Cobalt

We are committed to continuing to build an inclusive culture and to make diversity and inclusion an integral part of our decision-making at every level of the firm.

At COBALT, we are committed to creating a culture of equality providing an environment within which all employees have equal opportunities for development and progression. All our people are key to our future growth and ongoing success.

Some of our career development, talent acquisition and retention initiatives and principles are mentioned below:

Career development

We don’t have a specific female-focused career development program. These expectations are equal for all moving on their career path. We have 8 main levels in our career plan and these steps are determined by years of experience, level of education and specific expectations that need to be filled in order to move to the next level. All these expectations are discussed when the entry level starts at the office or yearly during the performance reviews.

Seeking new talent

We run a twice a year traineeship programmes (winter and summer) in Estonia. Traineeship program lasts for 4-6 weeks and yearly we hire yearly about 12% from the trainees to our firm. In average applicants are 30-35% male and 65-70% female, and the ratio of successful candidates has been 50% female and 50% male for the past 3 project rounds.

Seeking experienced hires

When seeking experienced talent, we keep a close eye on our market and conduct a wider public hiring campaigns or targeted searched for certain fields. In addition, we campaign and share our vacancies and opportunities always on different marketing channels, to ensure the widest outreach possible.

Fair promotion and appraisal practices

We strongly believe that following fair promotion practices are of critical importance in setting the tone for our internal culture and retaining talent. We promote based on merit, results and ability.

Equal pay and bonus

We remain confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent roles within COBALT. We continue to monitor our mean and median pay ratios on all the levels in the firm. We are systematically running analysis on the salaries of our associates at different levels, at our partner’s and our business services team to ensure that. We are also closely reviewing our bonus procedures as part of the annual salary review, and we commit to treating men and women equally when considered for a bonus.

Diversity & Inclusion

We value diversity and the benefits diverse teams bring to our clients. While we currently don’t have a formal firm-wide D&I policy just yet, we continue to strive to create an inclusive culture and diverse workforce where our people have a sense of belonging and feel they are equally involved and supported​. We are committed to continue creating an inclusive culture and make diversity and inclusion an integral part of our decision-making at every level of the firm. At the moment Estonia has six female and seven male partners, Lithuania has four female and fourteen male partners, Latvia has two female and seven male partners. Meaning 33% of our partners are female.

According to Eurostat, Estonia and Latvia still have the highest gender pay gap compared to other EU Member States, we believe it is our responsibility as a corporate citizen to take a firm action to improve the current situation.