‘Don’t hire them’: Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph’s masterclass on recruitment

Amid the wave of layoffs by scores of companies, including some of the biggest names such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph has some sane advice to offer. Randolph, who created one of the most successful and popular new-age companies has an effective and yet simplistic advice for companies – do not hire if you don’t absolutely need someone.

In a LinkedIn post, Randolph said, “The first rule of hiring: Don’t hire until you absolutely must. When you’re starting a company, you’re almost always under-resourced. So one of the first truly important decisions you have to make is who to hire and when to hire them. This might seem like a straightforward process—hire the talent you need to do the things you can’t do, right?—but there are dozens of ways to get it wrong.”

He said that this is a drama he has seen play out over and over, and one can come out of it with a few basic tips.

Randolph, listing the first point, said that companies should not hire employees if they are “not absolutely sure”.  He said that the needs of the company should drive hiring and not the other way round.

Hire only when it is obvious that there is a huge capability hole that is hurting the company’s execution, he said. The Netflix co-founder said that 99 per cent of the companies go out of business because they run out of money, and only 1 per cent do so because they didn’t hire enough.

“Which leads us to the third tip: If you need something done, do it yourself first. It’ll give you a better idea of whether you really need someone, and a clearer idea of what kind of person you want in that position once you do,” he said.

Randolph also said that the aim should be to balance strengths and weaknesses, especially in the early days. “One person which compliments you is better than three that think the same way you do,” he said.

The streaming giant had also laid off hundreds of employees last year. In June the company said that it laid off 300 employees or 4 per cent of its workforce in the second round of jobs cuts, after it cut 150 jobs in the US the previous month. Netflix was looking to lower costs after it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade last year.

Netflix’s origin story is a legendary one. Randolph, along with Reed Hastings had launched Netflix in 1998 as a DVD rental and sales website with 30 employees and 925 titles. Now Netflix is one of the biggest streaming giants, available across countries and offering a catalogue of thousands of shows and movies in multiple languages.