Netflix CEO Reed Hastings used ‘keeper test’ to fire product chief: Report

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• According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix CEO Reed
  Hastings routinely uses a “keeper test” to evaluate employees,
  and he is “unencumbered by emotion.”
• Managers are encouraged to perform the test, in which they
  ask themselves whether they would fight to keep an employee.
• Hastings even used it to fire Netflix’s chief product officer
  and his close friend, Neil Hunt, last year.
• “I would not have chosen to move on at that particular
  moment, but you have to separate the emotion from the logic,”
  Hunt told the Journal.
• But this company culture has left some executives uneasy,
  and according to the Journal, they fear for their jobs every
  day.

As Netflix has grown into a media giant, helping to revolutionize
how we consume television, it has developed a tough corporate
culture with high standards.

A Wall Street Journal report on
Thursday shed light on the streaming service’s radical ways based
on anecdotes from over 70 former and current employees. According
to the Journal, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is “unencumbered by
emotion,” and routinely uses a “keeper test” to evaluate
employees.

He even used it to fire Netflix’s chief product officer and his
close friend, Neil Hunt, last year. Hunt had been with Netflix
for 18 years.

What is a keeper test?
Here’s how Netflix has described it: “If one of the
members of the team was thinking of leaving for another firm,
would the manager try hard to keep them from
leaving.” If an employee doesn’t pass the
keeper test, they’re “promptly and respectfully given a generous
severance package so we can find someone for that position that
makes us an even better dream team,” Netflix said.

Some managers told the Journal they felt pressured into firing
people or “risk looking soft.”

In regards to Hunt, Hastings felt the company had grown past its
need for him, and told Hunt that former international development
officer Greg Peters would be taking his place as product chief.

“I would not have chosen to move on at that particular
moment, but you have to separate the emotion from the logic,”
Hunt told the Journal.

Hastings’ commitment to the keeper test has left some
executives uneasy. According to the Journal, at a meeting of
Netflix public-relations executives in the spring, many expressed
that they feared they would lose their jobs every day they came
to work.

Here’s how Netflix responded to the Journal piece:

“We believe strongly in maintaining a high performance
culture and giving people the freedom to do their best work.
Fewer controls and greater accountability enable our employees to
thrive, making smarter, more creative decisions, which means even
better entertainment for our members. While we believe parts of
this piece do not reflect how most employees experience Netflix,
we’re constantly working to learn and improve.”