Netflix Culture and its Challenges

Netflix Incorporation is an internet-based subscription service firm that offers video streaming for movies and television episodes and sending DVDs via mail. The company is one of the most valued innovators in the entertainment industry and operates through various segments which include; International streaming of videos, domestic streaming, and local DVD service provision. The company was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and has its headquarters in California State (Cable News Network, 2018). The company’s members can watch documentaries, television talk shows, original series and other movies through their internet connected computers, mobile phones, and television sets while other members can watch through the DVDs delivered to their homes. The company has a customer base in more than 190 countries and has subsidiaries across the globe including Netflix Studios, LLC, Netflix Streaming Services Inc., and Netflix K.K.

The company’s needs for an intervention

Netflix Company has been operating on a culture of responsibility among employees where people care only about great work and improved performance in the organization. The company criticized the traditional Human Resource (HR) culture and replaced it with an innovative culture whereby innovative professionals are attracted and are given the resources to be creative to improve the operations of the company (Fairchild, 2018). The culture at the company entails autonomy, responsibility, innovativeness, and self-discipline of employees so that focus is placed on results not process for the company to achieve growth and high performance.

However, Netflix has met constant opposition from some of its employees abroad about its reinvented culture. In Japan, the culture has proven futile to implement since its open firing strategy does not auger well with employees who believe that once they choose a company to work with, they should stay on until they retire (Fairchild, 2018). The utopian vision to fire redundant employees at Netflix has created an external perception of Netflix being a firing company, and most employees do not feel they have job security. Therefore, the company culture of transparent hiring and firing has hurt Netflix operations abroad especially in Japan since Japanese employees may not adopt and appreciate the culture.

Netflix Inc. has not adopted diversity in its operations abroad since most employees that work for the firm have had experience working for at least one U.S. Company and this makes Netflix so much discriminative in its operations since it is deemed only to appreciate the U.S. culture thus hampering smooth operations abroad (Fairchild, 2018). Netflix states it clear that an essential piece of any company is maintaining a lifestyle and those people who do not fit should not be involved and the belief makes the company fail to appreciate the cultural dynamics in the countries it operates.

The culture of centralizing the management team is deemed to backfire since the entertainment industry has moved to more remote areas and some managers have to relocate to the overseas to ensure smooth operations (Fairchild, 2018). For instance, the enterprise management is resistant to some engineers moving overseas to undertake activities, and that makes its HR policy of keeping employees collocated a shortsighted approach in its growth strategy.

Netflix culture creates fear on employees since they face threats of layoffs for their failure to deliver the expected performance and that leads to a high employee turnover of almost 20% (Siddiqui, 2016). The high turnover is attributed to the company’s focus on excellent performance. Employees are in most cases not assessed and appraised objectively and are in most cases fired through unfair processes dictated by the organizational politics. The need to fire average performers has created controversies from Netflix employees thus creating a negative perception of Netflix as a firing company.

Interventions for Netflix

Despite the challenges Netflix face from its compelling HR culture, there are plans that the company can undertake to address the issues to remain in the competitive edge in the entertainment industry. The intervention Netflix should take to improve its performance is the adoption of a reliable and robust diversity initiative in its human resource policies and performing effective training programs for leaders and employees (Staff, 2017). Netflix needs to come up with structures to incorporate the cultural aspects in other countries for instance in Japan where people have vehemently criticized its culture of hiring and retaining the best while firing average performers.

Netflix should come up with performance improvement plans to train low performing and average employees to avoid firing them thus reducing tension between the company and the employees (Staff, 2017). Low performing employees should be identified and taken through performance improvement programs to acquaint them with the necessary skills in the innovative business for them to feel they are part of the company. Change management programs should be initiated and implemented to enable a smooth transition of employees to new business operations instead of relieving redundant employees from their duties.

In the overseas, employees should be hired according to their qualifications and not with their history of working in American firms to create a sense of cultural appreciation in the host countries and to make Netflix products compete well with the local competitors. Diversity in its hiring process makes the company find a sense of origin in its host countries, and people can feel a sense of belonging leading to its long-term revenue growth (Gunn, 2017). Careful assessment programs should be undertaken by the company in its operations abroad so that it can blend its reinvented human resource culture to the existing culture.

