Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Jan 07, 2026

Leaked documents reveal Amazon managers’ process to review employees' worth to the company and pay

Leaked documents reveal Amazon managers’ process to review employees' worth to the company and pay

A leaked trove of documents highlighting what metrics managers at Amazon prioritize to evaluate performance and changes in compensation might shed light on the company’s controversial performance review process.

Internal manuals show that Amazon managers are instructed to gauge employees based on two key factors, Insider reported this week after viewing the documents.

Amazon bosses combine two main metrics in determining an employee’s final review, or their “overall value” to the company: their performance score and the potential they have exhibited.

The process is known as Forte, and is highly relevant to Amazon employees, as their “overall value” is what ultimately determines any change in compensation they receive after the review.

Amazon did not reply to Fortune’s request for comment on the review process.

Determining an Amazon employee’s ‘overall value’


First, Amazon managers are instructed to determine how employees have held up the company’s principles, and how this reflects their particular strengths. This is done in a number of ways, including their accomplishments, feedback from colleagues, and, for the first time, self-evaluations.

Self-evaluations, and an assessment of an employee’s own accomplishments relative to their objectives, were introduced earlier this year after employees complained about managers having too much influence in the review process.

These qualities are then used to measure against an employee’s accomplishments, and how they achieved them. This rating is used to decide the employee’s performance score, which combines evaluations of what their accomplishments have been and the manner in which they reached them.

This performance result is ranked on a scale from one to seven, then combined with an evaluation of an employee’s potential—ranked on a scale from one to four—to finalize a review in a score defining the worker’s worth to the company, or “overall value.”

An employee’s performance score can be low if he or she demonstrates “questionable judgment,” creates “overly complex or simplistic solutions” to problems, does not “share knowledge” and is “dismissing other viewpoints,” or “argues too much and does not speak up enough.”

Factors that can boost an employee’s score include being reactive to customer needs, acting as a mentor, providing new ideas in discussions, and exhibiting a strong and adaptable work ethic.

Amazon’s controversial review record


Amazon’s new performance review instructions manual came out after the last one was received with heaps of controversy.

Last year’s documents, which were also reviewed by Insider, included a tiered ranking metric for employees, who would fall into one of five tiers.

But the process had evidence of a stack ranking system, Insider reported, which required a “certain percentage” of employees to rank in each tier, sometimes forcing evaluators to give adequate employees lower scores to place them in a tier that had not yet filled its quota, which could change their compensation changes, an Amazon employee told Insider.

Unlike last year’s document, the latest manual did not include any required quotas for separate tiers. In statements to reporters last year, Amazon denied using a stack ranking system.

Amazon’s performance review process also came under fire last year when an investigation by Vox found evidence of racial bias in the company’s hiring and promotion practices, as well as its review and rating systems.

Later in the year, Amazon released a statement promising it would be investigating any “statistically significant demographic differences” in both its performance rating system and the company’s attrition rate.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Béla Tarr, Visionary Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at Seventy After Long Illness
UK and France Pledge Military Hubs Across Ukraine in Post-Ceasefire Security Plan
Prince Harry Poised to Regain UK Security Cover, Clearing Way for Family Visits
UK Junk Food Advertising Ban Faces Major Loophole Allowing Brand-Only Promotions
Maduro’s Arrest Without The Hague Tests International Law—and Trump’s Willingness to Break It
German Intelligence Secretly Intercepted Obama’s Air Force One Communications
The U.S. State Department’s account in Persian: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know it until now, now you do—do not play games with President Trump.”
Fake Mainstream Media Double Standard: Elon Musk Versus Mamdani
HSBC Leads 2026 Mortgage Rate Cuts as UK Lending Costs Ease
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Outlines How Operation Absolute Resolve Was Carried Out in Venezuela
Starmer Welcomes End of Maduro Era While Stressing International Law and UK Non-Involvement
Korean Beauty Turns Viral Skincare Into a Global Export Engine
UK Confirms Non-Involvement in U.S. Military Action Against Venezuela
UK Terror Watchdog Calls for Australian-Style Social Media Ban to Protect Teenagers
Iranian Protests Intensify as Another Revolutionary Guard Member Is Killed and Khamenei Blames the West
Delta Force Identified as Unit Behind U.S. Operation That Captured Venezuela’s President
Europe’s Luxury Sanctions Punish Russian Consumers While a Sanctions-Circumvention Industry Thrives
Berkshire’s Buffett-to-Abel Transition Tests Whether a One-Man Trust Model Can Survive as a System
Fraud in European Central Bank: Lagarde’s Hidden Pay Premium Exposes a Transparency Crisis at the European Central Bank
Trump Announces U.S. Large-Scale Strike on Venezuela, Declares President Maduro and Wife Captured
Tesla Loses EV Crown to China’s BYD After Annual Deliveries Decline in 2025
UK Manufacturing Growth Reaches 15-Month Peak as Output and Orders Improve in December
Beijing Threatened to Scrap UK–China Trade Talks After British Minister’s Taiwan Visit
Newly Released Files Reveal Tony Blair Pressured Officials Over Iraq Death Case Involving UK Soldiers
Top Stocks and Themes to Watch in 2026 as Markets Enter New Year with Fresh Momentum
No UK Curfew Ordered as Deepfake TikTok Falsely Attributes Decree to Prime Minister Starmer
Europe’s Largest Defence Groups Set to Return Nearly Five Billion Dollars to Shareholders in Twenty Twenty-Five
Abu Dhabi ‘Capital of Capital’: How Abu Dhabi Rose as a Sovereign Wealth Power
Diamonds Are Powering a New Quantum Revolution
Trump Threatens Strikes Against Iran if Nuclear Programme Is Restarted
Apple Escalates Legal Fight by Appealing £1.5 Billion UK Ruling Over App Store Fees
UK Debt Levels Sit Mid-Range Among Advanced Economies Despite Rising Pressures
UK Plans Royal Diplomacy with King Charles and Prince William to Reinvigorate Trade Talks with US
King Charles and Prince William Poised for Separate 2026 US Visits to Reinforce UK-US Trade and Diplomatic Ties
Apple Moves to Appeal UK Ruling Ordering £1.5 Billion in Customer Overcharge Damages
King Charles’s 2025 Christmas Message Tops UK Television Ratings on Christmas Day
The Battle Over the Internet Explodes: The United States Bars European Officials and Ignites a Diplomatic Crisis
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Join Royal Family at Sandringham Christmas Service
Fine Wine Investors Find Little Cheer in Third Year of Falls
UK Mortgage Rates Edge Lower as Bank of England Base Rate Cut Filters Through Lending Market
U.S. Supermarket Gives Customers Free Groceries for Christmas After Computer Glitch
Air India ‘Finds’ a Plane That Vanished 13 Years Ago
Caviar and Foie Gras? China Is Becoming a Luxury Food Powerhouse
Hong Kong Climbs to Second Globally in 2025 Tourism Rankings Behind Bangkok
From Sunniest Year on Record to Terror Plots and Sports Triumphs: The UK’s Defining Stories of 2025
Greta Thunberg Released on Bail After Arrest at London Pro-Palestinian Demonstration
Banksy Unveils New Winter Mural in London Amid Festive Season Excitement
UK Households Face Rising Financial Strain as Tax Increases Bite and Growth Loses Momentum
UK Government Approves Universal Studios Theme Park in Bedford Poised to Rival Disneyland Paris
UK Gambling Shares Slide as Traders Respond to Steep Tax Rises and Sector Uncertainty
×