Marc Benioff hints more Salesforce layoffs could be coming

(Image credit: Shutterstock.com / monticello)

Salesforce could be set to cut even more jobs as 2023 continues its rocky start.

In the first week of 2023, news broke that the CRM giant was intending to cut a large number of jobs, amounting to around 10% of its staff headcount. Now, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff has warned that even more cutbacks may be required.

CNBC reports that a virtual meeting held by Benioff warned staff that further cutbacks would be required to make the company more profitable.

Salesforce job redundancies

Like many tech companies, Salesforce heavily boosted recruitment during the pandemic following a boom in new customers. However as the industry growth begins to slow, and in the face of global economic uncertainty, many companies are reported to be cutting large numbers of staff.

According to two of the virtual meeting’s attendees (via CNBC), around half of the company’s account executives have brought in near to 95% of all sales.

This isn’t the first time that reports have surfaced about Salesforce’s reaction to the downturn. In light of staff productivity, Benioff is said to have posted to the company’s internal Slack asking why newer staff (taken on during and after the pandemic emerged) are seemingly less productive.

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Earlier this month, we reported that the recent move to drastically reduce headcount could cost the company as much as $2.1 billion, but with even further redundancies, Salesforce may be looking to spend even more to make overall savings.

The overall increase and subsequent decrease in staff at Salesforce comes as Beinoff miscalculated the company’s success, thus taking on “too many people”, however it is far from the only company to have taken such measures.

Already this year, Amazon has announced plans to axe a total of 18,000 jobs, though a proportion of this figure has been carried over from November 2022. Other tech giants like Microsoft and Twitter are also experiencing such difficulties.

Salesforce did not immediately respond with a comment on its 2022 cutbacks.

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With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!