- ByteDance uses eight category ratings to evaluate TikTok employees in performance reviews.
- If an employee receives a low rating, they can be put on a performance improvement plan.
- The company last year told managers it wanted to dole out more low scores in reviews.
It's performance review season at TikTok, and some staffers are getting hit with PIP-or-severance offers.
Business Insider viewed a rubric for how the company scores employees in reviews, which happen twice a year. Scroll to see the criteria.
The company grades employees using eight category ratings, ranging from "outstanding" to "failed." Four current and recent former TikTok employees in the Asia and US offices verified the scoring structure, though one US staffer said the wording, such as adjectives or word order, varied slightly from a different format they'd seen around the ratings. The meaning was the same, they said.
The rubric measures employees on three main criteria: Output, Leadership Principles, and ByteStyles — a set of workplace values it uses to define company culture. Those cultural principles include being candid and clear, courageous, and treating every day like it's "day 1."
Below is a rating scale available to employees in Asia at TikTok and ByteDance. The global employees BI spoke with said these ratings are combined into an overall performance score for each staffer. The staffers asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs and career prospects; their identities are known to BI.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
For ByteStyle and leadership principles, employees are only scored between "I" for "improvement needed" and "E" for "exceed expectations."
How low scores impact employees
Performance reviews have been a stress point at the company, particularly after managers were told last year to give out more low reviews to better differentiate performance. A score of "M-" for "meet expectations," or "I", which is defined as "improvement needed," may lead to a performance-improvement plan or a severance offer. PIPs are common in the corporate world. Companies may offer them as a path to recover from a bad review, though many people say it's hard to survive them.
Four current TikTok staffers told BI that they felt that PIPs were essentially impossible to accomplish at the company.
"I have never met somebody who's passed a PIP," one of the staffers said.
One former staffer said the rating scale can be misleading. For example, an M-, which is listed in the rubric as "meet expectations," is internally considered a poor grade.
Current and former TikTok employees previously told BI that the pressure to meet performance goals has increased in the US in the past year, amid reorgs and other changes at the company. Several of those staff said their goals had shifted, making it difficult to meet expectations. The combination of internal pressure along with outside political threats due to a divest-or-ban law have contributed to burnout and mental health leave requests among some staff, BI earlier reported.
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