Digital Catapult Reviews

3.1

49% would recommend to a friend

(3 total reviews)

David Bletso

Not enough data to show CEO approval

44% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

3 reviews
1.0
31 Jul 2025

A rapid decline

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A nice office (which they're destroying with unilateral decisions)

Cons

I used to really like working here. But recently, theres been an incredibly rapid decline. Most people I speak too are fed up, want to leave and dont trust management. The hardest part was realising that leadership are obviously fully aware of how unhappy people were, but are refusing to acknowledge or change. They keep making big decisions that clearly affect people in a negative way and didn’t seem interested in what staff actually thought. Don't expect an explanation, just an update after the fact. also transparency is laughable. ask questions or try to get clarity on how decisions were being made, especially when it came to opportunities or recognition, and you wont ever get a straight answer. The kind of environment that ends up turning people against each other with a huge cloud of distrust. and good luck getting any transparency on pay beyond the canned line of "non-profit blah blah pay band which we wont show you" also people were made redundant, with barely any communication. one day someone was there, and the next they weren’t. something thats still happening. no acknowledgement, no proper explanation. kept your job? lucky! but get on with all this extra work to cover the redundant staff diversity and inclusion stuff felt like it existed mostly for show. there were bits of comms and the occasional session, but nothing meaningful ever seemed to change. leadership stayed exactly the same and didn’t seem interested in challenging the status quo. giving feedback is pointless. you know it wouldn’t be taken seriously and most likely hidden away. when people did speak up, the response was usually a bland message full of buzzwords that didn’t actually address anything. surveys results are conveniently not shared or only selective parts are share. looking for a place where you’re treated fairly and your leadership team care? Go somewhere else

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Digital Catapult Response
9mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We are disappointed to read this review, and it is regrettable that your recent experience of working at Digital Catapult is not more positive. We always strive to ensure a positive employee experience, and we are fortunate to have a really vibrant team of fantastic people working with us. We work hard across the business to ensure our culture is inclusive and that everyone has the opportunity to thrive and grow with us. For team members who may be experiencing any challenges whilst working with us, we have a very open culture and encourage cooperative problem-solving approaches. We have a very proactive and empathetic People Team, an active Employee Voice Network through which issues can be discussed and explored and we hold company-wide meetings allowing for open and candid dialogue. As you mention, the business has recently gone through a period of change linked to our strategy refresh, which we believe will bring about greater focus and positive impact. We appreciate that change can be difficult, and we have done our upmost to keep colleagues informed about forthcoming changes within the business wherever possible, appropriate and in a timely fashion. Your feedback about communication, transparency, and the impact of organisational changes is very important to us as we want to ensure that our people feel valued and supported. You may be interested to learn that we are planning to share pay bands for our roles in the not-too-distant future to provide greater pay transparency. We also take your feedback on equity, diversity and inclusion seriously. We have done a lot of work on equity, diversity and inclusion within the business over the last few years and have an established internal GEDI Committee (gender, equity, diversity and inclusion). We ensure that diversity and inclusion is embedded in everything we do across Digital Catapult. It is disappointing to hear that you have not viewed the work we have done in this area positively. It would be interesting to understand what other initiatives you think would be valued. We appreciate constructive and evidence-based feedback as this will help us to continue to grow and to make improvements within the organisation. Glassdoor reviews can often be very helpful for this, but where anonymous reviews such as this one are left, it makes it challenging to pinpoint and investigate where improvements are more urgently needed. Your review is regrettable and runs counter to our accreditations as a Great Place to Work and one of the Best places to Work in the Tech sector, in the Charity and Not-For-Profit sector and for Wellbeing. We feel these accreditations are more representative of the culture we strive to uphold and the responsible approach we take to running the organisation. Given some of the comments included in your review, we would encourage you to contact a member of the People Team or our Senior Leadership Team so that we can understand in more detail your experience and we can address this directly and seek to make improvements.
1.0
4 May 2024

Dei and workload

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Cool London location with great views.

