When I joined, I was told this company was in "hyper-growth" mode, and we would be increasing our employee size by 200% over the next year. In 2020 we barely hit 1% growth in employee size. This was due to excessive turnover and layoffs/furloughs during the pandemic.
Since being at Birdeye for over a year and a half, 3/4 of the employees I hired are no longer at Birdeye. Leadership does not give their employees freedom to do what they were hired to do. Mainly on the Manager & Director level, they are micromanaged constantly, leading to a high turnover rate and a volatile environment for everyone else.
Managers have not grasped that in this current job market candidates have many options. They need to be selling Birdeye to the candidates, not belittling them and having the attitude of "candidates should be grateful to even be interviewing with us." Managers need to invest time in training their employees properly. Birdeye needs to hire & promote from within. The favorites (those who came to Birdeye as referrals from their Birdeye manager) get promoted quickly, but not always those with the longest tenure.
The HR leaders are cold and employ scare tactics during performance evaluations for sales employees - even during a first warning. Once you oppose or question the decisions being made, you are automatically labeled a "problem employee" by HR. The HR team is constantly asked during 1x1s “Do you still like your job? Do you still like Birdeye?” which puts doubt into our heads, making us think there is something wrong internally.
The turnover rate needs to be addressed before the recruiting team can be effective. Hiring for the same position over and over is exhausting. There is no data, process, or structure in place for the recruiters and they need a new manager, until these things happen the team cannot be successful.
Many people, myself included, leave Birdeye because there is no future of growth or promotion. If you want to join a startup because you can influence and make changes to help with growth, then Birdeye is not for you. But if you have the mentality of "keep your head down and mouth shut", then you might thrive here.
