Why is Meta Overhauling its Performance Culture?

Meta is changing how it rewards its top performers, according to a memo seen by Business Insider. 

It reports that the company will be making changes to its review process and bonuses, with the aim to simplify the way it reviews performance and encourage top achievers with higher bonuses. The changes will come into effect by mid 2026.

Business Insider reports that, under the new system, a small number of employees who deliver a ‘truly exceptional impact’ will be eligible to receive the company’s new Meta Award, a 300% individual multiplier to their base bonus.

Incentivising top performers 

The new system, named Checkpoint, introduces four performance ratings – outstanding, excellent, needs improvement and not meeting expectations. 

This programme will reward employees based on their contribution to business outcomes, with ‘outstanding’ employees delivering an ‘outsized impact’ to Meta, according to the memo. 

The four performance ratings are reported as follows:

• Outstanding: The top 20% of Meta’s workforce. These employees will be rewarded with a 200% multiplier on their base bonus for delivering an ‘outsized impact.’ 
• Excellent: Meta expects 70% of its employees to fall into this category, described in the memo as the ‘high culture performance baseline’. This group will receive a 115% individual multiplier on their base bonus. 
• Needs improvement: Employees who are expected to improve – anticipated to be around 7% – will receive a 50% individual multiplier. 
• Not meeting expectations: The bottom 3% of employees not meeting Meta’s standards will be given a 0% multiplier on their bonuses. 

Alongside this new scheme is the Meta Award, which offers a 300% individual multiplier to base bonuses for top performers. 

These employees will deliver what Meta describes in its memo as ‘exceptional’ business outcomes, to provide a stronger incentive for top performers. 

No information is available as to what Meta is qualifying as exceptional, but the award will likely be received by a very select group of employees.

Simplifying the review process

According to the memo, managers were previously spending around 80 hours per year on performance related tasks, while employees spent 330,000 hours per year on peer feedback. 

Meta’s previous system was more detailed, with further categories employees could fall into – ranging from redefining expectations to not meeting expectations. 

An unnamed spokesperson for Meta told Business Insider: “We're evolving our performance program to simplify it and placing greater emphasis on rewarding outstanding performance. 

“While our employees have always been held to a high-performance, impact-based culture, this new direction allows for more frequent feedback and recognition in a more efficient way."

Culture at Meta 

Meta has been moving towards a more outcome-driven culture for some time. In 2025, the company pledged to cut 5% of its global workforce on the basis of poor performance, after cutting 10,000 roles in 2023 and 11,000 in 2022.  

In November 2025, the company reportedly announced it would begin assessing employees on their use of AI, with their ability to use AI to deliver results playing a key role in performance reviews in 2026. 

While the exact role an employee's AI competency will play in the new Checkpoint system is unclear, this move does come at a time where Meta is pushing AI initiatives. 

In January 2026, Meta announced Meta Compute, its decade-long initiative to increase AI infrastructure. 

The company plans to build ‘tens of gigawatts’ of AI infrastructure over the next 10 years, with ‘hundreds’ of gigawatts of infrastructure to be built beyond that, according to a statement released by Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook. 

Meta’s hope to better incentivise employees and increase AI competency comes at a significant moment of transformation for the company and aligns with its ongoing scaling of AI innovation.