Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
Sales force Co-CEO Marc Benioff told employees in a Slack message on Friday that the company’s newest hires aren’t productive enough, and he asked for feedback on why that was.
“Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without a workplace culture?” he asked in a message viewed by CNBC. He said he was “asking for a friend,” a phrase that people often use on the internet to humorously express their curiosity about a topic. The message includes an emoji showing a smiling face with a halo hovering over it, suggesting innocence.
Benioff’s company-wide message addresses an issue that is becoming a hot topic in Silicon Valley. Since Covid forced workers to go home nearly three years ago, companies have been trying to reimagine a future workplace that allows employees more flexibility than in the past. Some businesses have allowed employees to work permanently from anywhere.
Salesforce, the largest private employer in San Francisco, is among the first Tech companies tell their workforces that they don’t need to go back. Last year, Salesforce acquired the communication app slackand Benioff said people can work very efficiently from their home. Sales force speak it will allow teams to decide how long they will be in the office.
But Benioff can recognize some of the challenges of working remotely. On Friday, he highlighted an issue that he says is affecting employees who joined Salesforce this year and last. Salesforce’s headcount has grown by 32% over the past year and last month cut hundreds of jobs.
A Salesforce spokesperson declined to comment on Benioff’s messages but sent a statement about company policy.
“We have a hybrid work environment that empowers leaders and teams to work together with purpose,” the spokesperson wrote. “They can decide when and where they come together to collaborate, innovate, and drive customer success.”
Benioff is facing slowing revenue growth as the economy weakens and an upper-level decline in Salesforce. Last month, the company said Bret Taylor would be step down from his position as co-CEO in January. He had just been promoted to share the top job with Benioff a year earlier. And a few days later, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield announced his departure.
Here’s the full text of Benioff’s Slack post:
How do we increase employee productivity at the sales force? New employees (hired during the pandemic period 2021 & 2022) especially face much lower productivity. Is this a reflection of our office policy? Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture? Are our managers not directly addressing productivity issues with their teams? Are we not investing enough time in our new employees? Are managers focusing enough time and energy on introducing new employees and achieving productivity? Is a new employee coming in with an overwhelming sales force? Ask a friend. (I’ll leave this ending open to get the widest range of feedback.)
The message prompted a flurry of comments.
Some react with emojis that say “HERE” with an up arrow. Others chose emojis that said “WFH” or “quote needed”. Dozens of people used a standard emoji called a thinking face.
Benioff again joined the answers.
“Asking employees (and customers and each other) hard questions for answers is one of the most effective ways to get answers as a leader,” he writes. “That’s why we bought Slack because there’s no better way to ask questions and get answers from the crowd quickly. Today we’ve got almost 500 answers to those questions. this — amazing and incredibly helpful!”
He wasn’t pleased when his message made it to the press, which ended up on Twitter.
“I hope you’ll agree that it’s disappointing that our private conversations here were brought up almost immediately into the mass media,” he wrote. “I wonder how do we reinforce that Trust is our company’s highest value? How do we demonstrate the power of Trust and Transparency without going public right away? ie. That represents our core in the sales force.”
His answer was shared with CNBC.
CLOCK: Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff on Bret Taylor leaving the company
