Meta has once again turned up the heat on performance management. According to a memo viewed by Business Insider and shared on the company’s internal forum on May 14, the tech giant is directing managers to increase the number of employees falling into its lowest performance category — the “below expectations” tier — during midyear reviews.

For teams of 150 employees or more, managers are now being told to rank between 15% and 20% of their staff in this bottom tier, up from last year’s 12% to 15%. The change includes not only current employees but also those who have exited the company under “nonregrettable attrition” — Meta’s internal term for staff whose roles are not considered critical, including those who resigned or were dismissed for underperformance.

The move follows a wave of internal reforms aimed at tightening workforce standards, most notably the layoff of nearly 4,000 employees earlier this year. Those job cuts, which impacted around 5% of Meta’s workforce, were largely attributed to low performance. Internal documentation reviewed by Business Insider previously hinted that such layoffs might become an annual fixture under CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision to “raise the bar on performance management.”

The memo noted that the midyear review process, which begins on June 16, is an “opportunity to make exit decisions,” though it clarified there will be “no company-wide performance terminations” as seen earlier in the year. Managers have been given specific criteria to identify underperformers, including those rated “below expectations,” employees who were formally disciplined in the past six months, or those who had an “employee relations” case in the first quarter — typically associated with individuals on performance improvement plans.

Meta's leadership has emphasised that the push for more rigorous evaluations is not merely punitive but part of a long-term strategy to reshape the organisation after years of overhiring. The company’s HR executives have stressed the need to “move faster” in exiting underperformers and make room for “stronger talent” to meet evolving business priorities.

The latest midyear adjustments follow a similar shift at the end of 2022, when Meta increased the share of employees placed in its lowest performance categories from a previous range of 7%–12% to up to 16.5%. As is the case now, that figure included individuals already earmarked for nonregrettable attrition, and managers were urged to be more stringent in differentiating employees at the margins of performance bands.

While Meta declined to comment on the changes, the company’s actions align with a wider recalibration across the tech sector. Industry peers such as Microsoft and Google have also been tightening performance standards and cutting workforce layers. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a reduction of approximately 6,000 roles — or 3% of its global workforce — aimed at boosting efficiency and increasing the ratio of coders to noncoding staff. Similarly, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed last year that the company had trimmed its top management ranks by 10% as part of its own optimisation effort.

The shift marks a cultural and strategic pivot for Meta, once known for its generous hiring practices and internal freedom. Now, with an eye on productivity, performance, and cost-cutting, the company is becoming more assertive in managing underperformance as it invests heavily in areas like artificial intelligence and the metaverse.

For employees, the message is clear: performance expectations are rising, and the margin for underdelivery is shrinking. Managers, too, are being called to account, tasked with making tough calls about who stays and who goes — a pressure likely to reshape not just teams, but Meta’s internal culture at large.