At Salesforce, technology and humanity are designed to evolve together. AI isn’t seen as a threat but as a tool that frees employees to focus on empathy, creativity, and leadership.
In this episode, Molly Ford, VP of Talent Connection and Engagement, shares how Salesforce integrates core values like equality and volunteerism into every business plan while adopting AI in ways that enhance, not replace, the human experience.
She also explains how data and storytelling work together to build confidence, measure impact, and bring culture to life inside one of the world’s most influential companies.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Connect with Molly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-q-ford-a7598
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[00:00:00] Molly Ford: It's all about being data-driven, showing the value, and showing your business impact. And so confidence comes with preparation. You're prepared, you've got great results.
[00:00:10] Dave Travers: So what does it really take for your business to attract world-class talent today? I'm Dave Travers, President of ZipRecruiter, and on Talent All Stars, we shine a light on the people and the day-to-day processes behind recruitment and retention at some of the world's most influential businesses.
Our guest today is Molly Ford, the VP of Talent Connection and Engagement at Salesforce, the global leader in cloud-based CRM technology. Salesforce is the name everyone knows, but not everyone knows exactly what the company does or what it looks like to work there day to day, and that's where Molly comes in. So let's learn how she communicates Salesforce's mission and values with data and storytelling and a toot toot mentality. You'll learn what that means.
Molly Ford, welcome to Talent All Stars.
[00:00:58] Molly Ford: Thank you so much, Dave. Happy to be here.
[00:00:59] Dave Travers: So excited to have you. So many directions to go, and before we dive into Salesforce and everything that you're up to now, I would love to hear you've had such an interesting path.
To leading talent, brand communications, all the different things you're responsible for and have done. I want you to go back, though. When did you think, hey, this whole talent acquisition, this whole communicating to people who are here and might want to be here at a great company might be the thing for me? When did that turn from a job into a calling, maybe for you?
[00:01:29] Molly Ford: Well, Dave, I'm a kid who grew up watching soap operas, and I just knew I would be on a soap opera or write a soap opera once I figured out they were fake. So to make that transition to HR communications, talent management, it was such a leap for me.
But when I think about the space, to me, it's all about the human impact. I'm in the people business, right? And so making an impact on people. So whether that's employee engagement or activating our employees to do volunteerism and live out our Salesforce values, or that means that we're helping employees thrive. That's the business I consider myself in.
[00:02:02] Dave Travers: So talk to me about, given the wide range of things you've done, how did you think about like there's so many opportunities and directions you could have taken your career, and now in the job you're in today with so many roles and responsibilities, how do you think about even how to organize your day when your mandate is so large at a large company?
[00:02:22] Molly Ford: I think about relevance and business impact, and that's really what drives, how do I prioritize what's important to the business? The great thing about Salesforce is we do these alignment exercises where you understand the priorities of the business, the priorities of the company, and so I really try to make it plain to my team or leadership team.
What are the priorities, and how do we make the business impact? So if the company's saying everything's all about AI, then I try to figure out, okay, great, well, we lead employee engagement. Let's figure out how to educate our employees. So, like we have AI Learning day, or AI study day. So thinking about what are the priorities of the business, and then skate towards the puck, so to speak.
[00:02:58] Dave Travers: One of the big buzzwords of the day, maybe the biggest one, which is AI Salesforce, obviously right in the center of that. And you also said that you're in the people business. So how do you think about those two things? There are a lot of people who view those as like two very divergent paths. How do you synthesize or think about the duality between those two concepts?
[00:03:21] Molly Ford: We're having a moment, right? And you think about when you have a once-in-a-lifetime changing innovation like AI. Along with this technology transformation, there's a people transformation. We're talking about humans plus agents and eventually robots, right? So we are really working on what is the role of the human.
What is the role of the agent? Our CEO, Mark Benioff, said that we're the last generation to manage all human workforce. You're gonna be managing people and agents. I can't imagine that, right? But I feel like it's kind of like how I can't live without my phone. This morning, I'm looking to say, okay, what's on my calendar today?
