Human Resource Management Case Study - Netflix

This case study analyses the HR philosophy, talent management, reward policies and high-performance sustainable HRM system of Netflix. It also provides recommendations to develop effective HRM policies for global talent management.

Human Resource
Management

Executive summary
Human resource management is the framework to manage people to accomplish better and
perform well in their segments where it also provides the tools and training which are crucial for
the growth of the company. This project will talk about the different role of theories and
practices of HRM to analyse the scenario of workplace for professional, ethical and effective
HRM .Netflix is the chosen company for this project.
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Table of Contents
Executive summary .........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASKS.............................................................................................................................................3
1. HR philosophy to attract, retain and firing policy and practises ..........................................3
2. Netflix manges its talent and reward policy ..........................................................................5
3.High-performance of Netflix on the basis of sustainable HRM system .................................6
4.Two recommendations for Netflix in order to develop HRM policies ...................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource management allows the companies to manage people so that it can
achieve the desired goal of the company for better performance. It is the process of hiring,
recruiting and managing the employees of the organisation. The company chosen for the project
is Netflix. It is one of the topmost streaming entertainment service globally. Netflix provides the
services to its customer the operations of play, pause and resume watching the entertainment
without any commercials. It was set up in 1997 and provides different type of fresh video content
on the demand of its customers. The report further explains the HR philosophy to attract, retain
and fire policies and practises. The project will help in analysing the ways used by the Netflix to
maintain high level performance and various recommendations are provide to keep an effective
and developing HRM policies to manage global talent (Reina and Scarozza 2021).
TASKS
1. HR philosophy to attract, retain and firing policy and practises
The HR philosophy of Netflix helps to shape the employee's attraction, retention and firing
policy and practises
The HR philosophy assists in making the better leadership style with managing the human
resource function. Today's leader need a modern HR Management approach to build the best and
suitable environment for the implementation of new and updated HR Management (Kaiser, Henn
and Marschke, 2020).
Netflix HR Philosophy
The main target of the Netflix is on to appoint the right and best candidate for the company and
it also focuses to cut down the unproductive employees so that it can retain the good ones. The
work culture of Netflix is that to build trust among their employees so that they can feel attached
and be more productive. The main policy is to be fair and direct with their present employees.
The managers and management brings the cooperative behaviour with their employees to be
more creative and improve their previous performances.
 Netflix HR practises involve the investigation of employee's skill and capabilities. As the
employees of Netflix would also encourage their friends to become the co-workers
because it is one of the best place to work such as like Google, Amazon, Facebook,
Apple or many others. It provides additional services like, taco bars, proper coffee
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machines, fridges filled with the drinks, popcorn dispensers and a snack of the month also
(Searle, 2018).
 Netflix is also providing support to its employees in their adoption, fertility or surrogacy
journey. The benefits are provided to the employees, their partners, regardless of gender,
sexual orientation and marital status. Moreover, Netflix also offers an allowance to
support in covering the costs of the family forming journey (Jenner, 2018).
 Netflix gives a lot of freedom and power in reference of their decisions. The company
is also providing the sense of freedom and responsibilities to its current employees. There
are some companies who does not give priority to its employees whereas Netflix is
creating a sense of ownership for the employees so that the employees feel attached with
the company and helps in attaining the desired goals of the company. The main goal of
the company is to encourage people rather than ordering them which leads to act on the
basis of responsibility and self-discipline which tends to bring the growth and
development.
 The company does not prefer 9 to 5 workday rule for the employees. In Netflix the
employees are told and encouraged to keep the level of sincerity and objectiveness
towards the company. A high level of productivity is also maintained to make Netflix a
better place to work for the employees ( Flynn, Valentine and Meglich,2021).
 Netflix has not only captured the attention of its loyal customers globally but also
succeeds to grow in the competitive environment as an good employer. Netflix is also
one of the best place to work for employees and mainly it maintains a higher than average
eNPS.
 All the employees are given the option to choose how much of their compensation they
want as stock options and salary every year. Moreover, the employees are also allowed
to tackle the risk be setting the level of risk as per their choice.
