An internal memo from Meta Platforms Inc.
What Happened: The memo, authored by Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people development growth programs, instructs managers to classify employees into performance tiers based on their contributions over the past year, reported Business Insider.
Champion's memo indicates that Meta aims to achieve a 10% "non-regrettable attrition" rate by the end of the current performance cycle. This target combines last year's 5% with an additional 5% this year.
The company is increasing pressure on underperformers to swiftly determine who will remain and who will be let go.
Meta plans to cut about 5% of its lowest-performing staffers as part of an effort to "raise the bar." The company intends to backfill these roles in 2025.
The internal performance guidance document, obtained by the publication, categorizes employees into ratings such as "met most expectations," "met some," and "did not meet."
Employees rated as "Met Some" or "Did Not Meet" will be automatically added to the performance termination list.
"We have really ambitious goals, so we need to manage our workforce in a way that ensures we have the strongest talent working here and can move faster in managing out low performers so that we can bring new people in," Champion stated.
Why It Matters: The decision to implement performance-based job cuts at Meta aligns with a broader trend in the tech industry.
In December 2024, Alphabet Inc.'s
Likewise, Elon Musk's X reportedly experienced major layoffs in November 2024, with the engineering department being notably impacted.
Meta is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 29. Last year in October, the company reported $40.59 billion in third-quarter revenue, exceeding analysts' projections of $40.29 billion.
Price Action: Meta's shares fell by 2.31% on Tuesday but recovered slightly in pre-market trading on Wednesday, gaining 0.46% to close at $597, as per Benzinga Pro data.
