Summary.

When Netflix executives wrote a PowerPoint deck about the organization’s talent management strategies, the document went viral—it’s been viewed more than 5 million times on the web. Now one of those executives, the company’s longtime chief talent officer, goes beyond the bullet points to paint a detailed picture of how Netflix attracts, retains, and manages stellar employees. (Case Study Description Provided By The Harvard Business Review). The firm draws on five key tenets:

1. Hire, reward, and tolerate only fully formed adults. Ask workers to rely on logic and common sense instead of formal policies, whether the issue is communication, time off, or expenses.

2. Tell the truth about performance. Scrap formal reviews in favor of informal conversations. Offer generous severance rather than holding on to workers whose skills no longer fit your needs.

3. Managers must build great teams. This is their most important task. Don’t rate them on whether they are good mentors or fill out paperwork on time.

4. Leaders own the job of creating the company culture. You’ve got to actually model and encourage the behavior you talk up.

5. Talent managers should think like businesspeople and innovators first, and like HR people last.Forget throwing parties and handing out T-shirts; make sure every employee understands what the company needs most and exactly what’s meant by “high performance.”