• Internal Amazon manuals have revealed the criteria used to evaluate employees.
• Managers judge employees in a process called Forte on their performance score and potential.
• A low performance score could be due to the habit of not sharing knowledge, providing “overly complex or simplistic solutions”.

According to a Business Insider story, the criteria used by Amazon to judge employee performance; and determine pay adjustments were exposed in a batch of papers that were leaked.

Internal documents say, Amazon managers evaluate employees using a system called Forte; based on two main criteria: their performance score and the potential they have demonstrated.

How successfully Amazon staff members have internalised and upheld the company’s values; is a question managers are frequently asked. To gauge an employee’s mood, factors including praise from coworkers; accomplishments, and even self-evaluations are taken into consideration.

In order to determine an employee’s performance score; it is also noted how he or she accomplished his or her feats.

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Potential is rated on a scale from one to four, whereas performance is rated from one to seven.

The “total value” an employee provides to a firm is calculated by adding the two scores.

A poor performance rating may be be in effect, among other things; the tendency to withhold knowledge, to provide “overly complicated or simplistic answers;” to “argue too much and not speak out enough,” and to “dismiss alternative opinions.”

On the other hand, actions such as offering fresh perspectives, demonstrating a strong work ethic; and “acting as a mentor” might raise an employee’s ratings.

Vox discovered evidence of racial prejudice in the tech giant’s recruiting and promotion procedures; while Amazon ran into controversy for its manual’s inclusion of mandatory quotas for distinct levels.

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