Netflix has overhauled its famous culture memo — which included adding a line about its "keeper test" used by managers to determine if they should fire an employee.
The keeper test was previously defined as: "If a team member was leaving for a similar role at another company, would the manager try to keep them?"
If the answer was no, Netflix said the employee was given "generous severance" and cut so that a stronger replacement could be found.
Netflix has long been known to operate its business like a sports team, not a family, and the keeper test is part of that culture. This also means that tenures there can be brief as the company seeks out top talent and quickly cuts underperformers.
The keeper test has since evolved to: "If X wanted to leave, would I fight to keep them?" or, "Knowing everything I know today, would I hire X again?" If the answer is no, the memo says it's fairer for everyone to part ways.
It's the same idea just worded a bit differently — but it's been updated to include a disclaimer.
"In the abstract, the keeper test can sound scary," Netflix says in the latest version of its culture memo. "In reality, we encourage everyone to speak to their managers about what's going well and what's not on a regular basis. This helps avoid surprises."
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In the abstract, the keeper test can sound scary. In reality, we encourage everyone to speak to their managers about what's going well and what's not on a regular basis. This helps avoid surprises. Managers also evaluate team members on their whole record, rather than focusing on the mistakes or bets that didn't pay off. On the Dream Team, you need people who challenge the status quo and try new things. So we stick with employees through short-term bumps.
Netflix's keeper test was first introduced in an over 100-page memo published in 2009. Netflix used to encourage managers to do the test once per quarter, its cofounder and former CEO Reed Hastings said. He reportedly used it to fire his product chief and longtime friend who worked at the company for 18 years.
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The memo, which was originally considered blunt for a public corporate document, has undergone several revisions since its first release and is now only five pages.
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said in an interview with The Verge's "Decoder" podcast that the memo got shorter because the company became "better at articulating" its practices.
In the interview, published Monday, Peters said the original memo may have incorrectly communicated that Netflix "was a harsh and maybe cutthroat place," which he said it wasn't. In the three versions since, Peters said the company may have swung too far on the other side of the pendulum and become too soft.
The co-CEO said that in subsequent versions of the memo, employees misinterpreted the company's statement on "freedom and responsibility" — which essentially said that Netflix employees were trusted to act in the company's best interest and weren't micromanaged — and acted in ways that weren't in line with its corporate goals. It has since deleted that section and added a new one called "People Over Process," which says the company should hire "unusually responsible people who thrive on this openness and freedom."
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The new memo also says, "Not all opinions are created equal," and that as the company has grown, it's no longer possible for everyone to weigh in on every decision.
The latest memo took 12 months to make and received 1,500 comments from employees, Netflix said in a press release. It was made publicly available Monday.
You can read the newest version of Netflix's culture memo here.