Policies in United States
Different policies and laws are required at the workplace to communicate with the employees
some of them are as follows-
 Safety and health- Due to the existence of regulations under the Occupational Safety
and Health Act requires the employers and management to have some programs on the
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workplace in case of emergency situations. Safety and health of employees are important
at the workplace to enhance the emotional and physical well-being of all the employees.
 Employees punctuality- Policies are clear in United States that the employees has to be
on time by starting each day by following the procedures of the company. The polices are
also made on the various issues like workplace violence, conflicts on opinion,
disciplinary action and many others.
Policies globally
There are many policies which are available globally some of them are as follows-
 Geo-Centric Approach- Under this approach the employees are recruited on the basis of
suitability rather than the nationality of the candidate.
 Ethnocentric Approach- Under this approach the people are hire from the parent
country to fill the required positions from all over the world ( Carbery and Cross, 2018).
2. Netflix manges its talent and reward policy
There are different ways to maintain the talent of the company which are explained below-
 Various test like keeper test is done which helps in analysing and interact with the staff
in order to be in the team. The company is also keeping the employees engaged with the
help of dividing the work and proper managing the duty so that it can help in growth and
performance of the company.
 The company keeps the employees engaged through empowerment by hiring and
appointing the best available candidates and by removing the rigid policies in order to get
the works and tasks done.
 Netflix manages and operates people by setting common goals and by providing them
flexible working hours and unlimited holidays. The company tells the truth about the
performance and hire, reward and tolerate the deserving candidates. In terms of
maximising the level of productivity, creativity and innovation the company manges and
focuses on how to get things done properly in the efficient manner.
 The company treats its employees like grown ups by fixing the goals in advance and it
also treats the employees like a sports team in which the employees compete in a healthy
manner to contribute their best efforts for the success of the company (Bos-Nehles, Trullen
and Valverde, 2021).
Reward practises
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Proper performance system of company is directly linked to the effective reward system which
offers wide learning opportunities along with the best working environment. All the companies
offer different ways of rewards such as profit sharing, ESOP's, bonuses, gain sharing and stock
option plans. Various reward practises which are being provided by the Netflix are explained
below-
 Netflix provides good salaries with a bunch of benefits such as free lunches,flexible
working hours, employee stock option with compensation, unlimited vacation, mobile
phone discounts, dental, vision and health insurance for all the employees. The company
has well-kept a good reputation as a company in the market by paying its technologists
huge salaries and managing people properly.
 Netflix has also opted a traditional based commission system to provide rewards to the
employees for their overall contribution and improvement. Mainly in film industry, the
commission based approach has been very effective for actors and directors as per the
success of the commercial films.
 Employees can also have unlimited parental leave because the parents are encouraged
to take four to eight months off so, they can take manage both personal and professional
life both easily. When the employees are able to get back on work then, the employees
can join the work either full time or part time as per their situation and requirement . As
well as the Netflix provides flexibility and support to the employees if they return to
work.
Employment laws differ globally
Netflix allows the customer to watch the content anytime and anywhere without any limit
on the content. The company is providing the content on the fingertips of the customers so that
they can switch between different movies and TV shows. It is operating globally and when the
business is expanded to the different countries then it has to go through the various employment
and labour laws in order to understand the laws which are essential to retain and motivate the
talent to protect from the unnecessary risk of the market (Bailey, Mankin and Garavan, 2018).
3.High-performance of Netflix on the basis of sustainable HRM system
Netflix that is one of the leading company in OTT platforms in the world is due to its
exceptional content content and high performance activity in its work-culture. The mentioned
company has created ethical HRM system that completely belongs to transparent and motivated
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work culture. They completely believe in giving the opportunity to high skilled candidate. The
mentioned company did not follow any formal policies in its HR system that giving the
advantage in relieving the complexity in their work culture. They completely focus on employee
performance not on the rules And this is the main reason that created the high performance
workplace in Netflix. Below are some of the practices that used by the Netflix in its workplace;
 High performance work culture- The mentioned company did not hire fresh
college candidate as they believe to give the opportunity to highly skilled and
experience candidate in their work-culture. Company believe on effective result
rather than hard work. The HR ensures that they only pick the cream talent in their
operations that focuses in enhancing the company operations through their
innovative ideas as well as better performance result according to the company
demand. The mentioned company also follow the hire and fire work culture
practice in the company through which inefficient or ineffective employees were
replaced by another deserving candidate (Banfield, Kay and Royles , 2018)..