Training programs should be implemented to enable local employees to understand and adapt its corporate HR culture to silence any opposition from employees about its HR policies. All employees should be taken through a step by step training to adapt and appreciate the reinvented culture that has aided its growth since its inception. Netflix should conduct a thorough employee attitude survey about its HR policies and culture so that it does not rely on external perceptions when evaluating the impact of its reinvented HR culture (Collier & Zimbelman, 1992). The company should conduct a direct survey of people’s attitudes and their views about the culture, and that can be done by involving an external consulting firm to develop an independent finding. Employees can be asked about their attitude and the impact of the Netflix culture on their performance, and their views can be sampled on the areas that need to be changed or added to the human capital framework in the company.

Leaders and employees at Netflix should be trained on proper ways of improving performance in the international markets (Nandy, 2017). Centralized team culture needs to be replaced with the decentralized system so that managers can relocate to other countries to improve operations of the company. The company leadership and management should adopt a decentralized strategy of management for its international growth strategy to be a success. Measuring performance should be done relatively using acceptable yardsticks, and the hiring and firing processes should be based on employee abilities and not on organizational politics and compelling cultures, and the process should be made explicit and understandable to employees.

The intervention on cultural diversity and training will foster innovation at Netflix. Appreciation of different cultures in the company’s hiring processes will bring more ideas to the company. The intervention will lead to a happier and harmonious workplace since employees will appreciate and accept its human capital culture on hiring thus ending the criticism (Nandy, 2017). The intervention will lead to improved performance in the company thus increasing its revenue scale and competitiveness in the market. Service quality will improve because of the increased innovation and customer service in the company will develop as a result of motivated employees.

Part Two

Organizational initiatives to be implemented

Focus on inclusion and respect to all is an excellent initiative that Netflix should implement since it aims at nurturing and embracing different views leading to a better decision-making process. The inclusion should be added to the company’s list of core values to enable workers to associate effectively irrespective of their culture (Trailhead, 2018). The company should train employees overseas on its various cultural aspects so that they can evolve into the company’s reinvented human capital culture that is based on freedom and excellent performance.

Performance improvement plans should be implemented whereby a team should be established and mandated with the task of training low and averagely performing employees so that they can acquire new skills needed in the innovative industry (Nandy, 2017). Employees should be evaluated, and low performing persons should be recommended to the team for continuous performance training so that they are taught the skills needed to improve their performance in the organization.

Unlimited parental leave policy should be implemented so that parents can get back to their work part-time or alternate work and leave throughout the first year of their parenting (Gunn, 2017). The company should pay the parents their full pay and benefits when on leave as that conforms to the company’s unlimited leave policy. Fair hiring and promotion strategies should be adopted, and employees should be evaluated using clearly defined processes, and the hiring process should follow clear policy guidelines. Performance of individuals should be assessed, and the results communicated to employees to ensure that retention and firing process is fair (Gunn, 2017). High-frequency feedback strategy at Netflix on employee performance should be implemented, and managers should talk honestly about the employees’ performance on a regular basis to get better results.

Employee attitude survey should be conducted by an independent firm to come up with substantial findings and recommendations on how to address employee problems and demand. A research firm should be engaged and given necessary resources to survey employee needs to facilitate the policy-making process in the company regarding its human capital culture (Collier & Zimbelman, 1992). Different perspectives should be addressed in the employee attitude survey by the outsourced company that is; their career objectives, satisfaction with the HR culture and policies, the style of management and the climate at the workplace.

Training of employees and leaders should be done to aid their understanding and awareness about Netflix’s human capital culture so that the employees across the globe can understand the need to reinvent human resources culture and evolve from the HR practices (Collier & Zimbelman, 1992). The employees should be taken through a series of training on different cultures where Netflix operate and how to incorporate its reinvented HR policies to the dynamic culture.

How to gain buy-in from leadership in the organization

Management support in the proposal will be gained by explaining the concept of cultural diversity well to them to boost their understanding of the impact of the company’s human resources culture on other cultures and employees and the need to implement the intervention proposal in their operations to improve performance (Ballowe, 2018). I will show the management the benefits that the implementation of the plan would bring to the organization like the improvement of employee motivation, reduction of opposition and criticisms against the company’s corporate human capital culture. I can explain the benefits of training low performing employees instead of firing them to retain crucial talents that the organization still needs to improve its operations.

Focus on areas that will motivate the management into buying into my proposal will be my priority. For instance, I will appreciate the organization’s efforts to implement an excellent human capital culture and advise them on ways of improving the culture to make the company improve its performance to higher scales (Ballowe, 2018). I will show the management the specific areas that the proposal can help enhance in the company when efficiently implemented, for instance, employee satisfaction and improvement plan which can adequately solve the criticisms directed to the company as being a firing company. Furthermore, more emphasis on the expected results of the proposal regarding financial and operational effects will be a critical area to state to the management.

