Hiring for Diversity

CHAPTER 9Ensuring Equitable Job Offers

Cindy Robbins, Chief of Employee Success at Salesforce, approached CEO Marc Benioff in 2015 with some troubling news. Her team had discovered a deep pay equity gap, specifically among women. Benioff, having focused so much of his energy on creating equity at Salesforce, was shocked, and he committed himself on the spot to addressing the disparity.

Benioff launched an effort to make pay equity adjustments to Salesforce’s employee salaries, dedicating more than $3 million to the initiative. He then began speaking publicly about the necessity of addressing pay inequities, sharing his story and showing people how they could drive this change.

But, a year later, Robbins returned to Benioff to report that the very same pay gaps had somehow reemerged. Benioff was stunned. Hadn't they just fixed this issue? How could it be happening again, and so quickly?

It turns out that $3 million and the goodwill of a CEO are no match for the unconscious bias that infiltrates everyday decisions. Robbins and her team discovered that, while leadership was focused on adjusting the salaries of current employees, new job offers and promotions over the last year had quietly rebirthed the very pay equity gaps that existed before.

Benioff knew that, as a company that provides systems to other companies, Salesforce had to address the issue holistically. He and the team hatched a plan that included establishing new job codes, each tied to predefined salary ranges that ...