 Higher pay in competitive market- This is one of the major factor due to which
company getting the success the in competitive market. Through the attractive pay
they able to get the exceptional talent in tier work culture. They are the one of the
highest paying to the employer in the industry. It is analysed that senior developer
of Netflix earned approximate $ 3,60,000 and marketing director earned around $
200,200 which is way much higher than other companies in this field (Netflix
Salaries, 2021).
The given company also prioritise the new and unique ideas through their employee
through which great culture were formed in the workplace. Netflix also follows the 360 degree
reviews system in their operations by which their employee were analysis and suggested the task
and other actions that should be follow or embedded by their colleagues. By this they developed
the performance review system in their organisation that helped in order to take the effective and
efficient decisions towards the employee. It gives the advantage to Netflix in managing their
employee performance even more deliberately. By such effective process Netflix were able to
motivate and improvise the given task in between their management system.
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4.Two recommendations for Netflix in order to develop HRM policies
Netflix has its global presence around the world as well as established the strong brand image in
the market. The employees that work in the given company operations are come from several
region and backgrounds. Hence these employees have different work culture as well as mindset
in compare to American culture that used by Netflix in their operations. Therefore, in order to
develop and enhance the company working efficiency as well as managing the global talent
below are the some recommendations; Working from remote location- Netflix does not allow their employee to work from
distant and remote location. Company follows the policy of centralization of workforce in
which employee that working on Netflix products should work from their headquarter in
California. Hence, due to this policies several global talent were not getting the
opportunity to work with the Netflix. Through such system company exempted the
opportunity of such candidate that not comfortable in moving to America. In relation to
this if company will allow the employee to work on their products from any location can
bring the more option and talent to the company. This will eliminate the location barrier
that will be helpful for such employees that are not comfortable to work from central
location (Stewart and Brown, 2019).
 Change in working culture- Netflix majorly follow the culture of hire and fire and open
feedback practice in their operations. These approaches are somehow good as well as bad
for the different region of employee. For instance the hire and fire culture is popular in
American region but not in all the countries. Hence, this type of culture is somehow
unfamiliar for other different region employees working in Netflix. Hence by changing in
the above Practice can help the mentioned company even more for their future
operations. Some people are not familiar with open criticism. Hence by eliminating such
practice in the workplace can create the positive environment for the employees that cant handle
open criticism.
CONCLUSION
From the analysis of above report it can be said that human resource management plays a vital
role in every company operations. Through the effective HRM approaches in work-culture
succours the organisation in order to emphasis the employee credibility. In above report it is
clearly mentioned that Netflix which is a global leader of internet subscription service company
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followed several bold and effective HRM approaches for enhancing their working operations .
Their approaches majorly focused on to hire the skilled and experienced candidate that helped
the given company in establishing their brand image in the market. They completely believe in
giving the opportunity to high skilled candidate. The given company HR placed several unique
practices such as open feedback through which company easily reviewed the employee
performance as well as provided better instruction regard to performing their task. The
mentioned company also paid higher salaries to their employee in compare to other competitor in
the market. As mentioned above they completely focused on employee performance not on the
irrelevant rules and regulation helped them in boosting their sales.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bailey, C., Mankin, D. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford
University Press.
Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management.
Oxford University Press.
Bos-Nehles, A., Trullen, J. and Valverde, M., 2021. HRM system strength implementation: a
multi-actor process perspective. In Handbook on HR Process Research. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
Carbery, R. and Cross, C. eds., 2018. Human resource management. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Flynn, W.J., Valentine, S.R. and Meglich, P., 2021. Healthcare human resource management.
Cengage Learning.
Jenner, M., 2018. Netflix and the Re-invention of Television. Springer.
Kaiser, F.G., Henn, L. and Marschke, B., 2020. Financial rewards for long-term environmental
protection. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68, p.101411.
Reina, R. and Scarozza, D., 2021. Human Resource Management in the Public Administration.
In Organizational Development in Public Administration (pp. 61-101). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Searle, R.H., 2018. Trust and HRM. In The Routledge companion to trust (pp. 483-505).
Routledge.
Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
Netflix Salaries. 2021. [Online]. Available at:
<//www.comparably.com/companies/netflix/salaries>
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