Despite two significant rounds of layoffs, Meta isn’t finished with its plans to slash expenditures.
The social media giant is planning to lower its bonus payments this year and will conduct reviews of its employees’ performance more frequently than it has in the past, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The belt-tightening comes after Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 a “Year of Efficiency” for the company.
“These updates reflect changes we’re making based on what we learned about the process in 2022 and what we’re optimizing for in the year ahead,” an internal memo read.
To spur workers to work harder, those who are rated as “meets most expectations” in their year-end review in 2023 will receive a smaller bonus and fewer stock awards next year. The bonus multiplier for people who earn that rating has been cut from 85% to 65%.
“Meets most expectations” is the second-lowest ranking on Meta’s scale. Workers who have received this ranking generally view it as a sign that it might be time to look for a different job.
A new midyear review process will begin at the company in June. Meta told workers it was not tied with the company’s restructuring plans, but is meant to offer “a calibrated performance signal for fairness.”
Meta laid off 11,000 workers last November, the first in what would be a long string of mega staff reductions among tech giants. Earlier this month, the company announced 10,000 more jobs would be cut and 5,000 open positions would not be filled.
Like many tech companies, Meta saw tremendous expansion during the early years of the pandemic. As the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to cool down the economy last year, though, it began making cuts. The company had more than 87,000 employees last September, a 28% increase from the year before.