What's my schedule? Can't live without this. I feel like that's gonna be the role of agents, but when we think about that role of people. I'm excited about not looking at this through how scary it is, right? How scary is AI? I'm looking at it through what are the mundane tasks that you can take off my plate and free me up, and I've got some skills that a machine can't take.
I've got empathy. I consider myself a great people manager. I'm creative. I have great ideas. I have some skills that a machine can't take away, but if somebody could help take these expenses and approvals off my plate, right? Look at the time that I'm freed up to go manage people, or coach people or do something that's far more human.
[00:04:32] Dave Travers: Yes, making space for what's truly human and getting people to identify with the fact there, there are parts of your job you don't like. So if we take that away, that's not a scary thing. That's a wonderful thing. I love how you think about that. So now, in a world where AI is gonna have an increasingly large impact, our CEO Ian likes to talk about how when we first started to build cars, you know, a hundred or so years ago, the cars were designed in the shape of a horse carriage.
Because that's what we could imagine at the time. And it just didn't have horses in the front. And it took us a while to think about, hey, if we're building a car, we could actually do this a lot differently. And that's the phase of AI we're in right now. So how do you think about managing the human so they embrace? Seeing the rapid change we're going to see, rather than being in a defensive crouch, how do you get them to come along?
[00:05:22] Molly Ford: For me, AI, you just gotta jump in and start using it. So, personally, I started with my nephew wanted to go on a graduation trip, and, I start researching locations that I felt were safe, right?
And ones that I could either leave him alone or let him go off on his own and be responsible for somebody's kid in another country and not get in trouble. Right? So, I started with what's itineraries. I started with workout plans. Like what are questions we have, what are we curious about, and what are the things we need help with getting done?
Right? So we started there. So to me, start with what's human and what's easy. Right for you. And then get more sophisticated. Now I'm using an LLM to basically this notebook, to then say, here are the last three podcast interviews of our CEO. Can you write me a summary of our key messages? And so really it's helping me.
I didn't go listen to three podcasts. Don't tell anybody I said that. But what I did was I had it all summarized and sent to me, and key messages. So it made it so easy to digest. So I really feel like, while this innovation seems and sounds scary. We need to look at it. And then I love what you said about the car, and I didn't actually realize the original car was made in the image of a carriage, but I actually researched this, and now I forgot the dates.
But you look at cars made in the 18 hundreds, seatbelt laws in let's say, California. My home state didn't come about till 1975. So one thing that makes me feel rest assured is we're having this conversation around AI. Right next to it is this conversation about ethical humane use. How are we using it?
What are we using it for? What's too far? What's okay? We're having this conversation at Salesforce about the handoff between agents. So right now, I can do performance reviews, and I can say, go look at the notes from my quarterly check-ins and AI. Send me a summary of this person's performance. Right? But that's where AI's gonna go.
Okay. I can send you a summary of your notes, but you, Molly, have to have a conversation. You, Molly, you have to put the notes in. So there is this handoff point where we want AI to do things for us, but there are things where the human needs to step in. Right. That makes me feel like I have job security.
[00:07:23] Dave Travers: I'm an optimist on this point. I think you're exactly right. I also think that like it's hard to underestimate how much more work is just gonna get done. Like the level of prep you and I can do for this conversation now is so much more than it would've, we'd had to do it by hand, 'cause you can summarize those podcast episodes, et cetera.
So, I share your optimistic outlook on it. So another thing I wanna touch on is you come from a hugely famous company that is known for being bold in a number of ways, and one of those bold things is, you know, you have not deleted the word equality from your LinkedIn profile, even though that's not the mood or the direction out there.
[00:08:02] Dave Travers: Talk to me about that part of your job, your mission, and working at a company that has taken a stand on that.
[00:08:08] Molly Ford: So, one thing about Salesforce, we were founded over 25 years ago with values, right? Values in mind. We had leaders who, when they founded the company, they created the 1-1-1 model. Now it's called the 1% pledge.
That's 1% of your equity, 1% of our product, 1% of our employees being out in the community volunteering. So when we do our business plan for the year, we talk about values. We're very intentional, where our CEO sets a vision, and then we talk about values. And I think about 2015, one of our values became equality.
