We are fortunate at Cohen & Company to have diverse perspectives and forward-thinking professionals working from our offices and remotely across the country. We put great people first, work as a team and approach every new challenge with a refreshing sense of optimism and competitive spirit.
As good stewards of our firm, our employees and our communities, we are committed to adhering to sound, ethical business practices — bolstering the financial strength of our company so we can contribute to our stakeholders for the long term.
In addition to these formal groups, we understand how important it is to stay connected across our full team. Our CEO leads regular firmwide townhall calls to share important strategic and firm updates and provide an open, honest forum for employees to ask questions of the leadership team. This forum was instrumental to our pandemic response in 2020 and 2021 and has since become a regular feature of our firm’s communication structure and operations.
Technology obviously plays a critical role in reducing our impact on the environment. We have invested heavily in this area, from providing more monitors to review work instead of printing on paper, to implementing new software to facilitate more e-communication internally and externally. A majority of clients accept, provide and sign off on documentation electronically, including tax returns, engagement letters and financial statements. And we provide new hire documentation/training materials and other firm information electronically. Additionally, we have made thoughtful and proactive changes regarding our physical servers. Today our server virtualization strategically achieves roughly a 30:1 ratio of virtual to physical servers. Our disaster recovery datacenter resides in the cloud, including a strategy moving forward to eliminate additional physical equipment purchases; and we leverage virtual machines for contractors, when possible, to avoid shipping and equipment purchases.
The story of our firm has always been grounded in kindness, mutual respect and providing an inclusive, supportive and safe environment. We truly encourage everyone on our team to embrace our Foundational Principle that recognizes Great People First — finding ways to celebrate and value each of the unique stories, backgrounds, perspectives and ideas that come from the people at Cohen & Company.
Yet, we realize with great humility that we have further to go in terms of understanding how to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace. We are committed to finding new ways to be deliberate in our actions, and to do better. We believe no single individual can make that happen, but EVERY single individual, together, can.
These are a few of the steps we have taken in our journey so far:
Cohen & Company’s IDEA Team — Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in Action — understands without an atmosphere of inclusion, diversity will never exist.
The IDEA Team is leading our firm to turn words into actions:
With the full support of executive leadership, our IDEA Team is using the results from our recent cultural assessment survey to help develop a long-term strategic plan that integrates with the firm’s strategic plan. Focus areas include, but are not limited to, enhancing recruiting efforts and creating additional diversity, equity and inclusion educational opportunities for all employees.
While diversity and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility, we also recognize that it starts at the top. Cohen & Company is proud to be part of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ — the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
The CEO pledge outlines specific actions our CEO, Chris Bellamy, will take to cultivate a trusting environment where all ideas are welcomed, and employees feel comfortable and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion. The components of that pledge include open conversations, education, creating a diversity plan and sharing outcomes with other CEOs.
We want to holistically support our great people in every way we can. Cohen & Company’s Total Rewards program goes beyond competitive compensation to support our employees no matter where they are in their journey.
We encourage them to view their career in line with their life, and then offer the flexibility so they can meet their unique needs. And as the business environment evolves, so too does our program, which helps support employees throughout their career with us. Our program encompasses learning, recognition and involvement, work/life health, technology, financial health and insurance. With a focus on providing premium benefits, we continually expand the program to support inclusivity for all.