Cloud giant Salesforce is going all out to lure its workers back to the office, leaving no stone unturned in its quest to reinvigorate its cheerful “Ohana” culture.
In a message to staff in the company's #all-salesforce Slack channel viewed by Fortune, a senior executive at the firm announced a fundraising initiative called Connect for Good. For each day an employee comes into the office from June 12 to June 23, the company will donate $10 to a local charity.
"Coming together for our culture, customers, and community is what we do best," the senior executive wrote.
The initiative is classic Salesforce, which has touted a self-proclaimed Ohana culture, another way of saying, “We’re not just colleagues, we’re family.” Some have pondered whether Salesforce's Ohana culture died after mass layoffs rocked the company, followed by cuts to things like the company's gratitude bonus for employees and a mandated return to office for certain groups of employees (after CEO Marc Benioff accused pandemic hires of "low productivity").
Despite the slow march forward on return to office, Salesforce does allow for remote work at managers' discretion and based on the team. The new initiative also allows for remote workers to participate. When a remote worker attends a virtual event, the company will donate $10 on their behalf.
The company hopes to raise more than $1 million through this initiative, with a maximum donation of $2.5 million, according to the senior executive’s message and internal documents viewed by Fortune. Staff are able to vote for their favorite local charities for the next two days.
A Salesforce representative told Fortune that "giving back is deeply embedded in everything we do, and we're proud to introduce Connect for Good to encourage employees to help raise $1 million for local nonprofits."
Once the fundraising event ends, the company will tally up aggregate badge data based on location to inform the donation amount, telling staff that “the data doesn't tell us who went in to the office, how long they stayed, or how many times they badged in and out, just the total number." Whatever the total number is, Salesforce will multiply it by $10 and donate that amount to the charity with the highest number of employee votes.
"By showing up in the office (or for events), you're strengthening connections and creating a positive wave of change in your community," the senior executive wrote. "Are you ready to make a real impact by simply showing up?"