And so we said this is a value of the company. So every year the CEO stands in front of the company and says, here's our values, and we get to debate it. From the most senior employee to the most junior employee, it's completely democratized. We're in a Slack channel and he will say, here's our business plan for the year, and here's our values and let's debate.
What do you think stack rank? And so equality has remained steadfast for us, and it really is about dignity and making everyone feel included. And so now that we're having this conversation around AI, for us it's about bringing everyone along. It really is about how do we bring everyone else along? One of the things we're focused on is accessibility of learning and education, and making sure everyone has access to the tools, right?
So really, I think equality kind of changes what it means to certain people, but for me, it's core to who I am and my personal values.
[00:09:31] Dave Travers: One of the things I loved as I did my AI-enabled research about you is one of the things I saw that you say is I want everybody to know, and you correct me if I misquote this, but I want everybody to know that Salesforce is the greatest place to work.
And it's not just that Salesforce is the greatest place to work, I also want everyone to know it. And that second part that I want everyone to know it is not. Always the natural HR mentality of being out there and making bold claims like that. How do you think about that in your role?
[00:10:03] Molly Ford: Absolutely. Literally, I tell my team, someone asked me, is this your dream job? And I said. I don't know if it's my dream job, but my dream job is to solve real problems, right? And I'm solving a real problem for the company that I'm helping to attract and retain talent. So I like to tell my team, our job is Salesforce the best place to work.
And it's our job to make sure everybody knows it. And I tell my team, get comfortable with bragging. It's a humble brag. And then I say tutu, right? Who says that? But that literally is in my business plan, toot toot and I have an international team, so people are like. Toot toot. Excuse me. And I'm like, yes, toot, toot, let's go.
But I do think we want people to know what it's like to work at Salesforce. Right? And it's not the easiest company. I didn't say easy, but I do think it's a workplace where you can do great things. I do think it's a workplace where you can live out your values, right? I do think it's a workplace that is innovating and on the cutting edge of things.
And so I tell my team, and part of our job is employee engagement, employee retention, or candidate attraction, right? Attracting talent, getting them hired, getting them into the funnel. And so to me, we have to brag. We have to let folks know that this really is a best place to work.
[00:11:11] Dave Travers: I love that. And I think that is so right and missing a lot of the times from a, you know, like sometimes it feels.
In a people team, being the best at compliance or coloring within the lines is the most important thing. And sometimes you have to choose what you're gonna brag about, and then you really have to do it. And I love that. So I want you now to think about, you know, in your role as a leader and as a mentor.
There are younger people listening to this podcast or people earlier in their career who wanna get up to be a leader at a big company that means something to them like you have, how do you like build the confidence to get to the point where you're gonna put tutut in a business plan? Like when I've done it for the 15th time, doing it the 16th time isn't gonna be so difficult, but the first couple of times I take that step.
How do you coach somebody into doing that? I think confidence is preparation.
[00:12:01] Molly Ford: I think people underestimate practice. I feel, I feel like we're Alan Iverson now, right? Practice. Are we talking about practice? But I do think we had a quarterly business review and I'm talking to my manager and peers, and I know them and talk to them all day.
But I practice, right? What are my key messages? What do I need to get across? What do I wanna talk to 'em about? And the other thing is, being a high-performing team, I make sure my team understands that we have to be data-driven. What is the data around what we do? Like for example, we plan volunteer and VTO, which we call VTO, Volunteer Time Off.
Everyone at Salesforce gets one whole week off, not a week, but you get the hours, 40 hours to go out and volunteer in your community. That means you can coach Little League, you can help a nonprofit. You can volunteer at your kids' school, right? And so we're measuring that. We measure how many hours employees are spending, right?
And now we're go happy to announce that we've almost reached, we're on the cusp of 10 million all-time giving hours, right? And that means something. 'Cause we're going to show, here are the NGOs we've impacted, here's education, here's how many Salesforce employees are out volunteering in the schools.
And so it always still has to be data-driven. I also have data to show how much time our engineering team can do pro bono work, right? That means they can do a sprint or go help a nonprofit, right? Build their CRM system or get agents working for them. I have data to show how many hours engineers have spent, how nonprofits adapt to AI.
So to me, it's all about being data-driven, showing the value, and showing like your business impact. And so confidence to me comes with preparation. You're prepared, you've got great results.
