In an internal staff memo to Salesforce.com employees that was passed to the press, the company’s CEO Marc Benioff said that on top of a $5,000 referral fee program that rewards Salesforce.com staff for referring applicants that the company goes on to hire, it is now also offering former Siebel employees a $5,000 signing bonus if they are hired before the end of December.
Following the proposed acquisition of Siebel by Oracle many existing Siebel employees may be concerned about their career prospects, wrote Mr Benioff. We want to offer them an alternative to an environment of declining commissions, confused customers and uncertainty around career viability.
We would be delighted to hear from any Siebel employee that would like to join our company that meets our rigorous standard for excellence and dedication to customer success, Mr Benioff continued.
Mr Benioff said that Salesforce.com is also holding recruitment events in October in both San Mateo – where Siebel is headquartered – and Boston, in which interested Siebel employees may want to schedule a confidential meeting with Siebel alumni now working at Salesforce.com.
Please note that most – but not all – Siebel employees are currently eligible for hire at Salesforce.com today and that the recruiting department will screen for eligibility, Mr Benioff added.
As of July 31, Salesforce.com employed 1,059 people worldwide, up from 594 a year ago. Siebel currently has around 5,000 employees, but it has axed nearly 4,000 staff in the past four years in order to cut costs.
While Oracle has not yet put a figure on how many Siebel jobs may be lost as a result of the acquisition, Oracle president and CFO Greg Maffei noted that: Given the size of our existing R&D investment, scale of our global support infrastructure, and similarity of our back office requirements, we will recognize substantial efficiencies from combining our two businesses. When Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, around 5,000 of PeopleSoft’s 11,000 staff were laid off.
A Salesforce.com spokesperson said the company has not put a target on the number of employees it is looking to hire. On its website the company is actively advertising 64 jobs.
Siebel is still advertising over 70 jobs on its own site though it is not clear whether these were posted prior to the acquisition or whether they are still open – a Siebel spokesperson would say only that: Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual.
Announcing the acquisition by Oracle on September 12, Siebel’s founder and chairman Tom Siebel described the news as, A great day for Siebel Systems’ customers, partners, shareholders, and employees.
