Netflix has long been known for its unique culture – one that fosters open and transparent lines of communication and encourages employees to speak their minds, as well as the plethora of women and minorities who star in, and produce the company’s content.
Recently, blowback against the release of controversial productions – most notably Dave Chappelle’s The Closer and Nicky Gervais’ SuperNature – led Netflix to update its culture deck to include a section dedicated to artistic freedom – informing employees that if they did not like the diverse opinions in Netflix content, then Netflix may not be the right fit for them.
Separately, Netflix has made remarkable strides in diversifying its workforce over the past few years:
- In 2021, for the first time ever, women made up more than half of the company’s global workforce. Specifically, 51.7% of its workforce are women, up from 40.3% in 2017. This strong upward trend is also present for women in director roles and above, with women accounting for 51.1% of those roles in 2021, up from 41.1% in 2017. Last year, women also held most of the company’s creative and corporate roles (59.5%).
- People of color also made up more than half of Netflix’s workforce (52.7%). This represents nearly a seven percent rise versus 2017, when people of color made up only 45.9% of the company’s workforce.
- People of color have also been hired at significant rates for the company’s director level positions and above. In 2017 people of color only held 27.9% of the company’s director level and above positions, while today that number stands at 42.1%.
- That said, most of the company’s small group of top executives are white, with people of color accounting for just 22.7%.
