Helix Reviews

3.8

68% would recommend to a friend

(118 total reviews)
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James Lu

86% approve of CEO

65% positive business outlook

Helix has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 118 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Helix 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

118 reviews
2.0
10 Nov 2016

Proceed with caution

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Good benefits -Smart people with good intentions if not misguided -Unlimited PTO, flexibility with your schedule

Cons

Thank you to the November 7 reviewer. You aren't drinking the Kool-Aid! That review is spot on and it's helpful to me, as a fellow employee, to know I'm not alone. -CEO and Co-Founders are in over their heads. Direction continuously shifts. No one is in charge or qualified to lead the company. There's a lot of talk about culture but no execution. Their intentions are good and genuine but there is no real change despite the talk. -Agree with previous review that the CEO comes from the wrong background and hasn't executed on company issues. CEO is rarely in the office, and if he is, he isn't seen or engaging with employees that aren't VP level or above. He'll talk about Under Armor at every opportunity and seems to fail to realize he doesn't work there anymore. Not a great way to rally employees. -There is no HR, only recruiting which constantly badgers employees to share news with their networks and make referrals. Yet they fail to follow up with referrals which is completely unprofessional. It's take a lot to put put your reputation on the line in making a referral and when there's no follow-up one way or another, there's no excuse for that. -New Head of People Ops is not going to be effective when senior leadership doesn't have a plan or idea what they're doing. It'll be the blind leading the blind. -Agree with previous post that current employees are start-up types that lack the ability or professional maturity to be strategic partners to help the company scale. -It's clear there are cliques among those who joined the company early on. It's not a friendly environment if you're new.

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Helix Response
9y
Thanks for the feedback. I’m really sorry that your experience at Helix did not match our intention of being the best place you have ever worked. I believe that there is always a better way, and your feedback will give us an opportunity to learn and address the places we missed in delivering a great experience for you. I value and consider all feedback and will continue to find ways to improve but I wanted to address a couple of your specific concerns here. Our culture, particularly as we scale is one of my highest priorities. We have an incredibly collaborative culture - one that attracts individuals and quality partners who want to be part of a mission to help people discover their DNA and use that knowledge to improve their everyday lives. We have many ideas, and are committed to “walking-the-talk” in our interactions both externally and internally. Walking-the-talk is about who we are, the values that we endorse, and how we work and live. We have a number of initiatives going on within the single goal of launching our first product this quarter, so I can see how the discussion of this could come across to you as a change in direction. We are trying to make the priorities really clear, not only at an individual level, but at our cross-company weekly stand-up, and other everyday discussions with the team we have focussed on our quarterly goals we set as a team. We will continue to find more ways to transfer learning across the organization and help each other if the direction is not clear. As we scale, it is not just about growing in number of team members, it’s about growing as a team. We hire only incredibly talented people who are interested in growing themselves, and will end up building a sustainable business with the team in an effort to create something remarkable. We look for people who can push the boundaries of the business, become future leaders and who can help our culture evolve. We value team members that have different backgrounds and perspectives, knowledge and ways of doing things. These differences make all the difference in our vitality, scalability and our quest for excellence. The importance of our mission to individual consumers is potentially life-altering, but equally important is the profound impact our work can have on humanity. With this as a goal, I’ll admit that sometimes I can become too focused on the execution of those goals, spending less time than I’d like walking through the office and engaging with you and others helping to support our mission. I know this is incredibly important. Through our weekly meetings, company socials, group bike rides and activities, lunch gatherings with cross-functional teams, I’m working hard to make an effort to seek feedback and connect on a personal level with as many of our employees as possible. We are trying to maintain our fun, dynamic and caring environment as we grow. But I’m sorry that our efforts are not meeting your expectations. That said, I’m thankful that you took the time to share your opinion here so that I and others can reflect on it and think about ways we can adapt and do more to ensure you and others feel valued and appreciated. -Robin Thurston CEO @ Helix
1.0
30 Apr 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Exciting idea, talented founders team, unique approach to the market, substantial material and scientific support from the leading monopoly in the field; 300M+ in funding. What can go wrong?

Cons

Hiring incompetent, backstabbing, irresponsible executives. CTO and CEO have no idea and should have no part in running the scientific company of this scale and ambitions. Toxic culture in engineering and design; influence is measured by social distance from the CEO. I am pained to say that the founders, honest and hard-working as they are, are outmatched and overshadowed by "bad" and incompetent players. People, director and below, are honest, hard-working and love the mission, but completely overpowered.

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Helix Response
8y
One of our core values, “Bridge the Gap,” recognizes that our most significant challenges and opportunities lie at the intersection of disciplines. Success in this arena requires that individuals from disparate backgrounds such as clinical and consumer, marketing and engineering, and commercial and science co-mingle and feed off each other. It seems we can do a better job discussing our values and how they contribute to our success as a business. Unfortunately we also know that the cross-functional nature of our model doesn’t resonate with everyone. Cheers, James
1.0
22 Mar 2018

Pony 404

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Helix has an amazing potential and an opportunity to change how the future of medicine, health and personalization. It has the resources - given the ties with Illumina, the funding rounds raised and few remaining good people.

Cons

CEO and his friends. It is beginning to be a company that is run by politics and connection rather than meritocracy. People are awarded titles and paychecks based on "degrees of separation" from CEO rather than the weight that a person is pulling. There are a lot of people ( in key positions) that have no clue of what they are doing and how to run their teams. People are not valued. "Integrity" is only a poster Value given how the coverups around previous rounds and the hush hush around salary and wage discrepancies at the same level. Ideas and Work is not valued. It is a company being run on a gut reaction rather than a sound strategy and conviction.

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Helix Response
8y
It’s true—Helix has enormous potential. As with any company, we do our best to show the team how much we value them. This includes being transparent: whether it’s insight into our product roadmap, partnerships, or promotions—we’re an open book to our teammates. Our employee review process rewards performance and accomplishments through self, peer, and manager reviews, including manager calibration sessions where each department advocates for their employees, one by one. We're proud of the tremendous growth our company has experienced since its founding, and credit that to a compelling mission, innovative business model, and competitive compensation philosophy. Without this winning combination, we wouldn’t have reached the position we’re in today. We encourage you to speak with your manager for clarity about compensation and rewards. You can find a great guide to having a productive compensation conversation at https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2016/06/27/8-managers-share-the-best-way-to-ask-for-a-raise-and-get-it. If you feel we’re not living up to our values, we invite you to share your ideas for improvement. You’re important to us, and we want you to know it. -Romina
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Glassdoor has 153 Helix reviews submitted anonymously by Helix employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Helix is right for you.