Internal Microsoft email to managers details new policies aimed at culling low performers
Apr 21, 2025, 7:11 PM ET
Microsoft is adding policies meant to enhance performance management and address low performers.
The tech industry is shifting toward more rigorous performance expectations and less coddling.
Microsoft's new policies include a two-year rehire ban for employees found to be underperforming.
Microsoft has created new policies and tools for managers as part of an effort to dial up performance pressure on employees, according to an internal email viewed by Business Insider.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft's new chief people officer, on Friday emailed managers about "new and enhanced tools to help you accelerate high performance and swiftly address low performance."
There's a new option for exiting underperformers, and a policy that bars these people from transferring within Microsoft or getting rehired by the company for two years, according to the email.
Many tech companies have been getting tougher on employees in the past year or so. Efficiency has replaced perks and pampering, as performance-based job cuts become more of a regular occurrence.
For instance, Mark Zuckerberg targeted low performers when Meta eliminated thousands of jobs earlier this year. And, similar to Microsoft's new policy, Meta puts ousted employees on "block lists" meant to stop them from being rehired by the company.
Earlier this year, Microsoft fired 2,000 employees deemed underperformers without severance. Managers spent months evaluating employees all the way up to the executive level as part of changes to the company's performance review and management process, insiders told BI.
Coleman's email, in full below, details some of those changes and suggests others on the horizon. Microsoft declined to comment.
"Employees with zero to 60% rewards" refers to employees with low scores in Microsoft performance reviews, which use a scale from 0 to 200 that influences how much they receive in stock awards and cash bonuses.