Fireside Chat with Richard Eib of Careers In Salesforce

[Pledge 1]

Careers In Salesforce is a market leading job site that connects employers seeking Salesforce talent, with candidates who are looking for their next career move. We recently caught up with their Founder and CEO, Richard Eib, for a fireside chat to learn more about why they joined Pledge 1% and what inspires them to #PledgeitForward on this #GivingTuesday.

Q: Careers In Salesforce is one of the first companies to Pledge 1%. What inspired you to join the movement?

A: For the last sixteen years, I have been consulting on, developing on and recruiting for clients who use the Salesforce technology platform. One of the core values of Salesforce that really grabbed my attention and made me an advocate for their technology, was a philosophy of giving 1% of equity, 1% of employee time and 1% of product, to organizations that make a difference, whether it be in the local community or on the global stage. The notion of such a small amount like 1% having such an impact made us look at how our firm could support communities around us through giving back. The founding of Pledge 1% allowed us to solidify our many ideas into an action plan and empowered us to make a formal commitment to making a difference and take the pledge.

Q: Since taking joining Pledge 1%, what have you learned the most from the partnerships and opportunities that have

come your way?

A: The learning curve for my firm and I has been incredibly steep. My original concept of giving back was going to a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, coaching former felons to find gainful employment and turning street skills into employment smarts. Careers In Salesforce in addition to being a job site, also provides consulting and staffing services. The greatest demand from those we select to give back to is consulting services. Over the last six months it has been challenging from both a cultural and workflow perspective to comfortably provide meaningful solutions. In many cases, it has felt like we were integrating a business we had acquired. That being said, seeing the true impact we have made and knowing the savings we have enabled makes the process all the more worthwhile and pushes us forward to accept more of the same.

Q: What role do you feel business has in the community if any?

A: Both of my parents hail from industrial cities in the U.K. My father from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and my mother from Birmingham. For their generation and the many before them, the workplace, alongside church (and the local pub) was the focal point of the community. Whether it was bottling Newcastle Brown Ale or manufacturing Cadbury chocolate, business and the employer held a special place in the heart of employees. It was not just a paycheck, but in many cases a provider of recreational space and facilities, healthcare, housing and more.

As we have continued on our march down the path of technology and automation, we have lost that sense of social responsibility for our fellow humans in the pursuit of profit and the elimination of costs.

You can be a one person business or have many thousands of employees - adopting the concept of giving back 1% of time, equity and product or any variation thereof, restores some of that old school community mindedness as well as making a real difference to those who you help.

Q: What impact has Pledge 1% had on your business?

A: It has strengthened my sense of purpose and that of my firm. It has provided opportunities to make a difference that have been more than about how those opportunities translate to the bottom line . Business 101 teaches us that revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash flow is king. Perhaps that adage should be adapted to include another line, something to the effect of “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is king and giving back is above all”.

Q: Tell us why you think businesses should take the pledge?

A: We’re at a junction in life where those of us who are fortunate need to lend a helping hand to the organizations who help those who are not. Heck it doesn’t even need to be the organizations, you can make a difference today by pledging to take a hot meal to the widower in your apartment building, helping a teacher with classroom supplies or reaching out to your local prison to mentor those who want a better life on the outside. That being said, imagine the difference you could make if this became culturally ingrained in your organization and a mission that everyone from the receptionist to the CEO adopted - Giving 1% of something, be it time, product, equity or all three to make life just a little easier for those who need it.

Originally posted: November 29, 2016