It’s exciting to be named one of Australia’s Best Workplaces for the ninth year running and our seventh consecutive year in one of the top three spots. While it’s incredibly gratifying to receive these accolades, we like to use this time of year to think about why we’ve been awarded this title and the changes we can make to continually meet the changing needs of our employees.
After hiring thousands of new team members and reimagining our culture for a hybrid world, our workplace isn’t quite the same. The reasons we won this honour seven years ago aren’t the same today, or even 12 months ago — and I’m sure that this will be different in another 12 months, too. But one of our core values is innovation, and our commitment to being a great workplace is driven by one question: how can we keep doing better for all of our people?
A digital-first world continues to transform how we live and work and, with new economic and global headwinds upon us, all businesses will need to keep evolving in order to deliver for employees and customers alike. To do that, these are three continued areas of focus for Salesforce.
1. A fixation on customer success — and its relationship with employee success
We know employees need to see a connection between their work and tangible benefits for the customers they serve. That’s why one constant for Salesforce is our commitment to Trailblazer success. Through mechanisms like our Customer 360 and Trailblazer communities, almost everything we do is aimed at empowering organisations to build closer relationships with their own customers.
But helping our customers succeed means recognising that their needs will shift — and sometimes recognising that we don’t always get everything right the first time. Innovation is part of our organisational DNA, which means we have a culture where there’s no fear of getting something wrong, only a passion for getting it right. As economic conditions and other macro factors reshape the business landscape further, we’ll be focused on constant innovation that helps Trailblazers connect with their customers more efficiently, drive productivity and find new opportunities in a climate.
This commitment to success extends to our people, too. In the past year, we’ve looked for new ways to build better employee experiences — one of the most critical foundations for great customer experiences.
For instance, we’ve formed a new Employee Experience (EX) Team, part of our Employee Success team. It focuses on continuously identifying employee pain points and then refining experiences to address them. We’ve deliberately borrowed approaches from our Customer Success Group, because we recognise that customer experiences and employee experiences are interdependent.
2. Helping our people thrive, inside and outside the workplace
A work-from-anywhere culture has eroded and transformed some of the previous distinctions between “work” and “life.” The link between success and employee wellbeing is clearer than ever, so employers will need to evolve both formal and informal ways of supporting the health of their people and their loved ones.
Recently, at Salesforce, that’s meant expanding existing programs and introducing new resources:
- Continued expansion of the Camp B-Well program. Created in partnership with Arianna Huffington’s wellbeing company, Thrive Global The Camp B-Well app is our wellbeing digital destination. With app usage increasing over 80% YoY, over 36,000 employees are using the app to better understand their wellbeing, set goals and join fun company challenges to make change together.
- New health and wellbeing resources. Along with a new mental health trail on Trailhead, this includes BetterUp Care Wellbeing Coaching, a mental fitness benefit connecting employees to personalised coaching, tools, and support. We’ve also enhanced our Global Bereavement Leave to provide more support and expand the definition of “family.”
- A new Equality Group at Salesforce. We’ve recently launched Salesforce Parents and Families (SPF), our 13th Equality Group. Previously known as the affinity group Parentforce, SPF has grown its name and mission, focusing on driving equity for employees in all stages of parenting, family and caregiver journeys.
Of course, employee success also depends on professional wellbeing. Especially with so many new people joining Salesforce, initiatives like our new “Talent Beliefs” guide how managers lead our teams and ensure consistent employee experiences across the organisation. We’ve also launched Great Leader Pathways (GLP), which offers new, customisable leadership development to all eligible employees, regardless of level, title, or tenure. Thanks to GLP, our last fiscal year was our biggest ever for leadership development.
Professional wellbeing and development also play a big role in broader issues, such as an ongoing digital skills shortage and persistent inequality in pathways to digital skills. That brings us to a final and crucial area of focus: what we’re giving back to communities.
3. Emphasising business as a platform for change
Employees want to see positive impacts to customers, definitely — but, increasingly, they also want to know that their workplaces are leading with values and affecting positive change to a broader suite of stakeholders. This includes local communities and the planet itself.
We’re proud that, according to IDC, Salesforce and our partner ecosystem will have created thousands of new jobs and billions in new business revenues by 2026. But digital skills shortages and unequal opportunities tend to go hand-in-hand. As part of the tech industry, we need to do more to ensure that pathways to digital skills are accessible to everyone. Although we acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, we’re investing in early in-roads and have announced grants for Australian not-for-profits Raise and Deadly Science.
We’re also taking a broader lens to the meaning of ‘stakeholder’ by officially adding Sustainability to Salesforce’s core values and partnering with others to drive net-zero strategies across Australian, New Zealand and the world.
Engaging employees through a platform for change requires empowering them to take action on the issues that matter to them, too — namely through Volunteer Time Off (VTO). Since February 2021, Salesforce employees in Australia and New Zealand have achieved roughly 14,120 Impact Milestones (that is, impactful actions taken to give back to our communities) and 13,000+ employees became Impact Trailblazers (meaning they each individually achieved at least 7 Impact Milestones). And 76% of our employees have volunteered their time or matched a donation while at Salesforce.
Finally, recognising that change in Australia will depend on all of us, we’ve launched our first Reconciliation Action Plan, and have committed to a series of changes and strategies that cultivate accountability and champion Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
What will it take to continue being one of Australia’s best workplaces
We’re proud of the changes we’ve made in the last year alone, but we know they won’t be enough to keep up with a fast-changing world. We’re committed to constant evolution, with people and our planet at the centre of everything we do.
But continuing to offer a great place to work depends on something else: you. Whether you’re already part of the Salesforce team or considering it, none of our successes would be possible without our employees.
If you’re ready to join an organisation that leads with values, to help us keep building a great culture, a great workplace, and great outcomes for the people and issues you care about, then we’d love to hear from you.
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