Does Heliae Development pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Heliae Development employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.8 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Heliae Development. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Heliae Development?

69% of Heliae Development employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Heliae Development 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.7 for culture and values and 3.7 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Heliae Development?

R&D Associate (2) , Research Scientist (2)

What are the pros of working at Heliae Development according to real employee reviews?

"4) Benefits were average." ((in 3 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Heliae Development according to real employee reviews?

"Poor management and leadership." ((in 4 reviews)); "I wouldn't know where to begin: Bad management, and it snow" ((in 3 reviews))

What are employees saying about Heliae Development redundancies in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Heliae Development redundancy and their outlook for job security at Heliae Development in 2026.

Heliae Development Reviews

3.6

69% would recommend to a friend

(38 total reviews)

Eric Lichtenheld

87% approve of CEO

58% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.1

Diversity and inclusion

3.8

Work/Life balance

3.8

Compensation and benefits

3.7

Culture and values

3.7

Career opportunities

3.3

Senior management

Heliae Development has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 38 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Heliae Development employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

38 reviews

1.0

13 Apr 2014

Disappointing to have worked here

Management

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

While others might find pros, I didn't. Event the open cubical policy while they thought it was suppose to be helpful, i found it to be distracted and right down annoying. If i could give no starts i would.

Cons

I wouldn't know where to begin: Bad management, and it snow-balls from there. They haven't produce anything worthy so far. It is nothing more then a blaming game, fake processes to show investors they are doing something but in reality only smoke and mirrors.

3.0

26 Mar 2018

Good job short term experience, not for long term experience

Research technician

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

- There are a lot of good people to work with - The company does try create a good work environment - It is a good job to start out at and get experience from

Cons

-It is very unclear how the company determines giving raises to employees -Working hard does not mean you will get a good raise or move up in any way, you may just stay at the same position doing the same thing for multiple years. - After receiving experience, you are not paid for the experience you have with the company and if you need to be paid more good luck asking for a raise, many people have left the company as that was their only option to get paid for their experience. - This company has had 4 lay offs. The most recent lay off was nearly 50% percent of the company and can be attributed to their inability to solve a problem. They could of solved it by getting rid of a sales guy who constantly failed to meet his goals, and in turn caused the company to have to lay off nearly half their work force due to the companies inability to make profits. -The company does not hold themselves accountable to their own values.

Heliae Development Response

8y

Heliae has primarily been a research and development company since its inception in 2008. August 2018 will be mark Heliae’s tenth anniversary. There are many reasons for celebration. We have: - Hundreds of successful field trials of our newly commercialized microalgae-based soil amendment product; - A pipeline of additional microalgae-based products in development; - A successful partnership in Japan producing Astaxanthin today. While many worldwide companies have attempted to develop sustainable products from microalgae, they have not been able to survive, thus reducing the dozens of companies formerly in this industry, down to a just a handful, of which Heliae remains prominent. Heliae has indeed experienced many changes over the past decade. These changes have been extremely critical to continue the science of identifying the benefits of microalgae, developing new strains and now actually taking our products to market. As an emerging company Heliae has adapted to maintain its ability to manufacture products and continue research and development. While these changes have had impacts to some of our former associates, we still value and honor the commitments and contributions they have made. And, we are grateful for their participation in shaping Heliae as it is today. Current Associate: Director Human Resources in Gilbert, AZ

1.0

24 June 2018

Move On

Research assistant

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

They encourage cross-training, most shifts are M-F (8-5). They offer a decent benefit package BUT they tie 401k matching to unattainable company performance. They used to have a good atmosphere where the company held several events for employees but that's gone.

Cons

The company is not stable. In the time I was there, it grew from 100 employees to almost 200, and then down to approximately 50 through 6 lay-offs, 4 within a year. Salary isn't merit based though they have reviews 2x per year, and reviews are used to determine the next round of lay-offs. Raises are very rare, and only certain people get bonuses. Some employees have unjustifiably high salaries (recent grads, close relations to upper-management). Heliae is too small to be stable or honest, and they don't adhere to their core values. Problematic employees are mostly ignored.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 38 Reviews