Advantages and Disadvantages of Netflix Policies

Netflix is well known for his structure of organizational and flat circle. Because of the unlimited days off and the light politics of account of spending, the workers are more responsible and freer than the average employee on the market. Netflix avoids making decisions from top to bottom and to ask for the approval of the direction for everything. These methods show a traditional bureaucratic organizational structure. Instead of it, the company values the high performances of his employees and its excellent work. The company considers that, so that the employees can well performance artist, they should have the freedom to make their own decisions and to dictate their schedules. 

Even if we could qualify Netflix’s working environment as “chill” thanks to their policies that are not very strict or the leeway they give, it turns out the consequences of their practices don’t have the expected outcome on their employees. According to Patty McCord, the former person in charge of the talents of Netflix, the working culture is intense, and employees are under a lot of pressure. The employees must behave at an exceptionally raised level. The administrators must make periodically a test of guard. For this test, the person in charge imagines that a member of his team intends to leave Netflix for another company. Then, he must determine if he would fight fiercely to keep this person. If he answers no, this person is quickly sent back and is offered a severance pay. Netflix does not support the maintenance of “B” employees. So, while Netflix has a flexible organizational structure, there is a compromise between freedom and stability that employees face. Would potential employees really choose Netflix to work for? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each option?

Netflix strives to recruit only 'responsible adults': they will openly discuss the problems they face with their colleagues and superiors and will never abuse the benefits they are given. Confidence in higher value leads to different control practices. Thus, it is assumed that employees spend the company's money as if it were theirs and control expense reports less. If the employee takes a vacation, it is because he needs it and he will be more efficient after resting. Premiums usually distributed in large companies are discontinued because they do not improve the performance of 'responsible adults' who, paid at the right market price, are in any case already interested in the success of the company they serve. They have themselves decided on the share of wages and stock options in their remuneration, setting the balance that best suits their needs and their degree of risk aversion.

Concerning the advantages and drawbacks, we basically have two different ways of analysis Netflix’s policies:

• many companies have followed this type of structure for their employees. From recent researches, it has been proven that these methods would conduct to better productivity amongst the employees. Netflix has benefitted from permitting employees to choose if they want to work from home or when to work. It would be a great opportunity to work in this type of work environment when the environment meets your criteria. If an employee’s working system allows him to be flexible and to feel free, it should lead to better productivity.
•  The empowerment of the employee can be very controversial as well as positive. The argument of giving the employee more leeway and autonomy creates a productive working environment in which employees are stimulated is to consider. Of course, one would obviously think that by not limiting the vacation days and giving lax spending policies, we could face an moral hazard problem. We think we are moving towards a more relaxed future of work. Many companies are already offering fewer working days, under condition that the tasks are all completed, and many are very successful. However, the intense pressure exerted by performance does not seem to be an environment suitable for all personalities or working methods. For example, we do not think we would do well, knowing that any mistakes made will be made against us and will put us on the chopping block. Knowing employee satisfaction at Netflix would be an interesting topic to explore.

Netflix seems to be an organization where mistakes are not tolerated, even if they are part of working. It turns out that a lot of people would prefer a more stable and safer employer, more tolerant of mistakes, preferring more structure, so the extremely flexible benefits would make me constantly doubt if I deserved a day off. Most employees are in tune with the company culture and remain there for a long time: they are people focused on excellence and comfortable in an agile environment that is constantly evolving. However, some people attach more importance to the security of their position and a stable situation than to the search for performance: they do not feel comfortable at Netflix.    

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