Health Catalyst

5.0

27 Aug 2018

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Health Catalyst is hands down an excellent place to work. Most importantly, the leadership (specifically Dan Burton, our CEO) are enlightened in terms of being open-minded and listening carefully to employee feedback. Dan genuinely cares about the employees and is fully transparent, even going so far as to put all negative Glassdoor feedback up on the screen during the all-hands meeting for all to see. We have an internal anonymous feedback mechanism and he does the same with that feedback. He airs out these issues and thoughtfully responds to each and every one. What kind of work could be more meaningful? Health Catalyst is certainly a "double bottom line" company where profits and company purpose go hand in hand. This purpose that we all feel at Health Catalyst, to drive healthcare improvements that literally come down to helping save lives, makes our employee base more satisfied and fulfilled. Health Catalyst not only measures its financial stability but also measures the number of results we have helped generate for our healthcare customers (e.g., lowered mortality, decreased readmissions, fewer healthcare facility acquired infections like sepsis, length of stay reductions, etc.). For us, doing good in the world and doing well financially are inextricably tied, and the approach is that if we continue to execute to help improve outcomes for patients and help improve hospital and health system profitability that our own profits will follow. It's a noble mission we are on and I feel honored to be a part of it.

Cons

The company is growing so very fast, which is fun to see. So it's impossible to keep up with this growth perfectly, so we have situations where employees with no managerial experience or training are put in managerial positions which makes it hard both on those folks and their subordinates, especially because the managers are also individual contributors so it's two jobs for many people in that position. We also have situations where people are put into a role where they don't have much experience in what that role requires. These are great career growth opportunities but sometimes we are in a place where everyone is doing things their own way and we lack consistent execution. There was a recent job leveling exercise that many feel was poorly managed and left a lot of people confused and demotivated about their career path. This leveling exercise informed many people that they were being compensated already above the 75th percentile for their job role and would therefore not be eligible for any raises until the market catches up with them (for me this is like 10 years). This was entirely demotivating especially to people who had the mindset "I'll do whatever it takes for this company to grow" because that meant taking on work that was "beneath" us and so when the leveling came around some were pegged into a lower paying job level. Now personally I find myself not wanting to jump in and raise my hand to do whatever it takes to help the company, because to get paid more I need to focus only on trying to do higher value work on paper so I can leave my current job level and hopefully get paid more. With this leveling it was also announced that all salaries will be pegged to the Utah market. This was a huge unintended blow! Management has received feedback on this and say they are trying to come up with a solution. But wow, talk about demotivating. On top of being pegged to a lower job level than you are qualified for combined with the fact that some of us live in areas that are 30% higher than Utah makes it hard to not look elsewhere since the future doesn't feel very bright financially. This isn't disclosed anywhere in the job postings ("Silicon Valley talent need not apply! Unless you want a pay cut and/or no financial growth once you join.") This is certainly NOT the intent of management and I am hopeful that an adjustment will be forthcoming so that not only can we retain team members in higher cost of living areas but also attract the very best and brightest, who often live in expensive places. Our workforce is around 50% remote I think, and there are a lot of places out there that are more expensive to live in than Utah.

Health Catalyst Response

Thank you for your kind and generous words, and for taking time to write a thorough review of both the positives and some of the real challenges of working at Health Catalyst. I am energized as I read through your description of the positives of working at Health Catalyst -- your articulate description is detailed, compelling and motivating to try to live up to this wonderful description. Likewise, your description of some of the challenges is resonant and compelling and evokes feelings of sadness and regret as I more fully internalize the negative personal impact of some of the company's policies and decisions. I have reread your feedback multiple times and, while we have had a few discussions about the geographic pay differential in LT meetings over the past four months or so, there were some significant arguments made against a geographic pay differential based on the financial impact of doing so. So we resolved to do a more thorough financial analysis, and then we received some additional feedback, including your feedback, of the negative impact and message this sends to team members outside of Utah, particularly those who live in higher cost-of-living areas. As I have continued to consider this topic, I have a working hypothesis that is strengthening, that if we do not offer a geographic pay differential, then we are not keeping our commitment to existing team members in those areas, to "have their back" when it comes to compensation; to pay above-market (and to me, above-market should factor in geography, particularly for existing team members where we have already made that commitment to them); to provide generous pay and benefits so as to enable team members not to worry about their compensation and instead focus on the mission of the company. I do understand and find compelling the argument that in some situations having team members who choose to work and live in lower-cost areas may be an advantage that we can pass on to our customers -- and that moving forward, in some cases, this consideration may be one of many relevant factors to consider as hiring managers go through the selection process. One example of this that was referenced in our most recent LT discussion on this topic was our ability to offer some "outsourced services" at a compelling value/price to clients. At the same time, I believe there will also be many situations in which the experience base and skill of a candidate will overwhelm any potential concerns about geographic cost differentials, particularly in the context of the huge difference in contribution of highly engaged and qualified team members (they are not 5% or 10% more productive, they are often 5X or 10X as productive as disengaged and/or non-qualified team members). For these reasons, I have asked the finance team to include the assumption of a geographic pay differential to be applied to each team member at Health Catalyst who lives in an area that is significantly higher-cost than Utah, starting January 1, 2019. I want to be clear that we have not yet made this decision or commitment, but that it is my hope that we can implement this in 2019 and also keep our financial sustainability commitments. Further, I have asked the finance team to include the assumption of a change to our pay increase policy for those above the 75th percentile to be eligible to receive the "market" pay increase for their job, as the market rate increases. This also isn't yet a decision we've made, but one we would like to be able to make, as long as we can find a way to make it work within our financial sustainability envelope. Finally, we are encouraging every manager to nominate their team members to increase pay bands as soon as they qualify for this promotion, and we have a standing weekly agenda topic to review and approve these in our LT meetings. Thus far this year we have approved 100% of these promotion requests from managers. We will cover each of these points in tomorrow's ATM discussion and keep you apprised as we refine the 2019 operating plan, hopefully being in a position to confirm these policy changes within the next 3 - 4 months, provided we can make these fit within our financial sustainability framework. Thank you for your contributions to the company these past 3+ years, for your willingness to do whatever is needed to help the company be successful. I hope that you will continue to operate this way moving forward, and feel like the company will appreciate and value this commitment and flexibility. Best, Dan

Double Bottom Line Company and Excellent Place to Work - Anonymous employee Health Catalyst Employee Review

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