Today it’s five companies in the Cloud Computing business facing off form our company culture showdown. We skipped some of the larger companies we’ve focused on before (like AWS) to shine a light on a handful of companies that maybe are not quite household names yet – Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, VMWare and Workday. Focused on a still-new industry, these are companies the are for the most part filled with well-paid techies, and perhaps haven’t been around long enough to develop the bad habits or larger dinosaur companies. Using Comparably’s employee-submitted reviews and ratings, we’ll attempt to paint a picture of what its like behind the scenes for employees of these five companies.
OVERALL CULTURE
Salesforce takes the first little gold trophy for the way its employees feel about the company’s overall culture. Salesforce’s A+ rating denotes major approval from the company’s workforce. It’s nice to see that SAP as well as runners-up VMWare and Workday also were vaunted into the A range by their employee’s opinions. Only Oracle seems to currently be failing employees on that front.
Oracle: “Creative thought, ambition, and a willingness to go beyond the job description is not rewarded or appreciated.”
Salesforce: “Commitment to customer success – “trust” is the #1 value. There is a big focus on philanthropy and making sure that employees are participating in volunteering, giving to charity. There is a huge focus on culture.”
SAP: “SAP is a cool company which gives a lot of ownership to the employees. If you are curious to learn, you will be benefited.”
VMWare: “I love our Corporate Culture. A Fortune 500 company with the heart of a start up!”
Workday: “The morale at Workday is the best I have ever seen at ANY company I have ever worked at – and I have worked at a number of the world’s most successful companies.”
CEO
That’s two-for-two for Salesforce, who won the CEO category thanks to heavy approval for their two chief execs, Marc Benioff and Keith Block. Also rated high by their employees were runner-up Aneel Bhusri of Workday, as well as William McDermott from SAP and Patrick Gelsinger from WMWare. Once again, only Oracle’s CEO – Mark Hurd – comes in for major disapproval from his team.
Oracle: “So far removed from Executive management, nobody really cares or thinks about them.”
Salesforce: “They do a lot of things right but when you’re a behemoth the size they are there are company culture pieces that fall by the wayside in the interest of the business.”
SAP: “I think most people see Bill as an inspirational and driven leader. He is outstanding with clients, and is an amazingly optimistic person. His book provides fair insight into his personality.”
VMWare: “Pat is awesome and very personable. A pleasure to listen to. I know things could be improved, i’m just not sure how. That is why i’m not a C-level.”
Workday: “Aneel is a fantastic visionary and leader.”
COMPENSATION
It’s a tie in the Compensation category, which tracks how a company’s employees feel about their paycheck, among other elements of their compensation. Salesforce and VMWare share the top prize here, both having received A+ scores from their employees. SAP also has a Compensation package that rates a fair amount of approval from workers. The same is true to a slightly lesser extent about Workforce. Oracle, sadly, winds up dead last.
Oracle: “Pay increases and bonuses are random, inconsistent, and not tied to performance. Equity is rare/insignificant compared to other companies.”
Salesforce: “Extremely competitive! Sets the bar!”
SAP: “Everything – good pay, solid bonus plan, good healthcare at a reasonable cost, great 401k and stock purchase matching plans.”
VMWare: “Base, bonus and equity are all great.”
Workday: “Compensation needs to be improved. We are making considerably less and it takes the threat of leaving to get compensated fairly.”
PERKS & BENEFITS
After tying in the last round, VMWare takes the whole enchilada for the Perks & Benefits category. All the companies we surveyed scored well here, with Workday and SAP both scoring high A- scores, and even Oracle coming with a respectable B.
Oracle: “Decent medical, dental and vision. 401K with match, life and AD&D insurance. HSA medical plans are an option with small company contribution to HSA.”
Salesforce: “Snacks, work from home, unlimited PTO, volunteer time, parental leave.”
SAP: “401k (matched at 75% up to 6%), health insurance (several options : PPO, HSA – with $1,200 annual SAP contribution), dental & vision, employee stock purchase program (matched at 40%), ability to work from home/virtual for many positions, paid time off, lots more.”
VMWare: “GREAT Paternity/Maternity leave!!! Health-care, Life-insurance, ESPP, 401k, and many others.”
Workday: “Stipend for the gym is awesome!”
DIVERSITY
VMWare takes a third little gold trophy, barely edging out runner-up Salesforce. Workday and SAP both earned solid grades, but Oracle again proves they don’t put much stock in keeping their employees satisfied or retaining them.
Oracle: “Not much color but gender balance is good.”
Salesforce: “It’s fairly diverse.”
SAP: “Our team is very diverse.”
VMWare: “Ratio is definitely skewed towards men. Most teams in Engineering do not have an even representation of men-women.”
Workday: “Would like to see more diversity.”
OUTLOOK
Oracle: “Cloud subscription struggles in the face of AWS — a formidable player. Look at the stock price the last two years… Oracle is a laggard in AI, big data, and cloud. The company has become ‘middle-aged’ and expects millenials to sell to C-level audiences… are you kidding me?”
Salesforce: “I feel like I work for a best-in-class company at a killer location in San Francisco. It’s super dynamic, and a very fun place to work.”
SAP: “The company has the potential to be truly great.”
VMWare: “I look forward to providing solutions to facilitate the growth of the company.”
Workday: “Keep doing what we’re doing and strive to retain great culture.”
With a win in Outlook and a fourth trophy total, Salesforce wins the day. VMWare was a b runner-up here with three wins. Nobody else took any of our trophies, but Workday and SAP both had b showings throughout, inducing exceedingly b scores in the Outlook category. Looking above, four of our five companies scored an A+ for Outlook. One, Oracle, is being currently left in the dust in terms of all things culture. Here’s hoping they get with the program in the modern workplace.
