As its name suggests, San Francisco-based Salesforce .com started as a service to help companies sell better. Its first product, a computer system for customer relationship management (CRM), lets salespeople tap into company data to write quotes, pre- pare sales forecasts, generate bills automatically, share product information, and get reminders to follow up with particular clients about specific needs. If these capabilities sound obvious, that is a tribute to companies like Salesforce, because businesses formerly relied on their people to set up paper or computer processes to handle such information. The job of a salesperson could turn into an endless stream of paperwork, robbing time that could have been spent with customers. Salesforce's system became a hit, and today the company is the top-selling provider of CRM. It continues to update the software, applying artificial intelligence to guide better decisions. The system has expanded to include tools for social media, online advertising and sales, app development, linking of customers' mobile devices, project collaboration, and more. The company has been growing rapidly, approaching its goal of $16 billion in revenues. Management is optimistic about the future. One reason is that companies see great potential in data analytics-delving deep into data to inform and make better decisions. Salesforce acquired MuleSoft, whose products enable companies to bring data from old computer systems into Salesforce's cloud-based system, making CRM potentially more valuable than ever.

The very success of Salesforce .com presents a human resource management challenge. The demand for computer professionals to write, update, and debug software, plus those who can envision and create advances in the technology, is intense. Throughout the industry, companies struggle to find and keep talent. One way that Salesforce has addressed the difficulty is by offering its Lightning Web Components tools, which let clients and their technology providers develop their own apps that can access data in Salesforce and use the system's! software. This takes some pressure off Salesforce to meet every client's industry-specific needs. Nevertheless, Salesforce's demand for computer expertise remains. and the responsibility falls to Cindy Robbins, the company's president and chief people officer. Two signs of the significance of her role as HR chief are her position as company president and her reporting relationship directly to Salesforce Co-CEO Marc Benioff. Benioff is considered Salesforce's visionary, while co- CEO Keith Block focuses on financial results. Robbins drew Benioff's attention when she and colleague Leyla Seka conducted an internal audit of pay at Salesforce and discovered that the company's female employees were being paid less than men doing the same work. Robbins insisted that the numbers were not to be disregarded, and she led an effort to bring women's pay in alignment with men's. She also ensured that future audits will be conducted to measure and maintain progress. Herself a Latina and the first in her family to attend college, Robbins sees valuing diversity as an attitude that contributes to Salesforce's reputation as a great place to work. Her boss Benioff agrees. Benioff already had observed that women were underrepresented in the company's management, so he began requiring that 30% of attendees at quarterly executive meetings be women. The company also invites employees to set up groups called ohana groups dedicated to topics around shared interests (ohana is a Hawaiian word referring to a person's extended family, more broadly defined than just blood relations). The ohana groups build relationships across departments and office locations and have the potential to increase job satisfaction among employees. A practical advantage of valuing diversity in a tight labor market is that it opens hiring managers' minds to locating talent in areas they might not otherwise consider. Employers tend to fall back on some image of an ideal candidate with a degree from a prestigious school and a personality resembling that of the company's current star performers. When employers do, they miss out on talented people with other qualities, including the grit needed to overcome obstacles such as poverty and discrimination. Salesforce is among the companies trying to break away from that tendency and seek out talent where others are not looking. The company has partnered with the Year Up program, a one-year program that teaches technical and workplace skills to urban youth and helps them find internships (often leading to permanent jobs) with Salesforce and other organizations. The experience has been beneficial enough that Salesforce has built ties with other programs for "nontraditional" hiring strategies.

Questions for Discussion

1. In the information given.what evidence can you find that Salesforce.com is being strategic about human resource management?

2. The company's participation in Year Up is an example of external recruiting. Why would external recruiting be important for Salesforce to meet its hiring goals?

3. Suggest a few ways that Salesforce can use performance appraisals and pay to meet the challenge of attracting and keeping talent in a tight labor market.