Growing, hectic, poor communication between teams, awesome "C" level leadership - Systems Engineer Health Catalyst Employee Review

4.0
21 Dec 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The CEO is caring, conscientious, and humble. The senior leadership team cares about making a difference and being a best place to work (at least they talk about it *all the time*). They allow people to work from home. They have snacks. Everyone seems to care (people are kind to one another). After typing out all the cons, in the end, I suppose most every company struggles with things... the cons can be frustrating, but in the end, I think a big plus is that most everyone at HC has been super nice and supportive (even if we still don't know our responsibilities), and to me, that makes a big difference (yes, we have grumpy people too, but there aren't too many that I've found).

Cons

Poor understanding of roles/responsibilities of departments/teams, even after they did a reorg 6 months ago. The software the company produces is challenging to use (it does many neat things, but troubleshooting issues is a pain.). You can work crazy hard and regardless of how hard you work it doesn't feel like it matters for your bonus because bonuses are given out to everyone equally (bonuses are based on company goals. If the company doesn't meet its goals, you don't get a big of a bonus regardless of your contributions). It seems that there aren't seasoned people in middle management positions and/or the senior leadership doesn't get involved at lower levels of the company. It just feels like things are really hectic, there aren't clear ways of doing things (there are multiple document systems, multiple ticket tracking systems, multiple communication platforms). None of the systems really talk to each other. Senior leadership tried to introduce a new communication/documentation system awhile ago in (what seemed) like an effort to consolidate. Now we have yet another communication system. At the team/department level it feels like we are acting like a small company still and that doesn't scale well. There may be efforts to transition to acting like a larger organization, but if those efforts exist they aren't well known.

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Health Catalyst Response
8y
Thanks very much for your review. I've read and reread it a couple times to try to ensure that I internalize this feedback. First, I appreciate your positive comments about the company, and I'm glad to hear that these positives have been a meaningful part of your experience. I also appreciate your acknowledgement that every company has its struggles--that has certainly been my experience working for many different organizations. Even high performing organizations have room for improvement, and that will always include us at Health Catalyst having room for improvement. I appreciate your comments about the need to improve our clarity on roles and responsibilities post-reorg. I acknowledge we have improvement opportunities, and we are still discussing and clarifying our understanding as a Leadership Team of roles and responsibilities, (including as recently as last week's LT meeting) which reinforces your point, likely at every level of the company. We'll keep working on this--I do feel like my understanding is improving, and that our leadership team's understanding is also improving, and we'll keep following up to try to ensure that this cascades throughout the organization. I also acknowledge that we're on a journey of improvement regarding our software capabilities, and I feel really positively about the progress we've made, particularly these past 2 1/2 years under Dale's leadership and the tech leadership team's stewardship. In many ways 2017 has been a historic year for the company in terms of the leaps forward in our technology capabilities. And yet, with all that progress, there is still much work to do, and there are plenty of examples where we're not quite to where we want to be, in terms of leading the industry from a technology perspective. I appreciate your ongoing contributions to strengthening our technology capabilities, and feel very good about continuing an outsized investment in R&D in 2018 (and permanently) as a proportion of our overall operating expenses, to try to enable our long-term tech leadership. But we still definitely have work to do. Thanks also for your comments about the capability set and development plans for our mid-level managers. This has been an area of attention for us as a leadership team, and I want to acknowledge that there are few shortcuts to developing great skill as a manager and as a leader. So, this is an area that will take consistent focus and effort, over sustained periods of time, to register systemic improvement. About two years ago we began a concerted effort and focus in helping new managers develop the skills, capabilities and characteristics of great leaders and managers. We started with a focus on holding regular 1:1s and in those 1:1s focusing first on listening and on asking the overarching question "how can I help you be successful" to each of their fellow team members during those 1:1s. We've added some additional trainings and more recently, we're incorporating management mentoring into our overall mentorship program. But I'm confident we can do more, here. I'll follow up with our Leadership Team on what we can do to accelerate the development of our managers. I agree with your last point that improvement in this regard is the responsibility of the leadership of the company. We take that responsibility seriously and will work to improve in this area. Finally, I want to acknowledge some of the downside of a team-based bonus approach. We all sink or swim together, which may mean that in some cases one group may have over-performed but be hampered by another group's underperformance. But this approach also has significant upside, and I'm increasingly convinced that the team-based approach, as reflected in our bonus and in many other ways, is a core element of the mission-orientation of the company and the positive culture of the company. And my hope and belief is that we gain much more than we lose, in the medium- and long-term, as teammates, in this environment. I hope that proves to be your experience over time at Health Catalyst. Thanks again for sharing these thoughtful insights--they will help us improve as a company.

Explore other reviews about Health Catalyst

5.0
9 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Before 2025, the company's benefits and leadership were excellent.

Cons

As of 2025, all benefits have been suspended until the end of the year.

1
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Health Catalyst Response
7mo
Thank you for sharing your perspective. We appreciate your recognition of the strengths the company had before this year and the dedication of team members during challenging times. As we shape our 2026 strategy, we’re carefully evaluating how we allocate resources to ensure organizational success, identifying where to invest and how to utilize those resources most effectively, all guided by a clear and focused plan. Your feedback is helpful, and we will continue to communicate updates as progress is made. -Ben Albert
3.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Talent & Culture: The people here are highly capable, collaborative, and committed to helping each other succeed. The partnership between onshore and offshore teams works well and is a real strength. There’s a culture of grit and stability that has helped the company navigate multiple major transitions over the years. Mission-Critical Engineering: The work involves complex data infrastructure that requires deep technical expertise. It can be demanding, but seeing these systems run successfully and support real-world operations is consistently rewarding.

Cons

Wage Compression and Retention Risk: Compensation for tenured and high-performing staff has not kept pace with the market for specialized data engineering and support leadership. In practice, tenure can feel undervalued or even penalized. This creates risk around losing institutional knowledge and operational continuity. Stagnant Career Progression: Contrary to stated expectations, strong performance ratings do not consistently translate into meaningful, market-aligned compensation growth. The process of how compensation is benchmarked lacks clarity in practice, obscuring how compensation decisions are made and what is required to advance.

5
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