[00:13:42] Dave Travers: The idea of being prepared and that giving you the confidence is very intuitive. My wife's great-grandfather is famous for, having said luck is the residue of design, and I think it's getting at the same point, which is, you know, when you put in the preparation at first, you're confident and you're prepared to get lucky.
When luck strikes, you're not gonna let it pass you by. I love that. Okay. We always end these episodes. With a rapid-fire section. And so I want you, you have a famous CEO, so I want you to envision that, you know, you're stepping into the elevator in your, you know, headquarters or in New York or wherever, and Mark steps into the elevator and he's like, Hey, Molly, I have a question for you.
How should we think about measuring our talent brand like a year from now? When I check in with you, how should I think about, you know, how do we track that?
[00:14:31] Molly Ford: I'd say, Hey, Mark, how you doing? Right? Make it real casual. And act like it rolled off the tongue. I would start with data. I would start with results from our employee opinion survey.
I would be able to tell something. One stat I know off the top of my head is higher performing teams are the teams that are using our AI tools. So folks that are learning and leaning in are the ones that are highly engaged. I talk about participation, whether they're participating in talent development courses, volunteerism, or participating in our employee events and engagement, right?
Things like that. And then I talk about adoption of our tools. I would tell him, Hey, I want you to know that over 75% of our employees are using our AI tools, upskilling and Learning, or we just had an AI learning day. Here's how many people came. So I would absolutely talk to him with a data-driven approach.
And my other thing, Dave, it would always be good news. I would always make sure I have something positive to say, something that's going well, that I would make sure I told Mr. Benioff on my elevator ride.
[00:15:28] Dave Travers: I think having data, the combination of being able to paint a picture with data and then tell a story.
You're a great storyteller, so that comes naturally for you. But the ability to blend those two and say, 75% of our people are using our AI tools, and we just did this amazing day, let me tell you about it. When you bring the data in the anecdote together, that's when you implant yourself in somebody's mind, an executive or otherwise.
Okay, one more. You're in the people business, and so same scenario. Mark walks into the elevator. He says, Hey, Molly, you know, I spend a ton of my time interviewing. You're a people person. You're on the people team and do talent. Give me your one best tip to become a better interviewer.
[00:16:10] Molly Ford: I think you just said it, Dave's storytelling.
I think the best interviewees are folks that can weave a story. I had to teach storytelling to a group of leaders, and I had done this for high school. I did. What's the story arc between the beef, the rat beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Oh, incredible. Isn't that the perfect story? Yes. So I did it for a high school group, and then I said, well, I'm gonna do it for some grownups too, because everyone was curious, wait, what's the background?
Tell me the story. But I said, it's the perfect drama. It's the perfect arc. There's a villain. We all can determine who our own villain is. But I said, I love the way we were friends, Drake and Kendrick, and then all of a sudden there's a song and there's a back and forth. They even used AI. Dave Drake had a Tupac AI, right?
You took West Coast rappers and Kendrick's, uh, heroes and turned them into AI and put them in a disc song. Then it culminated with an event. So there's definitely a story arc of there's a problem here, there's an accusation here. We're going back and forth. Time is of the essence. And then the part I love, the real hero of the story that people don't talk about is J Cole.
Because then J Cole goes, well, I'm gonna make a disc song, and then he gets on stage and goes, actually, that's not who I am. That's not my values. I want out of this. So there's a great lesson to be learned in the great hip hop beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. And so to me, anyone showing up well show up with a great story. Storytelling will always win.
[00:17:40] Dave Travers: Molly Ford. It is clear that you're a talent all-star. Thank you so much for taking the time for this today.
[00:17:45] Molly Ford: Thank you, Dave. I've enjoyed myself.
[00:17:51] Dave Travers: That's Molly Ford, VP of Talent Connection and Engagement at Salesforce. We'll drop our LinkedIn profile in the show notes. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. Just head to the official ZipRecruiter channel. Have feedback for us or a guest you'd love to hear from. Send us a note at talentallstars@ziprecruiter.com.
I’m Dave Travers. Thanks for listening to Talent All Stars, and we'll see you right back here next week.