The culture of Netflix
Netflix’s former Chief talent officer Patty McCord has played a major role in Netflix’s massive success in the online streaming industry. She re-engineered the entire Netflix’s HR services with unique cultural change and invented the famous ‘Cultural Deck’. Apart from the normal working schedule, she introduced a new style of working which helped Netflix to increase its productivity and retention. From McCord’s presentations and podcasts, she has elaborated a few important things that played a major role in their massive success. Here are some valuable tips that HR managers can learn from Netflix’s culture.
Pattern recognition and common sense
It is important to research and identify new employee patterns and trends while undertaking the recruitment process. By observing the performance and behaviour of the hired employees HR managers can take better judgement calls over time, she mentioned. Common sense is also an important skill that HR managers need to practice. Because occasionally you need to make decisions which are not easy for you to adopt. However, you have to do it for your organisation and the customers who are willing to purchase your product at any time.
Learn about body language
At, Netflix they have a general opinion that the interview process should not take more than a day. If HR needs more interaction with the candidate, they are using video conferencing to contact. They use this method because if the body language is visible you can see their actions and reactions, which is not visible in a normal telephone conversation. Then HR can identify whether the candidate is interested or not. Using this method companies can hire the right candidate for the job.
Values are important
As the tech industry is a rapidly changing industry the basic dynamics of workforce and business is changing. As a result, products or services that they are providing no longer drive businesses. Values that come with the product or the service matters the most. We are now living in the tech-driven decade and it is very important to maintain ethics and values in the workplace and when dealing with the customers/ clients. If the brand is maintaining good value inside and outside of the organisation, they will succeed in their long run.
Netflix always makes sure that the people it hires share the same values as others who are working in the company. They recognised values are the skeleton of the brand and Netflix is trying to improve it day by day. In their recruitment process, they observe interviewees and ask questions that can reveal more about the behaviour of the person because the resume won't tell more details about the personality.
Provide honest feedback
Netflix strongly believes in communication and transparency, which is why they take employee feedback quite seriously. They are always trying to improve transparency when it comes to feedback to reduce miscommunication. It is very important to give honest feedback to the employees rather than sugar-coating them. In most of the recent researches, researchers have found that ‘honest feedback’ can increase the company’s ROI. In her book called ‘Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility’ Patty mentioned that ‘the companies who are promoting honest feedback and open communication had a 270% higher ROI over 10 years than those that did not’.
Today Netflix is a market leader not only because of their vast streamline platform. They have gained success in the market because of their unique company culture that builds up with unique values. These success stories can be used as references when you are planning to build a better culture in your organisation.