Salesforce to Hire 3,300 People in Preparation of Ramp Up
Workspan Daily
September 22, 2023

Salesforce Inc. is hiring 3,300 peoiple across departments, marking a new investment after it eliminated 10% of its workforce in a restructuring earlier this year, Bloomberg News reports.  

“Our job is to grow the company and to continue to achieve great margins,” CEO Marc Benioff said. “We know we have to hire thousands of people.”  

The pool of new hires will be split among sales, engineering and those working on the company’s data cloud product, according to Bloomberg.  

The market leader in customer relations software is trying to reduce expenses, boost profit and revive revenue growth with the surge of new hires, it said. The 3,300 new employees will restore 40% of the headcount that was slashed in January when the company said it would eliminate 8,000 jobs amid an effort to boost profits.  

Many of the hires will be “boomerangs,” or people who worked at Salesforce before going to a different company, Benioff said.  

Amazon Adding 250,000 Workers for the Holidays  

Amazon said Tuesday it’s hiring 250,000 employees in the U.S. to help manage the holiday rush. It’s also bumping the average hourly pay for warehouse and delivery workers, CNBC reports.  

Though Amazon typically boosts its headcount as holiday season approaches to keep up with the surge in demand, the 250,000 workers would be up nearly 100,000 from last year’s mark.  

The hires will include full-time, part-time and seasonal warehouse and delivery employees, Amazon said. Hourly ranges for those roles will range between $17 and $28, and the company is offering sign-on bonuses worth $1,000 to $3,000 in some locations.  

The company said warehouse and delivery employees will now make $20.50 an hour on average, up from $19 an hour. Amazon has gradually raised the average starting pay for its frontline workforce in recent years amid growing labor tensions. 

Amazon had approximately 1.46 million employees globally as of the end of the second quarter, according to CNBC.  

Walmart Canada Investing $50 Million for Worker Education  

Following its success in the United States, Walmart is launching an education program for its employees in Canada, per Canadian HR Reporter.   

Through the Live Better U education program, Walmart Canada is investing $50 million over the next five years to send associates to top-tier schools across the country. The investment covers the cost of tuition, books and course fees for workers.  

“We believe there is a path for everyone at Walmart and we want to remove barriers to high-quality education,” said AnnMarie Mercer, chief people officer at Walmart Canada. “ LBU meets associates where they are on their educational journey by offering online, flexible programs to help them balance work, life and school.”  

With this program, Walmart Canada hopes workers will be “trained and equipped with the skills of the future” so they stay and grow with the company, it said.  

The launch of the LBU program builds on the success of the same program at Walmart in the U.S. 

“LBU has been a game-changer in the U.S. these past five years, and we're thrilled to expand our footprint and offer this life-changing benefit to even more Walmart associates," said Lorraine Stomski, senior vice president, associate learning and leadership, Walmart Global. “Our participants are more likely to be promoted and less likely to leave the company than their peers, meaning it helps our people and our business.” 

So far, nearly 120,000 Walmart U.S. associates have taken advantage of the program, she said.  

Apple Giving Out Smaller Raises to Retail Employees  

Apple Inc is issuing smaller raises to its retail employees this year, marking a deceleration from atypically large pay hikes during the pandemic, Bloomberg News reports.  

The company is disclosing average annual raises of about 4%, a return to the levels from 2020 and earlier, sources told Bloomberg.  

The increases also apply to AppleCare technical support employees, who got raises in the same range. That too represented a slowdown from pandemic gains. The pay increases accompany employee reviews, which began in September and run into early October.  

Apple raised pay more aggresively last year, when many parts of the world faced rising inflation. Employees saw increases of roughly 8% to 10% annually and minimum hourly compensation rose to $22 from $20.  

In the U.S., most Apple salespeople are getting paid between $22 and $30 an hour, according to Bloomberg. The company also issues restricted stock units annually to salespeople, which topped out around $2,000 this year.  

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