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Netflix Algorithm Tells You When Your Best Employee Is About To Leave You

Posted by timothy on from the time-your-bonuses-accordingly dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Former Netflix data scientist Mohammad Sabah has used the basis of the video-streaming company's movie-recommendation engine to create a new system to predict when valuable employees are likely to leave your company for pastures new. The new application 'Workday Talent Insights' uses the basis of the engine to correlate diverse factors such as interval between promotions and current length of tenure with equivalent job opportunities at employment websites, in order to gauge 'corporate restlessness', and provide options for employers who identify potential leavers."

3 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Managers need an algorithm for that? by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    - Have they turned up in a suit one day when they normally where jeans and t-shirt and disappear off for an extra long lunchbreak?
    - Have they started arriving late and leaving early?
    - Do they skip meetings more often?
    - Have they hinted about a payrise in the last assessment?
    - Has their work quality gone off a cliff and they spend most of the day on social media or youtube?

    If YES is the answer to 2 or more of those then yes, probably they're looking to leave.

    1. Re:Managers need an algorithm for that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This, entirely this. Saved a company over half a million dollars(or more) in lost time once by doing something that wasn't even my job only to be told I was not able to get a raise because my title didn't warrant it, oh and I couldn't get a new title. Within 2 years of leaving I'm on the verge of being triple my salary there. If you're not willing to pay someone what they are worth once they've proved their worth, you can bet someone else is.

  2. Let me help you with adding more time to that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you give an employee an awesome review, but tell him that due to your budget, you can only give a cost of living increase.

    Or here's one the really pissed me off. I was working for a body shop and coming off a contract. The sales/recruiter/commissioned guy asks what kind of rate would I like for the next contract. OK.

    So, I go up to computerjobs, type in my skills, experience, area and find that other W-2 contractors/temps were getting at least $5/hr more than I was. So, that's what I told the sales/recruiter/commissioned guy.

    "That's a pretty big increase."

    Excuse me. THEY are going to bill at market rates so why shouldn't I get market rates? My next contract was with another company that gave me $11/hr more. Yeah, this was in the late nineties - so, keep that in mind.

    Here's another one that kills me.

    You're working 12 hour days and ask your boss about getting more help - and entry level guy. And you explain that it will also develop more talent for the company.

    He says, "No, see we can't get anyone qualified."

    Now, I like getting my ego stroked as well the next guy, but frankly what I was doing wasn't rocket science. Then I overheard the stuff about the minimum ROI they have to make on a developer. That's right, they need to make 45% over your total compensation (salary, benefits, SS payments, etc ...). Some companies it's even more. So, they work you to death, tell you your awesome and that everyone else is too stupid to do what you're doing so, keep working hard you genius. Why hire two developers for when you can get one guy to kill himself?

    All of us were eventually canned and the work sent overseas.