Amazon has a new question for its corporate workforce: What did you get done last year?
As part of this year’s performance review process, known internally as Forte, Amazon is asking corporate employees to submit three to five “accomplishments” that best reflect their work, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal guideline obtained by Business Insider.
Employees are required to provide “specific examples” of what they delivered, along with actions they plan to take to continue growing at the company, the guideline added.
“Accomplishments are specific projects, goals, initiatives, or process improvements that show the impact of your work,” the internal guideline states. “Consider situations where you took risks or innovated, even if it didn’t lead to the results you hoped for.”
This marks the first time Amazon has explicitly formalized Forte around individual accomplishments, according to the people. They asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.
While the company has long included a self-assessment component, past reviews asked employees broader questions about their “super powers,” areas of interest, and questions like, “When you’re at your best, how do you contribute?” An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
Forte is a key driver of employee compensation. Managers also consider peer feedback, adherence to Amazon’s Leadership Principles, and job-specific skills to assign an “Overall Value” rating, which determines annual pay.
The move reflects Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s continued push to build a more disciplined workforce and a more unified corporate culture. Last year, he enforced a full return-to-office policy, cut management layers, and overhauled Amazon’s pay model and performance review process to more clearly reward top performers.
This is part of a broader change in how tech companies treat employees. After years of mollycoddling talent, the industry has become tougher. Elon Musk started this in 2022, by demanding to know what Twitter employees accomplished each week. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg followed suit with his year of intensity. Even Google has toughened up.
Some teams at Amazon, including the advertising and the IMDb video units, began pilot-testing a similar Forte question a few years ago. At the time, advertising chief Paul Kotas told employees that sharing specific accomplishments “helps facilitate a more productive” conversation with managers.
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