjoyed my time at Cobalt. I got there as a pretty green worker in my field, and I was able to experience tremendous professional growth in a very relaxed and fun atmosphere. Additional responsibility, and some opportunity were there for the ambitious or interested workers (that was the rumor, at least). But working with some very talented and positive people was what made working there great. Had a blast, actually.

Cons

Cobalt, for me, was like the minor leagues. It's a place to refine your skills, have some great times with your teammates, but you're mostly hoping it's a temporary thing because you're never going to advance or really get paid in the minors. I felt salary containment, especially for the non-mangement roles, must have been a very strategic and top down approach. That's not a criticism as business is business and earnings are earnings, but ultimately it was a heavy "con" for the individual contributor like me. But, Cobalt did a lot to position me for my next job, were the 3+ years of stagnant/flat pay were easily erased as I found myself worth 50% than I was making when I returned to the job market. So, absolutely no regrets and I really do pull for this company to succeed.

Advice to Senior Management

I left just before ADP came in, so fight to keep the Cobalt culture intact and pay to keep your existing talent if you want to address the turnover issue.

Pros

- Decent pay and benefits
- Good work/life balance
- Convenient location
- open office where even the CEO sits in a cube
- Fun/smart coworkers and good management
- Good software process and tool set

Cons

- Work can be mundane
- Negligible raises and promotion chances are almost zero
- ADP paperwork and processes are cumbersome

Advice to Senior Management

With the ADP acquisition, cobalt certainly lost the cool factor and is becoming stale. There should be some process to recognize and show appreciation for people who did a good job. Giving a 1-2 percent annual raise is not going to cut it and people are going to leave sooner or later