Over the past few months, we’ve had so many great opportunities for the Salesforce community to connect.
In June, we came together to recognize Juneteenth. We also celebrated our LGBTQ+ community during Pride month — our theme, “Unstoppable Together” was truly on display as we marched in Barcelona, Dublin, Mexico City, and the U.S.
In July, we celebrated our global Indigenous community with our WINDforce Equality Group, and in August, our Genforce Equality Group led conversations on the importance of empowering and unifying people from all generations. This month, we’re excited to come together as we honor and celebrate Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month.
But we can’t talk about these positive moments without recognizing the ongoing crises that continue to create uncertainty for so many. From the ongoing war in Ukraine, to the global economic outlook, to the infringement of safety and rights for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. These moments require a focus on deepening our connections to one another and taking action that helps further our goals of greater equality for all.
Becoming the most inclusive company
Our goal is to become the most inclusive company — not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it leads to increased innovation and better results. That’s why we are reimagining our systems and processes, approaching equality from a global lens, and making policy changes to better support our employees.
This quarter, we announced a new representation goal of reaching 40% women-identifying and non-binary employees globally by the end of 2026. This goal goes hand-in-hand with our existing representation goals, and will help us stay focused on accelerating representation.
The hard work of many people working all across Salesforce to reach these goals has paid off. In February, we met our goal of reaching 50% underrepresented groups in the U.S. a year early, and we just met another goal early, doubling U.S. representation of Black leadership (VP and above) since 2020.
We know that representation is not only about hiring, but also about the employee experience, which we are deeply focused on. To become the most inclusive company, we’ll continue listening to our people and taking action to offer meaningful support. Here’s how:
How Salesforce supports its people
Our People programs continue to have a measurable impact on the employee experience, as well as on employee growth and development at Salesforce. This quarter, we have made progress across a number of programs:
- We’re continuing to provide employees with critical benefits – from travel and relocation support for reproductive healthcare to expanded financial and emotional support for gender-affirming care.
- Warmline, an employee advocacy program that connects employees to advocates who help them navigate pivotal career moments, has continued providing employees with support — delivering strong impact. We are planning to scale a successful Warmline pilot that connected advocates with Account Executives. Among AEs who participated in the pilot we saw a 33% greater quota attainment versus AEs who did not participate in the Warmline cohort. Account Executives are among the groups at Salesforce with a distinct need for help navigating their careers toward better outcomes. Of all employees who’ve connected with the Warmline, 92% say they would use it again, and 96% would recommend it to others.
- Our Equality Business Partners, strategists who serve as trusted advisors to business leaders, are working to accelerate equality, especially in our people processes. The impact of this work shows up when leaders are empowered to embed inclusion in their decision-making broadly, from talent processes to how they manage teams.
- Our Equality Groups continue to be the center of our work, as they continue to create regular opportunities for members and allies to engage on the most important issues impacting our communities. In Q2, we launched our 13th Equality Group, Salesforce Parents and Families (SPF). This new employee resource group is a place for parents and caregivers to share experiences, seek advice, and give support.
Salesforce delivers for its communities
In addition to championing our employees, we also continue to support our communities by taking action toward greater racial equality and justice.
Philanthropy
- We’re continuing our focus on philanthropic giving, with $117 million and 390,000 volunteer hours donated to organizations advancing racial equality and justice since 2020. In Q2, we focused on supporting younger, smaller organizations to help grow and scale their innovative work. We also announced the first donations from the Salesforce Catalyst Fund, which provides unrestricted capital to nonprofits led by people of color.
- Since 2020, we’ve also delivered over $2.55M in pro bono services aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities.
- Slack for Good advanced its mission to increase the number of underrepresented individuals in the tech sector through three key projects aimed at creating career opportunities for the formerly incarcerated:
- Slack expanded the Next Chapter apprenticeship program to 14 hiring partners.
- It also collaborated with the Aspen Institute to build on Next Chapter’s success and bring it to additional companies.
- Slack launched the trailer for a powerful documentary film on the re-entry barriers faced by formerly incarcerated narrated by John Legend.
- And, Slack donated $300,000 to seven organizations supporting underrepresented groups last quarter.
Purchasing
- Because of the intentional ways we’re spending with Black-owned and minority-founded businesses, we are on target to increase our minority business spend in 2022 by 25% year-over-year — for the second year in a row. We have reached more than 70% of our goal of $100 million in spending with Black-owned businesses. Additionally, through Salesforce Ventures, we have exceeded our goal of investing more than $100 million in Black and URM-led companies since the launch of the taskforce and are on track to increase our overall number of Black and URM founders by more than 3x by 2023.
- Since 2020, 513 small business suppliers have participated in our Net15 Accelerated Pay Program, with $191 million in accelerated payments helping to address critical cash flow challenges for small businesses.
Policy
- Salesforce joined a coalition letter in support of the Civics Secures Democracy Act pending in Congress. This bipartisan legislation would provide a significant federal investment in K–12 civic education and provide the resources necessary for teacher professional development, curricular materials, and student programming.
- We continue to encourage our U.S. employees to sign up with Power to the Polls to be a nonpartisan poll worker in upcoming elections, and offer Volunteer Time Off for this crucial work. For Vote Early Day on Sept. 12, we’re encouraging employees to cast their votes early. On Sept. 19, National Voter Registration Day, we’ll encourage employees to register, if they aren’t already, and get out the word to others to do the same.
We are committed to driving systemic change in our workplace and communities through action, advocacy, and continued dialogue. We will continue to share progress and areas of opportunity as we work to meet our goals.
Learn more about our commitment to Equality and the Racial Equality and Justice Taskforce.
