Sprout Social reviews

3.6

63% would recommend to a friend

(726 total reviews)
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Ryan Barretto

73% approve of CEO

40% positive business outlook

Sprout Social has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 726 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Sprout Social employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

726 reviews
1.0
Jul 30, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The software is best in class

Cons

There's no recognition for doing your job well or going above and beyond unless you overtly promote yourself internally, which has lead to a culture of toxic positivity. It's incredibly challenging to get promoted, which is the only time your compensation will increase (no bonus structure, no yearly adjustments, etc...). You may get a stock grant, but it's just a millstone to keep working for a company that doesn't care about you. After a change in Marketing leadership, a decline in employee engagement, and general attrition throughout the year, there were promises made that things would get better. That management would take employee feedback seriously and implement change. The single change was an update to the career bands structure, which is actually worse than it was before. There's no longer a competency for bringing 'business value'. The emphasis is much more on communication and collaboration, which is incredibly challenging at a company with so much organizational debt that getting anything done requires moving mountains. With these new bands, any actual work that moved the company forward and drove revenue will slow as everyone ensures they don't step on anyone's toes and risk that promotion. The only time where you can get any change in role and significant increase in salary is during the annual review (which is held each April, a solid 4 months after the year has ended). If you just come short, or if you get feedback you weren't expecting, prepare to wait 12 more months for any meaningful salary change. It seems like they're doing as much as they can to not promote employees or give them additional compensation. Strange, coming from a company whose Core Values include "Caring Deeply".

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Sprout Social Response
1y
Hi there, and thank you for sharing your honest feedback. This is Scott Morris, the CMO. I appreciate the investment you’ve made in Sprout over the years, and I wanted you to know that I read your review and I hear you. We value recognizing great work at Sprout. For that reason, all team members are evaluated at least once a year for merit increases, which are based on performance, market rate and time since last increase, as well as promotions, which are based on a combination of performance and business need. Quarterly Check-ins, which we just completed in July, are also dedicated time to discuss your performance and career development goals with your manager. The refreshed Marketing career bands are designed to provide more clear and specific guidance based on industry and Sprout standards. Business impact is incorporated throughout the competencies, on which all team members were invited to provide feedback before they were finalized. Bands are just one part of career development, and we’re proud to have rolled out several new programs including Grow@Sprout professional development awards for conferences and courses, Marketing department-wide study groups on topics team members are most interested in, self-paced learning through our ANA sponsorship, and more. I encourage you to work with your manager on how the updated career bands apply to your role and the important business impact you make at Sprout. If those conversations aren’t feeling productive, please reach out to your People Business Partner—we’re invested in the growth of all Sprout employees and want to ensure you’re receiving regular feedback and coaching across the annual review, quarterly check-ins, and regular 1:1s. Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts. I hope you’ll share this feedback with your manager or People Business Partner, so we have the chance to improve your experience at Sprout. I really do want you to see Sprout as a place where you can continue to grow your career.
1.0
Jan 5, 2023

Started from the top now we're here

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Coworkers - R&R days - Stock - PTO policy, unlimited but encourages people to take it

Cons

Support leadership doesn't listen to direct reports enough. Then they're surprised people are unhappy. Transparency is supposed to be a value here but isn't practice by this leadership team. So much gossip from the leadership team about their direct reports. They think it doesn't trickle down but it does. No career growth unless you want to stay in support the whole time. They'll point to the same 3 people who have been promoted to roles outside of the team as some sort of win for them. Those people did all the lifting themselves with minimal help from any of the leaders on the support team. At that point you might as well go look for a new job because the pay is also below average.

2.0
Jul 25, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The biggest strength Sprout has is its people. Everybody is friendly, collaborative, willing to help out. You won't get "that's not my job" as a response, you'll get "let me find somebody who can help you".

Cons

At one point, I thought Sprout was going to be the last company I worked for before I retired. But eight years later and a pivot to trying to be a billion dollar company and enterprise focused, leadership has really failed to grow what made the company great and has damaged the culture irreparably. Since nobody in leadership has ever grown a company to be that big and has never lead a company that big, they have no idea what they are doing and are just grasping at whatever other companies are doing currently. See the recent R&D reorg to "adjust to industry standards" which got rid of 15% of the staff and left everybody else with more work to do. They're literally putting "must have worked at a billion dollar revenue company" in job descriptions for senior leadership. The CEO is grasping at "Have you thought about working harder?" and the usual LinkedIn "thoughtleader" BS as a way to motivate the company. Leadership's naiveté is resulting in some poor hiring decisions. The latest crop of hires are really good on selling a story (which is how they got the job in the first place) but have no idea on execution. In my experience, these people last about two years before leadership realizes they don't know what they're doing and are shown the door. You can also see that pattern in their LinkedIn profile where they're only in a position for about a year or two moving onto another one. They're just using their current position as a stepping stone to a new one before they get found out. To those who claim "these are growing pains and are typical corporate things", that's the issue. I've seen other companies keep their culture, not hire charlatans, be successful and not have to result in ruining everything that was great that got the company to that point in order to grow. It's also survivorship bias, were those companies successful because they adopted the industry standard ratios, quick to fire culture, etc. or in spite of those choices. Were the new ways of working the new VPs want to bring in the reason why that person was successful or were they successful in spite of those new ways of working?

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Sprout Social Response
11mo
Thank you for sharing your reflections from your eight years with Sprout. It’s clear you care deeply about the work and the people here, and we value your perspective. Our people-first culture has always been the foundation of our success, and we remain committed to strengthening it as we grow. Change can be challenging, but it’s also essential to evolving our business and positioning Sprout for long-term success. We’re focused on making thoughtful decisions that enable our team to do their best work, serve our customers, and deliver on our vision. We’re grateful for the contributions you made during your time here, and your perspective has been heard.
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Glassdoor has 743 Sprout Social reviews submitted anonymously by Sprout Social employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sprout Social is right for you.