Why Salesforce's 'Ohana' Culture is Driving Business Growth

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, has long been interested in ‘Ohana’, the Hawaiian term for family that signifies community and mutual support. 

After initially learning about this concept on childhood holidays to Hawaii, Marc shared in his 2019 book Trailblazer that his goal was to instil this philosophy in Salesforce’s culture from the offset. 

He says: “That was the culture I wanted for Salesforce from the beginning‌ – one that was inclusive of everyone and would underlie everything we do.”

The company has instilled this culture of support and inclusivity in its core values – informing talent acquisition, learning and development opportunities and wider employee experience. 

Values-based hiring at Salesforce

Alongside assessing candidates for technical skills, Salesforce says it looks for talent that is aligned with its core values of trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability. 

Potential candidates are asked behavioural questions to see how they can demonstrate these values in real-word, company scenarios, so the company can identify talent that will thrive in its collaborative environment. 

Ensuring a candidate meshes well with the wider culture can make a significant difference to talent retention, according to Gallup. 

In a 2025 survey, it found that employees who felt strongly connected to their company’s culture are 4.3 times more likely to be engaged at work, 47% less likely to be looking for new opportunities and 5.3 times more likely to recommend their organisation as a great place to work. 

This same study found that 80% of employees do not feel strongly connected to their workplace culture, suggesting that the companies that do prioritise cultural fit have a significant advantage. 

Prioritising continuous employee growth

As part of this culture of collaboration and support, Salesforce is committed to ensuring employees have the tools to succeed through learning and development opportunities. 

In particular, the business uses Trailhead, its own learning platform, to teach specialised skills and provide continuous learning opportunities for all employees. 

Employees are encouraged to use these tools through gamification, by earning points, badges and rising levels by completing modules. 

This learning and development platform has become a crucial tool in Salesforce’s AI adoption strategy – offering curated learning paths called ‘trailmixes’ to develop employee understanding in AI fundamentals, Generative AI, prompt engineering and deploying AI agents. 

By using this platform the company has seen increased rates of AI adoption, with Marc telling Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) in January 2026 that he has gotten a significant “productivity increase” from the technology. 

He says: “I probably have about 15,000 engineers and they're more productive than ever.”

Salesforce’s ‘Ohana floors’ 

A key aspect of Salesforce’s Ohana philosophy is its ‘Ohana Floors’ – open-plan spaces found in its offices globally, designed to encourage collaboration between employees. 

These floors are typically found on the top floor of its major hubs in San Francisco, London, Tokyo and other key areas for the business. 

With large dining tables and collaborative spaces, the layout of Salesforce’s Ohana floors are designed to facilitate conversation and communication between employees across teams, fostering a culture of co-creation. 

Encouraging collaboration in this way can help drive business growth. 

Research from Deloitte finds that 73% of employees involved in collaborative work say it improves their performance, with 60% reporting that collaboration helps them innovate in the workplace. 

As part of this ‘Ohana’ culture, the company offers these spaces to charitable organisations outside of working hours at no cost to host events – with the company reporting it has helped raise US$108 million for local communities as part of this initiative.