How Salesforce and Its Partners Are Building the Workforce of Tomorrow

At Salesforce, customer success is one of our core values. Our commitment to this extends beyond our investment in our own products and services.

I alluded to this in September when I wrote about the expansion of our partners’ Global Talent Centres (GTCs) and how we’re helping to equip them with the skills needed to deliver digital transformation. 

Our Salesforce Days training events support this capability building. Recently, we held our first Salesforce Days event in Asia. It featured eight days of training and culminated in a virtual Global Talent Centre Summit for our partners in Greater China and the Philippines. 

With this event wrapped up, it’s time to take a more detailed look at GTCs and how we’re working with our partners to build the workforce of tomorrow.

Building opportunities for everyone

GTCs were born out of a need to meet global demand for Salesforce practitioners and are run by recognised Salesforce Partners. 

According to the IDC Salesforce Economic Impact Report, thanks to the growth of cloud computing, Salesforce and its partner ecosystem will create more than 4.2 million jobs between 2019 and 2024. This global number includes 24,260 new jobs in Thailand alone. 

We want to help partners meet that demand by upskilling current Salesforce practitioners and bringing new talent into the ecosystem. GTCs provide a central hub for training and operate as a community where partners and Salesforce can share best practices and resources. 

Our recent Salesforce Days event was held to build up capability within the GTCs and therefore expand the pool of expertise available to our customers in Asia. Featuring more than 40 workshops on current and emerging technologies, the training provided up-skilling and cross-skilling opportunities for more than 2,000 practitioners. 

Salesforce Days also offered entry-level sessions for those new to Salesforce. This included 150 new developers who signed up for Trailhead and earned a collective 300 badges.

Expanding the talent pool

Our partners in India have already embraced the GTC concept and currently employ a combined 1.5 million people. Several of our largest partners have come on board in Greater China and the Philippines this year and they are scaling up to meet growing demand for offshoring of digital transformation services. Finding new talent will be key and that’s why we’ve recently launched the Salesforce Talent Alliance. 

Members of the Talent Alliance commit to ensuring that 20% of new hires come from outside of the ecosystem. They also pledge to adopt more inclusive hiring practices such as standardising interview processes through competency-based interview questions. Our partners find that a diverse workplace is a strong one. Especially when talented people bring real world experience from outside of the Salesforce ecosystem or our usual channels of recruitment.

Delivering more than just digital transformation

This is where the ultimate benefit lies. Through diversity initiatives and programs like Salesforce Days, we build a strong and diverse talent pool with the skills that our customers need today and tomorrow.

We’re also providing those located near the GTCs with the opportunity to move into new, well paying, and extremely satisfying jobs in which they can make a positive impact on society. This is the Salesforce economy delivering more than just digital transformation – it is also delivering societal transformation through local community based investment.

This matters to me a great deal and is at the core of the program.

Learn more about the Salesforce Partner Community and how you can join here.