Netflix shares the inclusion strategy that helped it improve Black representation in its leadership and the areas it needs to do better in like recruiting Latinx staffers
Trending News
Netflix's head of inclusion strategy Vernā Myers released on Wednesday the streaming company's first inclusion report, which details its progress on diversity, the strategies that moved the needle, and where it needs to do better.
Netflix, which also publishes its diversity data every quarter, shared in the report that Black staffers made up 8% of its 8,000-person full-time US workforce as of October, up from 3.8% in 2017 and closer in line with (but still behind) the US population. Black staffers also comprised 9% of Netflix's US leadership team, including directors and above.
Overall, 46% of Netflix's US workforce were from underrepresented racial or ethnic backgrounds, as were 42% of its leadership.At the leadership level, just 4.9% of Netflix's US execs were Hispanic or Latinx, which was about the same share in 2017.
TheNetflix's report also unpacked some of the strategies that are helping it become a more inclusive workplace.
One was getting specific about what improvements it wanted to make and tailoring the strategy to fit each industry.
To recruit more women, Black, and Latinx talent for technical roles, for instance, Netflix's head of inclusion for the product and technology teams, Wade Davis, organized group coaching sessions where members of the inclusion team showed the tech execs how to self-assess where they've historically hired from, and how they can change their habits to bring in more people from different backgrounds. Those leaders then gave the trainings to their direct reports.Read more: How to get a job at Netflix, from getting noticed by a recruiter to nailing the interview
The strategy is part of an overall effort to get more employees to think with an "inclusion lens," a perspective members of the 17-person inclusion team usually bring when they sit in on meetings to help spot biases, ways a decision might impact underrepresented groups, and opportunities to embrace peoples' differences.
The inclusion team hopes to ingrain this thinking in Netflix's employees through various workshops. They hold workshops requiring employees to reflect on how they've personally experienced and perpetuated inequity, for example. Myers said she led one in 2019 for Netflix vice presidents that included an exercise in which execs had to identify their privileges, such as identifying as cisgender or white, or being without a disability.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
Next