7 aspects that make up your company culture

Alissa is a Consulting Manager at Select International. Her areas of expertise include the development, implementation, and evaluation of assessment processes. Alissa has experience managing entry-level through executive level assessment and selection efforts across a number of different industries including government, financial, military, education, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Alissa Parr, explain us the 7 aspects of Netflix’s Company Culture that you will want to copy.

Netflix’s approach to culture and talent is unique because

(1) it has worked – they are very successful and

(2) it is based on common sense. So, how does Netflix determine their culture?

Let’s take a look at the 7 aspects that make up their culture.

1) Values are truly valued

At Netflix, they don’t just have value statements that are esoteric and only look good on paper. Instead, their values are skills and behaviors that they seek in people when making hiring and promotion decisions. For example, they seek people who have good judgment, communicate effectively, and are innovative. All of their values are tied to specific behaviors so they know what to look for. They are not ideals, but rather expectations.

2) They tolerate only high performance

Netflix encourages managers to use something called the “Keeper Test.” The Keeper Test asks managers, “If someone on my team told me he was leaving for a similar job at a peer company, would I fight hard to keep him here?” If the answer is no, then they should be given a nice severance package. In their research, they found that the best are 2 times more effective than average in procedural work, and 10 times more effective than average in creative work. Therefore, they understand the importance of high performers and don’t tolerate anything less.

3) They give employees freedom and make them responsible

Netflix found that if they merely asked employees to rely on logic and common sense instead of strict rules, then the majority of the time they get better results at a lower cost. Rules are helpful for the few percent that cause problems, but they try to avoid this by hiring great employees and eliminating the bad apples once identified in the company.

An example of how they implemented this is by eliminating a formal vacation policy. Instead, they allow salaried employees to take off time whenever. Another example is when they eliminated a formal expense and travel policy and instead told employees to act in Netflix’s best interests. They found that most employees were more frugal and as a result, the company saved more money.

4) Create context, don’t control

Managers are encouraged to set a strategy, define metrics, clearly define roles, and be transparent around decision-making rather than making unilateral decisions and focusing more on planning and less on results. Great outcomes come when you set the context rather than when you elicit control.

5) Highly aligned, loosely coupled

Netflix’s general mentality is to have very clear strategies and goals across the company and within teams. Along with this, they give greater trust to teams and departments so there are less cross-department meetings and micromanagement. The ultimate goal is to be big, fast, and flexible.

6) Pay top of the market

For a top-performing employee, the mentality is to (1) pay them more than another company would, (2) pay them as much as a replacement would cost, and (3) pay them as much as they would pay to prevent them from going to a competitor. Netflix believes that it’s more motivating to employees to have the highest salary possible than to have average salary paired with bonuses.

They also want employees to stay because they are passionate about the job – not because they are waiting for incentives to be fully vested or because of deferred compensation. Therefore, they don’t engage in these practices.

7) Development is encouraged, but informal

Netflix abandoned formal performance reviews because they were too ritualistic and infrequent. Instead, they encouraged ongoing conversations and implemented informal 360-degree reviews. Honesty is valued and therefore all feedback is non-anonymous and discussed openly. Netflix does not have any formal development programs (e.g., mentoring, rotational assignments), but they support self-development efforts.