Changemakers: How Salesforce Is Building Belonging With Its Workers

“I quit.” A record 45 million U.S. workers are believed to have quit their jobs last year, and early estimates indicate that 2021 will yield the highest number of worker resignations since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking quit data. And pollsters predict the wave of resignations will continue well into 2022.

This leaves employers struggling to understand what is happening, and, more importantly, what they can do to reverse the trend.

For companies looking for solutions, Jacalyn Chapman at Salesforce has a straightforward answer—listen to what your employees tell you and act on it.

Salesforce is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform with $21 billion in annual revenue and nearly 70,000 employees around the globe. Chapman, who has spent the last decade at Salesforce, is an unlikely expert (at least on paper) on employee retention. A civil engineering graduate of Georgia Tech, she has spent most of her career in operations roles focused on strategic innovation, customer experience, and consulting. In 2020, Chapman made a career right turn into human resources (HR), where she began leading Salesforce’s Employee Advocacy and Belonging team.

Chapman helped launch a new initiative called the Warmline, an employee advocacy program for women of all races and ethnicities, and focused on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx employees of all gender identities and employees who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. It connects employees with advocates who help them navigate career moments, issues of belonging, communication, and conversations.

The Changemaker story of how Chapman is helping Salesforce management listen to and learn from its employees offers an example of how Impact Employers partner with their workers to create welcoming workplaces where people want to stay. As a Founding Coalition member for JFF’s Recover Stronger, Salesforce is part of a vanguard of companies adopting sustainable business practices that prioritize worker well-being along with business returns.

In an article on Medium, JFF’s Carey O’Connor recently spoke with Chapman to learn more about how Salesforce is listening and working with its people during this time of immense change.