We currently don't have a 401k match because of the economic turbulence from COVID, which I think most employees understand the situation and are okay with it. The thing that bothers me is I've heard leadership say "We have to earn the right to bring this back.". That rubs me the wrong way a bit. What does "earn the right" really mean? If it means we have to be profitable, then that makes me frustrated. We were not profitable before COVID and we still had 401k match, so I don't like hearing that we need to "earn the right". It feels like leadership may be leveraging the COVID card a little too much in our goal to get to profitability (with the 401k, and in other areas). Maybe the pressures of being a publicly traded company now? It just feels a bit off.
The 401k going away is something that I can live with. The messaging is frustrating, but not as much as this next point I will bring up. It's the fact that I am seeing talented team members get promotions, taking on a lot more responsibility, stress, work hours, etc, and they are not getting compensated at all for it. Yet on the other hand, I'm reading through my Motivosity email updates and I see that we are hiring a lot of new employees. I don't understand it one bit. How are we hiring new employees, yet not giving increased compensation to those that are taking on more responsibilities and stress to their work? It makes zero sense to me. I was texting one of these individuals who is absolutely swamped due to a recent promotion, I was shocked to hear the amount of hours he was working and it just makes me mad that there is no additional compensation for it. The interesting thing about this text conversation was that this individual literally brought compensation up and then sent me a link of a company that pays the deserved salary for the new amount of work and expertise required..(aka this individual was already toying with the idea of leaving HC, very sad). I don't think HC is doing their employees a favor here. I think it's very noble and great to not have any layoffs due to COVID, thank you leadership!! But there comes a point, in my opinion, that if HC doesn't take care of their great employees the way they deserve, they will eventually leave the company. Those that leave will be the great team members and those that stay will be the ones that are not so great. So, in summary, it's great we had no layoffs, my fear is that if this drags out too long, we are going to see an exit of amazing talent, and then be left with the not so amazing talent. I just don't want things to backfire on Health Catalyst. Compensation is not what most individuals value most in the priority list, I promise. But when an individual feels they are not compensated correctly, the compensation topic surfaces to the #1 priority and sticks out like a sore thumb. I hope HC begins to pay those individuals that have received promotions, it's the only fair thing to do, especially when we are hiring new employees and growing.
Lastly, I feel like Health Catalyst is a very "fit in" culture. To the point where I feel like we don't get a lot of healthy debate that takes the company to the next level. I have heard of individuals being blackballed time and time again because they voice their opinion. To me, differing opinions and experience is what diversity truly is. We don't have this like we should. Health Catalyst meetings are very "agreeable" if you will. You don't ever see someone challenging someone else's thought process. I think this is due to the culture of Health Catalyst. Everyone gets along and it's great. But I do think we would be a better company if there was a culture of challenging the status quo and not fearing you have to be black-balled for it.
