This was shared during one of our team meetings at uTest and it’s one of the best posts on the topic of culture that I’ve ever read.  I highly recommend going through the Slideshare presentation below but I’ve listed  a few items I found particularly interesting, and highly underutilized by many companies (sometimes including uTest);
- Â “The actual company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.” (Slide 6)
- “Like every company, we try to hire well… Unlike many companies, we practice: adequate performance gets a generous severance package.” (Slide 21-22)
- Manage through context, not control. (Slides 78-87)
- Pay top of market:
- “Pay them more than anyone likely would” Â (Slide 98)
- “Compensation not Dependent on Netflix Success” (Slide 103)
- “If [employees] choose Netflix [health benefit] plans that are less than $10k [per year], they keep the difference” (Slide 109)
- “We don’t want managers to ‘own’ their employees with vesting – all comp is fully vested” Â (Slide 112)
- If a manager would promote to prevent from an employee from leaving, the manager should promote now instead of waiting. (Slide 119)
The emphasis is really about who you employ – if they’re not at the top of the market, and paid as such, then you need to replace them. Â I’m not close enough to NetFlix to know how closely they follow these ideals but I certainly respect their agile marketing and ability to compete in an increasingly competitive industry.
