Salesforce, the tech company, will axe about 700 positions company-wide in the latest wave of layoffs affecting the technology industry, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
This workforce reduction constitutes roughly one per cent of Salesforce’s total employees, currently numbering around 70,000.
The decision follows a similar decision made a year ago when the company downsized its workforce by 10 per cent, letting go of approximately 8,000 employees. At that time, the move was driven by investor pressure to trim expenses.
Salesforce, renowned for its cloud-based customer- relationship management software, is adapting its workforce in response to the dynamic nature of the tech landscape. The reduction comes amidst similar challenges faced by various tech companies, leading to a series of industry-wide layoffs.
Notably, this announcement comes just a day after Microsoft’s decision to lay off 1,900 employees within its gaming division, a move that affected Activision Blizzard, which was acquired not long ago.
Last year, in November, Salesforce provided upskilling opportunities for women across several countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and India. The company surpassed its commitment to offer 5,00,000 upskilling opportunities to women under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) upskilling initiative.
Initiated by the US Department of Commerce in September 2022, this programme aimed to provide women in the Indo-Pacific region with access to digital skills training, fostering sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
In its inaugural year, Salesforce had already delivered over three million opportunities and expanded its upskilling initiatives to various countries, including India. In India, Salesforce partnered with key organisations such as NASSCOM to provide training on Salesforce through the NASSCOM Future Skill Prime Portal.