CASE STUDY – ZENITH

How Zenith maintained
compliance readiness and
improved employee retention

Retaining new starters and maintaining compliance standards are often treated as separate challenges. Zenith
used Cognexo to address both at once — building a continuous readiness programme that measures sentiment, embeds
compliance knowledge and takes immediate action, from day one.

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Sector: Automotive · Compliance Readiness & Employee Retention

At a Glance

eNPS increased
from 30 to 43
91% survey response rates
across the workforce
Significant reduction in first-year
employee attrition
909 hours of compliance refresher
training saved in 12 months
361,887 questions delivered across
all topics in the last 12 months
Compliance accuracy maintained at a consistently high level despite a 600-person increase in users
Products used:
Cognexo Survey
Cognexo Develop
Readiness signals addressed: Capability · Confidence · Compliance · Alignment · Performance
about the client

Background

Zenith is the UK's leading independent leasing, vehicle outsourcing and fleet management provider for cars, vans, trucks and trailers - specified, sourced, funded and managed. All delivered by trusted experts, award-winning service and innovative technology.

Headquartered in Leeds, its 1,450 employees manage a fleet of around 170,000 vehicles. Its operations span the breadth of the automotive market with commercial vehicles, corporate fleets and consumer leasing.

The Challenge

Over the past few years, Cognexo and Zenith have collaborated to enhance Zenith's people
development programme — particularly around compliance awareness and readiness. More
recently, the partnership expanded to focus on reducing staff turnover and improving Zenith's
employee Net Promoter Score.

Zenith faced two interconnected challenges.

Employee Retention
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Zenith — like many organisations — faced challenges with employee retention. The company previously relied on bi-annual engagement surveys, but they were time-consuming to complete and the data was cumbersome to interpret and act on promptly. Zenith understood that a faster, more targeted solution was needed.
Compliance
is essential to Zenith because it underpins the company's reputation, operational integrity and commitment to both safety and quality in a financially regulated industry. Ongoing compliance refresher training was taking colleagues away from their primary roles — and the business needed a more efficient, auditable approach.
What we did

The Solution

Zenith utilises Cognexo Survey and Cognexo Develop across its 1,210 employees
to deliver insights, engagement and knowledge reinforcement.

Cognexo Survey — Confidence & Compliance Readiness

Partnering with Cognexo, Zenith adopted a proactive strategy to continuously assess
new starter sentiment — beginning during the onboarding phase and spanning the
full first twelve months.

Measuring sentiment
from day one
During the onboarding phase, Zenith deployed Cognexo to gauge employee sentiment at key milestones — primarily ensuring expectations were being delivered to every new colleague.
Minimising survey
fatigue
A 100-question survey, delivered in small chunks over the first year, checks standards and tools from day one. Fewer early questions and wider spacing later help Zenith act quickly, support leaders, and track new starter engagement.
Customised
engagement for
different roles.
Cognexo Survey includes tailored question sets for different audiences — such as managers and apprentices — ensuring relevant, role-specific insights.
Proactive
engagement through
immediate action.
Cognexo’s automated workflows act on survey responses—prompting managers, raising IT tickets, and signposting support—so managers can meet colleague needs efficiently.

Cognexo Develop — Capability & Compliance Readiness

Cognexo Develop ensures that all of Zenith's people are compliance-ready — with
daily questions that fit within the flow of work and take less than two minutes per day.

Compliance in the flow
of work.
Daily bite-sized questions embed compliance knowledge continuously — eliminating the need for some ongoing refresher training and saving thousands of productivity hours across the workforce.
Auditable compliance
evidence.
Using insights from Cognexo's Intelligence Dashboard, Zenith utilises knowledge KPI data as an audit trail for regulators — proving that employees have the required competencies.
Speed to competency
at scale.
Compliance accuracy has remained consistently high despite a 600-person increase in users from 2023 to 2024 — demonstrating Cognexo's ability to maintain readiness standards even as large numbers of new users join with no prior baseline.
proven numbers

The Results

Significant
Significant reduction in first-year
new starter attrition.
+13%
New starter eNPS
increased from 30 to 43.
91%
Survey response rates of 91%
Cognexo Develop

Over the past year, Zenith has scaled its platform to support a growing workforce while maintaining strong compliance performance and efficiency. Increased engagement, high accuracy levels, and smarter training cycles have enabled measurable time savings and improved outcomes across the organisation.

1,210 Zenith staff supported through the platform
361,887 questions delivered across all topics in the last 12 months — including 187,000 compliance-focused questions
Compliance accuracy maintained at a consistently high level despite a 600-new user increase from 2023 to 2024Compliance accuracy maintained at a consistently high level despite a 600-new user increase from 2023 to 2024
Significant increase in top-performing individuals achieving the highest compliance scores from 2023 to 2024
3 of 11 compliance refresher training modules reduced to a three-year completion cycle - saving 909 hours in the last 12 months

What Our Clients Say About Cognexo

"Our partnership with Cognexo has significantly improved how we listen to and support our people. By proactively measuring sentiment from day one and taking immediate action, we're showing colleagues their voices matter whilst supporting our leaders — and that's been key to building trust, significantly reducing year one turnover. Combining this with what we have been accomplishing through Cognexo's employee development programme, they have helped us make great strides towards creating an exceptional colleague experience."

Stuart Price, Chief People Officer — Zenith
get started

See the platform working.

The best way to understand what Cognexo can do for your organisation is
to see it in action. Our product team will walk you through a live demo —
tailored to your organisation's size, sector and specific readiness challenges.

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