How to gain buy-in from the organization’s employees

I will gain buy-in from Netflix’s employees by identifying their concerns and addressing them in my proposal and, explain to the employees how the proposal aims at solving their disputes with Netflix Company and how the implementation of the policy will impact positively on their job security and appreciation. I will strive to make my proposal tight and precise to enable employees to understand the intervention proposal and its financial impacts on them (Ener, 2013). Much explanation to employees on how the training and cultural diversity initiative would influence their performance and address their work conditions that instill fear in them about their job security will be done.

The training /implementation plan that will be required for the recommended solution

The recommended solution will be effectively implemented when the following strategies are undertaken. Blended training programs should be initiated in which computer-based training modules are developed to provide on-demand training for all the Netflix employees (Gunn, 2017). The training modules should be administered online to the employees and leaders on cultural diversity and change processes.

The management to first understand the various essentials of a diverse workforce and determine the ones that fit the business. The leadership at Netflix should carefully analyze the significant cultural diversity issues that need to be incorporated into the organization’s human capital culture and how to transform the culture into organizational performance (Gunn, 2017). The organization should come up with traineeship and internship programs to integrate cultural diversity. The diversification strategy is to be designed to encompass all departments of the company, and long-term plans should be developed to include diverse workforce in the company. All employees to be given the opportunity to take part in the evaluation of their performance and the decision-making process regarding their retention or firing. The company management should critically analyze the cultural backgrounds of its employees and that of customers to foster trust and commitment towards being inclusive.

Management to decentralize their functions and team members are to be allowed to work in other countries where the company operates to improve diversity in the workplace. Members of the administration who work abroad should be included in the management team to aid in smooth operations of the company (Fairchild, 2018). Proper strategies should be in place to involve members who are less vocal to contribute their ideas and focus should not only be placed on the best performing employees but also on all employees since they are a contributing factor to the company’s growth.

Other areas relevant to the company and the proposal

Cultural assessment should be done by Netflix to determine the needs of customers and the impact of the company’s products on the communities across the globe. The company should focus on its strategies in the Asian continent particularly China which has put many regulations on Netflix’s video content because of its autocracy and communist culture (Siddiqui, 2016). Netflix human capital culture should incorporate the diverse culture in the Asian countries to aid its smooth operations and expansion strategies.

Conclusion

The intervention proposal identifies and seeks to address the problems that Netflix has faced in implementing its Human resource policies. It explores the strategies that can be implemented to facilitate an efficient integration of cultures through training of employees and leaders on the need to embrace different cultures in their operations. When implemented efficiently, the company’s reinvented human resource culture will be successful.

References

Ballowe, T. (2018). 3 Perspectives for Getting Buy-in From Management. Retrieved from https://onstrategyhq.com/resources/3-perspectives-for-getting-buy-in-from-management/

Cable News Network. (2018). Netflix Inc. Company Profile. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from http://money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=NFLX

Collier, C., & Zimbelman. (1992). Employee Attitude Surveys. Retrieved from https://www.grocer.coop/articles/employee-attitude-surveys

Ener, H. (2013, September 18). Presenting Your Proposal. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/iese/2013/09/18/presenting-your-proposal-5-ways-to-convince-investors-to-back-your-idea/#300b8eed381c

Fairchild, C. (2018, May 2). Netflix’s next big challenge doesn’t have anything to do with TV. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/20/netflix-redefined-american-company-culture-will-it-do-the-same-abroad.html

Gunn, D. (2017, August 8). These five tech companies are trying to solve Silicon Valley’s diversity problem. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jun/06/silicon-valley-diversity-problem-tech-industry-solutions

Nandy, P. (2017, November 9). 5 key steps to implementing a successful diversity program. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://www.insidehr.com.au/5-steps-diversity-program/

Siddiqui, H. (2016, July 29). The threats and challenges for Netflix in Asia. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/29/the-threats-and-challenges-for-netflix-in-asia/

Staff. (2017, June 22). Netflix Updates Its Famous Culture Document with Focus on Inclusion and Respect. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://www.cebglobal.com/talentdaily/netflix-updates-its-famous-culture-document-with-focus-on-inclusion-and-respect/

Trailhead. (2018). Diversity and Inclusion Strategies. Retrieved May 18, 2018 from https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/modules/workplace_equality_be_more_inclusive/units/we_how_to_be_how_to_champion_inclusion