May 5, 2023
Good team, good benefits, bad workplace culture.
Anonymous employee
VALD reviews
3.2
31% would recommend to a friend
65% positive business outlook
VALD has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 47 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there.
Reviews by job title
47 reviews
2.0
Feb 7, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Breakfast, lunch and coffees onsite (small daily salary sacrifice) Accountability Autonomy
Cons
Very high employee turnover Poor communication within and between teams Unrealistic expectations set for employees and teams with no roadmap for completion Objectification and misogynistic treatment of women
VALD Response
4yThank you for taking the time to review VALD on Glassdoor. Whilst each experience is unique to everyone, we take all feedback seriously. As your review is anonymous, I openly invite you to reach out to me or our Company Secretary/General Counsel (Tim Wilkins) personally should you wish to discuss your experience further. Regardless of whether we get to speak, I offer you my response as a mark of taking your feedback seriously and we are always looking to improve at VALD.
At VALD we intentionally set very high expectations with our core belief that anything is possible with hard work, creativity, dedication, and good timing. We also believe and recognise that failure is inevitable and a vital part of the journey to our success.
Your comment around unrealistic expectations and no roadmap is disappointing considering we have a series of processes that help to align everyone’s goals. Each team within VALD has their own processes so we will review this to ensure everyone is aware of the roadmap.
I personally know that working out what tasks to work on and when to work on can be challenging. One of our values at VALD is Accountability and Ownership at all levels. By speaking up early and often between teams we set ourselves up to achieve these tasks. Our roadmaps at VALD are our big picture, which drive the overall focus of each team member’s weekly plan.
Communication is VALD’s best mechanism to avoid failure and quickly turn failure into success when it occurs. Communication comes in many forms. If we make a mistake, the most important thing is to communicate that mistake to the team as quickly as possible.
Communication as we scale will continue to be a top priority. There are many ideas that we have for improving internal communication and we will continue to push forward on those.
I’m unhappy to hear your comment around alleged objectification and misogynistic treatment of women. I take these comments very seriously and if you would like to share more about your experience please contact me by emailing laurie@vald.com (or our Company Secretary/General Counsel t.wilkins@vald.com) so that we can set up a time to discuss this more, in a confidential manner.
Finally (openly shared in our Team Handbook also), working at VALD is not for everyone. If you are uncomfortable with what we stand for and how we work, you are unlikely to thrive long term in the VALD environment. As stated in our Team Handbook, we won’t be offended if you let us know that VALD isn’t for you.
2.0
Dec 3, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Chef and barista on site - very cheap meals and coffee. Casual dress code. The people in my team. Events are always a big party. Subsidised massage, physio etc.
Cons
During the interview process when I asked for an official job description document and was told “they didn’t have one” - I should have taken this as my first red flag. I’m flicking through the team handbook….. every single person in the senior leadership team was and is male. Let this be your second red flag as was mine. Alas, after my interview I was offered the role and pushed the red flags aside for the lure of cheap chef made breakfast and lunch, and the on site barista. Within the first couple of months of my employment, 4 people (that I knew about) had been let go/ fired. Within the first 6 months of my employment that number increased to 10 (again, that I knew about). Talk about red flag. This company is extremely fast growing, and this comes at the cost of everything else. Formal process are not in place, there is no learning and development pathway/ program, don’t even think about having discussion about career progression plans (managers are stretched too thin to even have a moment to think about this.) Every little thing must be approved by the CEO. So when working at VALD, expect to have tight deadlines but wait hours even days to get something approved due to how busy the CEO is (naturally). But don’t you worry, you will cop a telling off for being so unorganised and last minute with everything. “Why cant my manager sign this small thing off?” You ask. They are not empowered to make decisions. Be ready for the non-CEO co founder to show his extreme frustration over the slightest of things. His time is more important than anyone else’s and he will be sure to let you know (as well as everyone sitting around you). Be prepared to take on many roles that don’t fall under your job title or even your specific department - fit this into your already busy workload and don’t expect any additional remuneration or time in lieu for this. The HR department is a 1 person team, made up of payroll-turned-employee success. Need I say more. You will be told and encouraged to do things just for the “optics.” Even just as little as walking through a certain door in the morning so the CEO can see you and know that you started work early. In this day and age of hybrid working, don’t expect to be allowed to WFH consistently. You will come into the office and work from here every day. “What about flexible hours?” you ask. Expect to work hard and be churned out quickly.
Viewing 13 - 15 of 47 Reviews
