Great potential but not in the short term - Customer Service Specialist Personio Employee Review

2.0
26 Jul 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Many of the people you will interact with in this company are genuinely great intelligent people, with a deep interest in the work they are doing. In the last year, a number of senior leaders have joined the company which is finally starting to create a shift towards a more successful company model. There is ample opportunities to get involved in high level projects once you have established a network of how to engage with the right stakeholders to see an impact.

Cons

This company has the potential to be very successful but the lack of leadership and chaotic nature of decision making is seriously affecting this opportunity. - The system itself is incredibly basic. The approach of rolling out multiple new products, without adding any depth to the existing core modules is incredibly frustrating and is proven time and time again to result in customers leaving. Most teams prioritise huge initiatives, thus neglecting addressing core components that every other HR platform has. If your own employees wouldn’t recommend it as a system to a prospective client, it’s a very bad sign. - The constant shifting in focus from leadership, right up to executive level has created a culture within the company of never truly seeing what direction or priorities should be taken. For example over the last year, the focus is on releasing a payroll product - and this is before a stable core product is truly established which will inevitably lead to incompatible frameworks, with difficult messy workarounds for customers. Everything is short-sighted. I’m hopeful the new CTO will bring some stability in this regards. -A huge focus is put on data with regards to revenue and churn rate - but in reality what is needed is a back to basics customer driven approach. Many teams are highly competitive in generating revenue regardless of what it means for the customer in the long term or with the insight into how product management works. All they want to do is get revenue in the door, even if the customer isn’t someone we can properly serve at this point in time with our current offering. It’s better to be honest with people and have them hold you highly and return at a later stage rather than totally tarnish our long term reputation so someone gets their numbers up. - The company is still heavily centred on the Munich office, and to be fair, the overall atmosphere in Munich is quite fun and engaging having visited several times. For those in satellite offices, there are big culture concerns. There is little to no engagement or interaction for people who are based outside of Munich, and in general there is no atmosphere or attempts to make it a more welcoming place to work. Visits to Munich have been completely restricted outside of management for the last 12 months due to cut backs - which is fair - but has lead to many satellite workers feeling incredibly isolated.

Explore other reviews about Personio

5.0
14 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

My coworkers are wonderful, I feel energized coming to work everyday

Cons

The company has had a lot of churn at Director+ levels, not a clear vision across the company

1.0
30 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart collaborative colleagues at the lower IC levels.

Cons

Personio is a dying company. The over-complexity of the company's technical systems is comical. Every attempt to simplify seems to lead to more complexity as things get half migrated and left to rot. Engineering leadership seems clueless and unable to present a clear plan-of-action to get things on track. Principal engineers force engineering time to be spent on silly projects that don't move the needle long-term. There is an overall aversion to taking the time to learn deeply about systems being used. Personio feels like a combination of all of the negatives of both a startup and a mature tech company, with none of the positives. The tech is half assed and duct taped together, but still somehow everything moves at a glacial pace. There is a mass shared delusion at the company that an IPO is in reach. No investor is going to buy this company's junk shares on the open market.

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