Salesforce Will Establish New Work-and-Wellness Center At Scotts Valley Retreat

SCOTTS VALLEY (CBS SF) – San Francisco-based software company Salesforce recently signed a multi-year agreement on a 75-acre forest retreat to provide a work-and-wellness center for its 70,000 employees, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The creation of what Salesforce calls "Trailblazer Ranch" in the redwood forests of Scotts Valley comes after two years of remote work, which removed the in-person collaboration the company values. The company will use the site to not only onboard new employees, it will host off-site meetings for "social bonding and leadership training," Salesforce chief people officer Brent Hyder told the Wall Street Journal.

The article notes that the Trailblazer Ranch "is one of the first experiments by a big employer with building culture for a workforce that is no longer coming into an office five days a week." It's also a reaction to the company's plan to have the majority of its staff on a hybrid working model, coming into the office between one and three days a week.

Salesforce expects to send 10,000 employees to the retreat by the end of the year, and it plans to send even more by the end of 2023. At the retreat, employees will split their time between work and activities like yoga and hiking.

The Scotts Valley property used to be a Christian College but has been run as a retreat spot by the nonprofit 1440 Multiversity since 2017.