Elsevier reviews

4.0

79% would recommend to a friend

(2,189 total reviews)

Kumsal Bayazit

90% approve of CEO

75% positive business outlook

Elsevier has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,189 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Elsevier employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Audiovisual y medios de comunicación industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
3.0
Jan 1, 2019

Managment

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible work hours, low stress and decent benefits are good at Elsevier.

Cons

very few opportunities for growth, lack of accountability among management, poor pay.

2.0
Dec 15, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- It's a big company and you can get good salary (and maybe a more senior position) if you are smart at negotiating with the recruiters - Central locations in London easy to reach - Very flexible in terms of working hours and 7 hours per day on the contract - Some projects are interesting and use good tech. Read well, SOME.

Cons

- Top down approach, coming from managers that often have an academic background rather than technical... this is so frustrating as you see naive and obsolete ideas coming from above. Worse, they hardly get discussed as even senior employees are not involved in the decision process... usually people with years of experience in the industry have to follow very idealistic projects. Result, people leave, in numbers. - Management in general is not qualified. As people managers, as technical managers and in other ways too. Many seem to come to meetings telling ideas read from a management book the night before, often quoting the source in attempt somehow legitimate themselves (...). It's appalling and you'll soon miss better employers. Moreover, you keep wondering why they are managers and you are not. I spend so much time to make upper levels understand things and consequences of certain choices, it's an exercise in communication for sure. - Instead of putting in practice industry standard solutions, we work on overcomplicated projects that few believe in. Sometimes they are even outdated stuff that never took off (like semantic web...). - OFTEN WATERFALL project management, although there is a lot of effort in going agile, when a major problem arises we revert to waterfall. The problem is again the academic management that is used to that. - POOR SOCIAL LIFE, rare company events or team building initiatives. The situation in made even worse by the fact that the average age in the office is higher than other places... I don't have a problem with it, but that, together with no efforts from the management will make you feel like your merriest days on the workplace are gone for good. - Final note: the company is controversial now and many countries are considering banning it from universities because they make them pay too much for access to research. Management is freaking and trying everything to save the day. Many think the company is f...d and just doing their own interest as long as it lasts.

avatar
Elsevier Response
7y
Thank you for this review. Sorry if you feel your experience with us was disappointing. Our tech employees, as well as the leadership team in Tech globally, are unified in their efforts to continue to build an environment that is supportive, nurturing and inclusive. We ask that you partake in this by identifying other ways to further contribute to these efforts by speaking to your manager or if you prefer, contact us at elseviergdrev@elsevier.com
1.0
Oct 12, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They talk a good talk

Cons

Management genuinely don't care a jot about people, it's all about the numbers. Elsevier say they care about employees but they make entire teams redundant without a second thought.

avatar
Elsevier Response
7y
Thank you for your review. Sorry that you feel this way after working at Elsevier for 5 years. At Elsevier, our people are our strength. Together, we are building a better working environment through our collective actions and by engaging with individual employees. Change is inevitable in all organizations, but at Elsevier, we place great importance on supporting all our employees through change. We also create cultural experiences that support the vision of any change.
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