The keeper test

A simple test could help you identify who your best or most important people are.

In my new role it is the first time I have been part of the performance and salary review process. I came across a very timely article that aligned nicely with one of the steps in our process.

At Netflix they have something called the “Keeper Test”. It comes down to asking a surprisingly simple question:

All Managers would ask themselves the following: “Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving for a similar job at a competitor or peer company would I fight hard to keep?”

As part of our evaluation process I was asked to give a “score” to each of the people that report into me. Now I am not a big fan of this and have made my feelings clear about it. It’s a bit like the way an Ofsted rating of a school in the UK comes down to a single rating - it misses all the nuances behind it. It is the same with our score - do I score them based on their delivery? On their impact on the team? On their “value for money”? Or some subjective overall number?

I was given no choice - I had to generate these numbers.

After I had completed this I came across the article and reviewed the scores against the scores I would have given based on the question above. The scores I had were remarkably well aligned with the scores I had given each person.

There is a second proposed question that needs to be answered:

All team members would ask their managers: “If I told you I was leaving the company to work for a competitor, how hard would you fight to keep me and try and convince me to change my mind?”

This encourages those being reviewed to ask their managers that direct question - this takes courage and they have to be prepared for the answer. Even without them asking the question it has got me trying to identify for each person what they would need to do to move into the “keeper” position.

Maybe this is something for me to ask our CEO in our next meeting?

Links

Netflix’s “Keeper Test” and Why You Need It