Salesforce co-chief executive officer Marc Benioff has said that the employees hired during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022 are facing low productivity. He asked for a feedback on why such a situation had arisen. In a message sent to his employees on Slack, which was accessed by CNBC website, Benioff asked if the company is not building tribal knowledge with new employees and if the managers are not directly addressing productivity in their teams.
The San Francisco-headquartered company was among the first tech firms to tell its employees that they did not have to come back to office. Last year, when Salesforce acquired Slack, it was Benioff who said that people can work very effectively from their homes. The company said it would be left to the teams to decide how much time they would work in office. The company’s headcount grew by 32 per cent last year, this as it laid off hundreds of workers from its sales teams in a bid to improve profitability, Bloomberg reported.
A Salesforce spokesperson said the company has a hybrid work environment that empowers leaders and teams to work together with a purpose.
This comes at a time when Salesforce is facing slow revenue growth and exits from within its top leadership. Last month, the company said co-CEO Bret Taylor will step down from his post in January.
Three executives from Slack including co-founder Stewart Butterfield said they were departing the company. Salesforce has projected its slowest growth ever and is under pressure from activists to improve margins. The shares have dropped 19% since Taylor’s Nov. 30 resignation announcement and have dipped 49% this year, Bloomberg reported.
