Learn from 9+ Years of HR Innovation at One of the World’s Most Admired Employers

Join Leah Cottham in this insightful conversation with Frank Berretty, Senior Manager of Employee Success at Salesforce, as he reveals the strategies, systems, and cultural principles that power people operations at scale across multiple regions.

About Your Host

Frank Berretty leads the People Consultants team across Europe at Salesforce -a role that combines traditional HR business partnering with advanced program management and scalability. With over 9 years at one of tech’s fastest-moving companies, Frank has witnessed and driven the evolution from transactional HR to strategic, data-driven people operations.

What You’ll Discover

Scaling Beyond Traditional HR

Discover how Salesforce moved from localized HR models to a centralized, scalable system that delivers aconsistent employee experience across Stockholm, Milan, Dubai, and beyond, without sacrificing the human touch.

Managing Culture Across EMEA

Learn the balancing act between global standardization and local flexibility. Frank shares how Salesforce maintains core values while adapting to diverse labor laws, benefits expectations, and cultural norms across European, Middle Eastern, and African markets.

Practical Example: While volunteering time off (7 paid days annually) works globally, parental leave policies flex by country to remain best-in-class locally—Sweden’s needs differ drastically from Dubai’s.

AI as Your Superpower, Not Your Replacement

Explore how Salesforce is using AI agents, Slack bots, and Einstein-powered tools to eliminate repetitive tasks and elevate HR professionals to more strategic work.

Real-World Application: Instead of answering hundreds of tickets about the same issue, People Consultants now use data to identify root causes, design solutions with other teams, and reduce those hundreds of tickets to just five next month.

Data-Driven Onboarding & Feedback Loops

Uncover how Salesforce uses employee feedback and data analytics to continuously optimize onboarding - identifying friction points (like Amex card setup delays) and proactively solving them before they impact new hires.

The Technology: Salesforce built a custom app on Service Cloud with Google-style search functionality. Instead of navigating complex intranet pages, employees type their question, receive relevant knowledge articles, and only escalate if needed—creating a continuous improvement flywheel.

The HR Role

Understand the difference between this emerging role and traditional HR business partners:

Traditional HRBP Focus:

• Partners with senior leadership
• Strategic relationship management
• Creates top-down HR agendas

Frank's Focus:

• Partners with mid-level leaders
• Strong project and program management
• Connects dots across centers of expertise
• Scales solutions regionally
• Drives employee survey execution and analysis

Culture That Actually Works

From meaningful volunteering initiatives to values-driven decision-making, learn how Salesforce has maintained its culture through explosive growth and countless transformations.

Culture in Action: Volunteering time isn’t a checkbox, it’s celebrated. Employees use their 7 paid days for team bonding, personal causes, and creative charity work (like mapping roads in Africa via satellite imagery to help logistics networks).

Key Takeaways for HR Leaders

Prioritize Self-Service Technology

Move from reactive ticket-solving to proactive knowledge management. The right tools enable employees to find answers fast while giving you data on where processes break down.

Embrace AI Fluency

Tools like Slack’s AI layer can summarize your day, prep you for meetings, analyze employee survey data, and provide strategic advice—all in seconds. Frank uses AI at least once every two hours.

Balance Efficiency with Humanity

“The trade-off is between efficiency and scaling and still delivering effective, engaging, humane impact. It’s not a decision you make once—it’s a decision you make a thousand times every week.” - Frank Berretty

Work with Locals When Expanding

Don’t study every country’s labor law before expanding. Instead, collaborate with local partners, gather data and feedback, identify root causes, and prioritize where to focus first.

Shift from Transactional to Strategic

Move from being a “junkie for how many cases can I solve” to asking “how do I solve this for the 500 employees who will face this next month?”

Perfect For:

• HR Leaders scaling people operations in fast-growth companies
• People Ops Professionals navigating multi-region expansion
• HR Business Partners transitioning to more strategic roles
• Tech Company Founders building global teams
• Anyone curious about the future of work and AI in HR

Why This Matters Now

In 2024 and beyond, the companies that win the talent war won’t be those with the biggest HR teams -they’ll be those with the smartest systems, the most adaptive cultures, and the courage to leverage AI as an amplifier of human potential.

This conversation offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s most admired employers actually does it.

Listen to the Full Episode

Duration: 50 minutes of actionable insights

Host: Leah Cottham - Freedom of Work Podcast

Guest: Frank Berretty - Senior Manager, Employee Success at Salesforce

Ready to Transform Your Business?

Whether you’re building your first distributed team or scaling across continents, the strategies Frank shares have been battle-tested across one of tech’s most dynamic environments.

Salesforce is hiring across Europe. If you’re passionate about innovative people operations and want to work where HR genuinely values both people and scalability, explore opportunities at Salesforce today.