Very short sighted company, especially at corporate level - Anonymous employee Novanta Employee Review

1.0
Oct 19, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They have a lot of HR people who do nothing all day except email fluffy newsletters about stuff no one cares about while avoiding the topics employees do care about.

Cons

Corporate dictates changes to BU's that make no sense other than some corporate guy will hit some short-sighted goal. Corporate does not listen to the BU business experts about why the Corporate edict will lose business & anger customers, and then corporate complains when it happens exactly like the BU business experts said it would. Has happened many times & no one in Corporate is ever held accountable. Ever. Medical insurance (in Massachusetts) is horrible. Bare minimum the law will tolerate, with the lowest-rated insurance company in the State. No employee stock purchase plan, The few rank & file who are awarded RSU's are given paltry awards (as compared to other places many of us have worked). Turnover is very high. Partly due to rounds of layoffs, then hiring sprees. The average tenure during my time at Novanta is about 2-3 years, with a long tail.

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Novanta Response
2y
Building a collaborative workplace fueled by continuous learning and feedback is important to us and we’re sorry that hasn’t been your experience. We’re committed to addressing conflict head on and as part of our Novanta Way culture, your voice matters. Your experience is something we take seriously and isn’t what we set out to achieve. We operate Business Unit (BU) structures with leadership teams to empower autonomy. We prioritize a continuous improvement business philosophy, process mapping and root cause corrective action workshops to better understand where our processes are falling short and always want our teams to feel empowered to bring these challenges up to a trusted manager or HR Partner. We also encourage you to reach out to your HR Partner to discuss how you can participate in the various feedback processes we have. We want to ensure your experience matches the expectations we set for ourselves as a company.

Explore other reviews about Novanta

5.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Onboarding experience, clear company vision and strategy, employee guidance, communication, product catalog & industry diversification, PTO policy, work-life balance

Cons

No WFH hardware setup/checklist, no internal resource showing a product tree of all major product types (by site/BU)

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Novanta Response
2w
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We’re pleased to hear that your onboarding, work-life balance, communication, and overall introduction to Novanta have made a positive impression during your first year with the company. We also appreciate your thoughtful suggestions. Helping new employees understand the products they support, how they make an impact, and our broader portfolio is an important part of creating a successful onboarding experience. As we continue to enhance our onboarding programs, feedback like yours helps us identify opportunities to provide additional resources and deeper product education to help employees build confidence and connect the work they do to our broader business. Thank you again for your feedback and for being part of the Novanta team. We wish you continued success as you grow your career with us.
4.0
Apr 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It’s rare to find a company where you truly feel like you belong, and while no workplace is perfect, Novanta’s strengths far outweigh its shortcomings. What stood out most was their onboarding and training process — structured, thorough, and genuinely supportive for new employees. Day-to-day operations are well-organized, which makes it easier to do your best work, even though there’s always room for continued improvement. The benefits package is hard to beat — 5% 401K match, 16 PTOs, HSA/FSA, and comprehensive health/vision/dental coverage. The flexibility to work from home, especially at the manager level, shows the company values work-life balance. The company events and volunteer activities are a highlight — keep those coming! They go a long way in building a sense of community and culture. Overall, Novanta is a place where people are set up to succeed. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a stable, organized, and people-focused company.

Cons

One area for improvement would be transparency around organizational changes. There were instances of unexpected layoffs in certain departments without much advance notice, which understandably affected morale and trust. More proactive communication during times of restructuring would go a long way in maintaining employee confidence.

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Novanta Response
3mo
Thank you for taking the time to share such a thoughtful and balanced review. We’re pleased to hear that your experience reflected a strong sense of belonging, effective onboarding, and a well-structured environment that supports people in doing their best work. It’s also great to see recognition of our benefits, flexibility, and the role that team events and volunteer efforts play in building a connected culture – those are all intentional investments we have made in building a great workplace culture. As a growing, global company, we continuously evolve to align with market opportunities and long-term priorities. That includes ensuring we have the right structure, capabilities, and communication approaches in place to support our teams through change. We regularly communicate with employees through daily posts on the Collaboration Hub, our intranet, weekly email newsletter, and quarterly all-employee town halls where employees can ask questions and get answers. We appreciate your suggestions about career development and recognition. Enabling employees to grow and ensuring contributions are visible remain important areas of focus as we continue to scale. Novanta University offers a variety of on-demand courses so employees can continue to learn and grow. We also encourage all employees to create their own individual development plan (IDP) and discuss it with their manager so they can continue to progress in their career. To further promote career development, we have recently made enhancements to our performance management process which strengthens performance goal attainment by having quarterly development meetings with your manager. Some sites have a Values Champion Recognition program that allows peer to peer recognition for those who go above and beyond. We believe in the value of recognition and agree with you that sometimes just a simple “Thank you” or “I appreciate you” can go a long way! Thank you again for your contributions during your time at Novanta, and we wish you continued success.
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