If they are really on the ball, they would ask middle management to rank their grunts. More commonly though, a director or vp will make the choices in bulk bas

If they are really on the ball, they would ask middle management to rank their grunts. More commonly though, a director or vp will make the choices in bulk based on other factors like salary. Of course this means high performers, who were given raises commensurately, are first to go in that model.