Next Level Solutions Reviews

After the office move however, everything changed. Must have been something in the florescent lights that made leadership decide they were above everyone else. From the time the move happened to when I left, culture tanked, reorgs happened once a year, reasons were given to not give out promotions, and leadership became more and more bloated. So far we've seen two layoffs happen in the past few years, and a few not-so-subtle moves to get people to leave on their own accord (leadership really likes to think they're smarter than those that work for them, just check out each of the responses to every single review, it's all lip service, even the inevitable response to this review "we understand" "we're continuously working to" "while we recognize", it's all beautifully-written business condescension). This last move looked to be a real humdinger, making employees sign gag orders or they won't get their already weak severance pay (a week for each year of service). Both layoffs were right at holiday times, the first in the beginning of December that year, and this one a week into November, which is a real jerk move when no one hires until the beginning of the year, and the company has literally not been around long enough to pay anyone their severance to last until the end of the year. Although maybe this time the COO won't buy a new $120k car the week after the first round of layoffs! It's all about the optics you know. Speaking of management, they are all "doing the best they can with what they got" which just around no management experience before running the company. There are a token 2-3 directors and up that came in with some management experience, but when your ~175 person company is 20% directors and up, that's a startling shortage of real experience. And surprisingly, it shows! It's no secret that Duck Creek is on the decline, and the one smart decision that NLS made was to broaden their offerings, purchasing Britecore, or whatever it's called. Thing is, they never broadened their offerings, never leaning into Britecore, moving into the Guidewire space, or even custom insurance solutions. And now we're seeing the shortsightedness of it all. At the peak of NLS, they had 350 people working there, and now, I think it's less than half of that, all in two years. Do Good Work amirite?

Culture is too laid back. There is very little structure in place, best practices do not exist and communication is very poor in most departments. During orientation, one of the leaders stressed how they hate silos, but silos abound. There is nothing in place concerning development of individuals or how to prepare people for their work. Some of this comes with tremendous growth, and you have many who were good SME's in a particular area wearing a Director or VP hat when they don't know how to lead. Many of them are from the "good ol boy" network, picked because they knew such and such a person more than any experience or ability. This results in multiple resignations a month, which is pretty telling for such a small company. People are assigned to lead and train you who don't care a bit about you and are only interested in their growth, even if that means you don't learn anything or receive any work. If you are looking to work onsite in Springfield, you might make it work if you keep your head low and don't mind coasting along and collecting a paycheck. If you are remote or in a smaller office, you will feel disconnected and disengaged. There is a lot of "yea us!" cheer-leading, but very little substance.