Cons

Markets itself as a not for profit yet has a parent company which is for profit. C Suite paid for profit salaries, others not for profit salaries. Totally not cool considering that those delivering work are totally and completely overwhelmed. Most departments are constantly under resourced. You have to consistently demonstrate that you can consistently perform at 1000%. The company has a singular view towards diversity which is fast paced delivery. if you request a slower pace due to a neurodiverse learning or comprehension style, line manager will raise how you are inappropriately managing your workload.

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Digital Catapult Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We always strive to ensure a positive employee experience. In response to the comment about the structure of the organisation, Digital Catapult is a not-for-profit organisation and operates a trading subsidiary called Digital Catapult Services Limited. Digital Catapult Services Limited engages with corporate partners across a variety of sectors to drive innovation, enabling these companies to become more competitive and global leaders in their sector through the early adoption of Deep Tech. Digital Catapult Services’ commercial activities help them to take the practical steps to adopt advanced digital technologies, identify and address key challenges, de-risk investment in innovation and build confidence in working with early stage companies. Profit generated through Digital Catapult Services Limited is re-invested into the not-for-profit company, Digital Catapult. For team members who may be experiencing any challenges whilst working with us, we would hope you feel able to engage with your manager regarding any concerns that you may have. We have an open culture and encourage dialogue and cooperative problem-solving approaches. We have a proactive and empathetic People team, an active Employee Voice Network through which issues can be discussed and explored and we hold company-wide meetings allowing for open and candid dialogue. We have recently been certified as a Great Place to Work and one of the Best Places to Work in the UK and in the Tech sector which we feel is representative of the responsible approach we take to operating the organisation. We carry out salary benchmarking to ensure we remain competitive in the market. It should, of course, be noted that we are a not-for-profit and so salaries may differ to those in other sectors and particularly the private tech sector. We have recently seen impressive headcount growth and continue to hire for new roles. These additional team members will provide more capacity and support within our existing teams, will help manage workload and will enable employees to get more involved in new projects or other areas of interest. It is surprising to hear the company view towards ED&I being described as singular since we believe ED&I are key to creating an enjoyable and positive culture, where people feel they belong and do their best work which is why ED&I underpins everything we do. We have a variety of different employee led affinity groups who champion initiatives and provide opportunities for feedback to be shared and heard. We also follow a calendar of events to promote wellbeing and ED&I initiatives. We are open to considering any reasonable adjustment employees may benefit from in their roles. If you'd like to discuss this further or wish to share any additional feedback or ideas for improvements, please consider speaking with your manager, a member of the People team or engaging with our Employee Voice Network.
2.0
21 Sept 2022

Not bad, but not great.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The people (for the majority) make the company, without a doubt. - Good diversity and inclusion policies

Cons

- Poor salary reviews - Poor pay rise distribution - Limited opportunities for promotion in certain (non-specialist) business areas - Some members of SLT are not the most understanding of employee satisfaction and welfare

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Digital Catapult Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us and for providing your thoughts in terms of where we might focus our continuous improvement efforts. We always strive to ensure a positive employee experience and we are fortunate to have a team of fantastic people working with us, as you mention. For team members who may be experiencing any challenges whilst working with us, we have a very open culture and encourage dialogue and cooperative problem solving approaches. We have a very proactive and empathetic People team, an active Employee Voice Network through which issues can be discussed and explored and we hold Town Hall meetings allowing for open and candid dialogue. We are continuing to grow and mature as a business and with this growth, we are working hard to further develop some of our internal processes. We carry out salary benchmarking to ensure we remain competitive in the market. It should, of course, be noted that we are a not-for-profit and so salaries may differ to those in other sectors and particularly the private tech sector. Our salary review process and compensation philosophy are set out in our Handbook and we have just recently launched a refreshed methodology around check-ins, performance and career development conversations. We feel confident that these refreshed processes will provide greater consistency of experience for everyone who works with us. If you would like to discuss any of your feedback further, we'd be very open to a conversation. In the meantime, I wish you every success and happiness in your onward career.

Glassdoor has 95 Digital Catapult reviews submitted anonymously by Digital Catapult employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Digital Catapult is right for you.