Meta wants managers to rank twice as many employees in its lowest performance-review categories

 

• Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees in early November. 
• Now, the company is roughly doubling the range for its lowest employee performance ratings.
• The range includes layoffs and "non-regrettable" exits by staff who managers aren't sad to see go.

Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees in November. Now it's making another change that could see even more people leave the company.

In annual performance reviews beginning in January, the quota for Meta's lowest employee performance review categories, from "met most" expectations to "needs support," will roughly double, according to two people familiar with the situation. They asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.

The quota will be 14.5% to 16.5% of employees company-wide, the people told Insider. The company had previously communicated the range would be 7% to 12%.

The higher range includes already laid-off employees and "non-regrettable attrition," a term for staff considered not critical to operations who managers would not be sad to see leave. NRA, as it's also known inside Meta, includes people who quit of their own accord and those who are let go after being deemed underperformers.

The higher target leaves room for Meta to let go more employees during the performance review period starting in January. During those reviews, managers will also be harder on staff who are on the borderline of performance categories, like hovering between "consistently met all" expectations and "met most" expectations.

"We increased the bottom of our range for this cycle because it includes 12 months of non-regrettable attrition instead of 6 months like we had in our old system," an explanation provided to managers states. "Additionally, we included non-regrettable attrition from the November layoff. We will also be more rigorous in our assessment of borderline Met Most/Consistently Met All cases."

At Meta, managers in October were also told to select a certain percentage of their teams as underperforming, as Insider reported, in the run up to the mass layoffs in November. The company, formerly called Facebook, ended up cutting 13% of headcount.

When employees leave Meta, they are marked as either "regrettable" or "non-regrettable." If it's the latter, they must have an internal reference to be hired back in the future, according to one of the people familiar. Other tech companies have similar terms. Amazon uses "unregretted attrition," or URA, a target for the number of departing employees that it isn't sad to lose. "Unregretted attrition" includes employees Amazon considers low-performing who are often pressured out via notorious performance-management programs.

The higher targets comes as the company puts greater performance pressure on employees and looks to cut costs. Shortly after the recent layoffs, Meta revealed it was looking to shrink its office footprint and would continue its current hiring freeze well into 2023.

In the run up to layoffs, Lori Goler, Meta's HR chief, sent a memo laying out expectations for managers to operate with "increased intensity," as Insider reported. That and other company communications, including comments by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made it clear that jobs were on the line. Employees were expected to build high-performing teams, ruthlessly prioritize, and make the most of time with teams.