Sievo Reviews

3.4

62% would recommend to a friend

(129 total reviews)
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Sammeli Sammalkorpi

81% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Sievo has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 129 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Sievo employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

129 reviews
1.0
30 Jan 2024

Management exceeds at making everything worse

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The only good thing about the company right now is the team itself. While management finds new ways of making life and work harder for everyone, the team is supportive of each other, caring whenever possible and honestly, trying to exceed.

Cons

- Management exhibits defensive behaviors when being provided with feedbacks/questions. A simple inquiry can trigger unexpectedly passive aggressive response. People opt to stay quiet to avoid getting on the bad side of them. - Projects are never finished because they simply think that others can read their mind and figure out their thoughts. Or simply, they do not even know what they want. The team is forever put on a vicious loop: start the project -> repeated alignment calls to report every little details -> work on it -> "this is not what I want" -> rinse and repeat. - Knowledge level is highly unbalance between locations. This leads to poor services as people who lack proper training do not know the purpose of their tasks while more experience personnel is too busy putting out fire (or looking for outside opportunities because nothing is improved). - No proper career development paths, either horizontal or vertical. Requirements to move up your team or move to other teams are obscure at best. People are denied opportunities simply because they belong a team that is not considered important. - Extreme micromanagement is a highlight in recent months with management requests regularly update to the miniscule level (exceed?). - Despite communicating that layoffs would not happen, instances of employees just disappeared are increasing without even their colleagues knowing what has happened. No proper explanations are provided, no knowledge transfer, no goodbye, just a gray Slack icon indicating someone used to be there. If there is an explanation, performance is the common excuse but interestingly, not many people are aware of what KPIs are used to gauge performance (honesty?) - Employees' well-being is not a priority. If you are burnt out, it is not their problem, go see a doctor and get back to work. If you are not appreciated, deal with it because it is normal here (caring?).

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Sievo Response
2y
Hello, Apologies for the delayed response. I tried to address all the Glassdoor comments quickly (just like any internal feedback channels), yet this one was particularly challenging. Being a part of our management team, I took time to think things over and also chat with the other members too. First, it sounds like you are very unhappy with the situation in your team. This needs to be addressed, but I do not believe that the situation in your team applies to most parts of Sievo or most Sievonians. This is why it would be important to get some more detailed information to be able to address the situation in your team. I'd like to address the first half of your concerns and then categorize my responses regarding each of our values, as you did. We know there have been changes, especially in team lead roles, which may have made things harder and less organized for some teams. It's tough to say which team you're referring to, but it sounds like you might be facing a similar issue, given your mention of project cycles and knowledge transfer. However, uncertainty is a part of every scale-up’s reality. Of course, this does not justify if you see it as repetitive for a long period of time and even after we fill certain key positions. About career paths, we've heard feedback and done some improvements in our Career Playground concept so that everyone could know about the resources and opportunities here at Sievo, and the details and guidance is now available internally. I do not agree with your comment that some people are denied opportunities because their team isn't seen as important. all teams in Sievo are important and we also see constant examples of Sievonians from all teams growing in their own domains or exploring new opportunities by moving to other teams. Now, about our values: Honesty: I must echo what has been already communicated internally before. We can't share personal details, but we do keep everyone informed in case of a business decision or organizational structure change. While we don't have strict performance metrics or KPIs, we do have discussions about growth, and team leads talk to individuals if they see performance issues. These discussions are between the person and their manager. So naturally, the rest of the team isn't part of these discussions. Caring: In fact, it's usually my team (People & IT) that suggests that people talk to support channels such as occupational healthcare. We're not doing this to avoid the issue, but rather to bring attention to it. If a person is experiencing burnout symptoms or their mental wellbeing is otherwise compromised, the help of healthcare professionals is often needed – our managers are not trained psychologists. However, if you're aware of the cause of your burnout, I doubt any managers would object to offering assistance or easing your workload. If something else is contributing to your burnout, then we need to address the underlying issue. Exceed: Not sure if you are talking about this case, but I’m aware of situations where management or team lead has wanted to dig deeper into what work takes up most of people’s time in the team. The purpose of this is not to micromanage, but to actually find out details about workload and to be able to prioritise the team’s work. The ultimate goal is to address workload issues (that might be the root cause of people experiencing burn out), and it should be temporary and in exceptional cases. You mentioned that it started during the recent months. If you're still feeling this way, please speak up again. I understand not everyone feels as comfortable as many others to leave a comment on the “ask me anything – management” channel on Slack. Then you can use our anonymous feedback channels. I can assure you that we give them the same level of attention. You also made a very positive comment. However, I wish you could view the management team as a part of the Sievo team that you mentioned. “The only good thing about the company right now is the team itself.” Most of us have worked in different roles at Sievo before and were (and still are) part of the same supportive, caring, and honest team. We haven't changed into something negative overnight just because we took on different titles. So, I really want to highlight that I am not trying to be defensive or passive aggressive here. It is just heartbreaking to come across this comment, especially considering the efforts our People Team has put in to ensure everyone is treated fairly and enjoys a positive experience at Sievo. Sorry for the very long reply. I hope you or your team members will come talk to either myself or someone else from People team. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Anna / Sievo
1.0
24 Oct 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great colleagues Kudos to sales, the only great asset. Great stepping stone right after Aalto

Cons

1. Management has to approve every decision and even wants to be highly involved in all matters including product development, why don’t they just focus on growing the company, selling more? 2. They promote a person straight out of school vs someone who’s been an expert in his field for 4+years and clearly rockin’ it. Why? That’s because the person is from Aalto? 3. The product really sucks, it’s old technology, they talk of big data but it’s actually small data. If you want to learn and get hands on the best technology look somewhere else before your other colleagues from other company leave you behind in tech skills. 4. Great place to work? It is because it’s Helsinki central and also they send employees outside Finland for a three day retreat. That’s about it folks. 5. If you an easy agreeable person they’ll like you there, if you question the status quo and want to look into innovative and clearly implementable ideas then you’ll get a cold shoulder. 6. Some management team members need more training on management and leadership.

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Sievo Response
7y
I am sincerely sorry for the negative feelings that are reflected in your review. To be honest, this review was really painful to read. Yes, all members of our management team definitely need to learn and improve all the time, so that we can keep Sievo on our path of profitable growth even in the future. It is true that people at Sievo are not promoted based on service years, and that we have been able to provide quick career advancement for people who have demonstrated exceptional skills while working at Sievo. Thank you for taking the time to review, even though it is obvious that you were not satisfied at Sievo. I wish with all my heart that you have become happy in the company you currently work in. Anna / Sievo
2.0
16 Oct 2018

Company review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you are a Finnish man coming from Aalto University School of Technology the management will like you and push you forward

Cons

Foreigners and women are put to the sideline and are not really given fair chances to grow in the company. The top management is also prone to holding grudges if you are not compliant with whatever they say. Opinionated people are pushed out of the company. There is also plenty of subjectivity when promoting people and the salary level is not really competitive.

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Sievo Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to review Sievo, and I’m sorry that your experience has been such a negative one. I hope you will discuss with your manager and / or with a People team representative about what would improve your experience with us. It is true that we have room to improve the amount women and non-Finnish people in managerial positions, but fortunately we have made progress in this field in the past couple of years. This is an important topic that we need to keep monitoring and improving. Our aim has been and will be to promote people based on demonstrated skills and suitability for each position, not based on any non-relevant factors such as gender or nationality. -Anna / Sievo
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Glassdoor has 136 Sievo reviews submitted anonymously by Sievo employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sievo is right for you.