Two sided company
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The flexibility and home-office possibilities
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The two-faced morality of the company values (“transparency”, “respect”, and “employee-centeredness”) as well as the feedback culture on the one hand, and the disastrous actual implementation and execution of those on the other.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
- The bottlenecks are the Managing Directors, who leave no room for maneuver for the management nor the employees in order to make their own decisions. Everything has to go through an “approval” process. The CEOs are too involved in the operational business and are therefore unable to delegate tasks properly. The goal is/was always communicated as the positioning of interdisciplinary product teams at customers, but there is no professional, independent sales department nor sales managers - as a result, each Head-Of (acting as sales manager for the own team) pursues his/her own interests and goals for utilization of his/her own team.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Corporate values are communicated often and widely, but the actual implementation of “transparency” and “respect” is clearly missed. There were also toxic periods which were not recognised by the management or no measure were taken to counteract them. Five people were hired for one team in 2021, all of them left the year after. The reasons are very clear: False promises; no strategy set by the management; no market fit; all were neither challenged (project-wise) nor enabled (to perform at their best) nor promoted (appreciation for their work)… The management played with the careers of others without thinking about the consequences.
Kommunikation
Regular Townhall / Company updates (at least once a month) with the current state of the company in the market. However, critical situations are inadequately addressed. Mistakes are not admitted or learned from. Responsibility for the mistakes is also not taken, so that ultimately the company's own employees feel responsible for desolate situations.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Within the own team or the project team the cooperation is excellent. Outside the team (with other department), there are only very few points of contact. Very few team (building) events…
Work-Life-Balance
Home-Office possibilities, highly flexible working-hours (if coordinated with the customer), exceptional understanding for childcare. Extra hours are not explicitly requested, but tolerated and those can neither be paid out nor reduced with flextime.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
An open feedback culture is explicitly requested, but there is only room for positive feedback. Negative/critical feedback is punished with ignorance and no measures for improvement are derived. Basic leadership skills are lacking among certain managers. Employee retention is not practiced in certain teams.
Interessante Aufgaben
Initially many false promises (e.g. in the interview process) about what exciting projects/products will be managed; ultimately the level of challenge and interestingness is rather below market standard. However, the projects strongly depend on the department and the customer.
Gleichberechtigung
Promotions are highly dependent on the manager and the department. Otherwise, absolutely no distinction is made between sex, skin color, religion, age, etc.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Overall, it is age-wise a very young company. Older colleagues are just as important as younger ones.
Arbeitsbedingungen
State-of-the-Art smartphones and laptops can be selected before start. Work equipment can and will be reused. Office is moderns equipped with height-adjustable desks. Further equipment can be requested.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Once a year, a donation is made to one or more social institutions based on the company’s objectives. Waste separation.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Salary is way below market standard and below average (even compared to other agencies and consultancies). The company-wide level model shows its weaknesses, since the professional diversity is paid the same - above market salary for one team/department is compensated on the shoulders on other teams/departments (way below market salary). The 4+1 week is used as an argument for the lower salaries, but the additional day only serves as an “internal meeting day”. Measures such as increasing the daily rates are not implemented because there is too much fear of customer reactions. Bonus for the previous year takes 10 months to „calculate“.
Image
Certain departments have an excellent reputation (e.g. Product Management & UI/UX). Overall, the target customer companies are the ones, that are still somewhat stuck in the pre-digitalisation age, which naturally also means that no state-of-the-art can be applied. Overall, DieProduktMacher are lagging somewhat behind the top-market and only applies methods which are already established on the market for some time.
The internal organization works mostly conventionally, whereas iterative and agile processes are demanded from the employees to be applied at the customers. Knowing from the big players on the market: “Frameworks are sold that you do not even use yourself”.
Finally, the whole company is centered around the utilization of the employees (staffing on projects) - this is the main KPI to measure the success of the company and its objectives; which is fine as the business model of agencies/consultancies is like that, but it deflates the possibilities to come up with new ideas and revenue streams to a minimum.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Promotions can only be granted when the employee shows full "DieProduktMacher"-commitment and everything is highly dependent on the projects and the direct supervisor/manager; however the employee does not have any kind of control which kinds of projects he/she will do - this is controlled by the management which acquires and distributes the projects. The appraisal process only serves as a pretext to give a “grade” to the employee, which may or may not justify a promotion. Training must be addressed by the employee and may or may not be approved by management; however, the employee has no authority over a specific training budget. All so often the training consists of: “Here, read this or that book”. In addition, the employee does not get time to fulfil the measures from the appraisal process in order to validate his/her performance.