Helix reviews

3.8

68% would recommend to a friend

(118 total reviews)
avatar

James Lu

86% approve of CEO

65% positive business outlook

Helix has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 118 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Helix employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

118 reviews
4.0
Jun 5, 2019

Sinking ship... :(

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing work culture, supportive coworkers/teammates, group outings, benefits, and innovative science. Learned and gained alot of experience during Helix's prime.

Cons

Helix tried to capture a market already dominated by 23andMe and Ancestry.com and simply failed. Not too sure what to make of the new leadership change. Hard to read if he's here to save face for our investors or actually try to turn the company around.

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Helix Response
7y
You’re right, the consumer genomics market place has been challenging to break into, and has largely been a genealogy market to date. Having tested a consumer strategy, we have recently pivoted to focus on population health, which plays much better to Helix’s strengths and is a market in which we have already had some notable success. Personally I joined Helix as CEO because I believe in our mission to empower every person to improve their life through DNA. I also believe in our new strategic focus, and in our team, having worked with Helix closely for the last 4 years as a Board member. I agree with you, we do have an amazing culture and team of incredibly passionate people that are driving innovation. I welcome the opportunity to chat anytime to hear more of your feedback and to share with you my motivations and perspectives on our strong position to succeed. -- Marc
4.0
May 27, 2019

Transitioning startup

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A fulfilling, innovative place to work with a powerful mission.

Cons

Typical startup ambiguity. Restructuring means more work for fewer people.

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Helix Response
7y
Thanks for the feedback; we’re always looking to prioritize better so that we can keep Helix successful -- James
1.0
May 23, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Helix's mission to help empower people with their DNA is a noble one.

Cons

The senior HR team is about as insensitive and incompetent as any leadership team I've ever come across. It's ironic that the people working in a department whose core responsibility is managing its employee base, often seem the absolute least qualified to do so. They have shown time and time again an utter lack of empathy towards sensitive cultural and diversity issues as well as direct employee communication. Expect to be paid well under market value and with stock not being worth much either, it's a hard pill to swallow. The corporate culture has been eroding for quite some time, and apart from some a small number of employees, Helix isn't a place where you'd go to find company values worth the work hours.

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Helix Response
6y
Ouch, this is really harsh. We’re sorry that you are so angry. We’d like to help you, not only by responding here but also by encouraging you to give us your ideas and feedback directly (because that’s how we roll here at Helix)! The HR team, along with the broader leadership team, care deeply about each of our team members. We want each person to truly feel like they belong at Helix. We want each person to be able to be their best, bring their unique selves, and ultimately be more creative and energized each day. To support this, we spend time simply listening to employees through one-to-one chats with a variety of team members to providing professional development training, to sponsoring the Diversity and Inclusion committee and ERGs, to Unconscious Bias Discussions, and a variety of different social events. Additionally, we’re proud of our inclusive and rigorous talent planning sessions. By including all people managers and leaders in this annual program, each team member gets personalized feedback, development and career suggestions from those who have worked most closely with them. We also use world class benchmarking comp data to ensure that we are keeping pace with the market for every single role. This is incorporated into our bi-annual comp review cycle. Additionally, we are constantly reviewing internal equity, as fair pay is a top priority for us. Lastly, culture is fueled by everyone at Helix. Our team members really live the values and spend time thinking of ways to make life at Helix great. The broader team has created a great learning culture through things like leader-led training, Science Hour or Policy Hour, Industry Updates on Slack, self-driven management development programs, and of course, our frequent and regular all-hands meetings (TAG). This meeting encourages team members to understand, collaborate, question and challenge everything from our overall strategy to upcoming partnerships, products, financials and more. We want Helix employees to have what they need to continue to make our mission a reality. We’re happy to chat more, please reach out to the HR team directly or any member of the leadership team. We’d genuinely like to hear your feedback directly. -- Romina
Viewing 61 - 63 of 118 Reviews

Glassdoor has 153 Helix reviews submitted anonymously by Helix employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Helix is right for you.