Desk is best at Salesforce as tech giant bucks shared space trend

Salesforce is cutting down on collaboration spaces and hot desks in its new tower, moving away from a trend adopted by Afterpay and Canva, which the software company says just doesn’t work.

The 56-storey, 263m Salesforce Tower is Sydney's tallest commercial building.

Collaboration space is on the outer and fixed desks are in again as one of the world’s biggest tech players doubles down on its investment in Sydney’s tallest commercial tower.

Salesforce is bucking the trend seen across the broader technology industry, with the US multinational telling The Australian that it had been there and done that. It used its Irish tower in Dublin as a test ground for a collaboration-heavy environment – and found it just doesn’t work.

Instead, Salesforce is moving in the opposite direction to the likes of Canva – which will have six desks for every 10 workers at its upcoming Surry Hills office – and that of Nick Molnar’s Afterpay and Jack Dorsey’s Block – which opened in Tech Central in Chippendale last month with 70 desks for its 177 Sydney-based staff.

Like most companies, Salesforce is also trying to work out what the office of the future looks like, and its global head of real estate, Relina Bulchandani, who spoke to The Australian from the 50th floor of the new tower, said that, while collaboration space was important, not everyone could or wanted to work in big group settings.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we thought folks just wanted a lot of collaboration space, so we over-indexed a little on collaboration space in some of our towers, like our Dublin Tower,” Ms Bulchandani said.

The view of Westfield Eye from Salesforce Tower.

“We quickly learned that some teams, based on the rhythm and ­nature of their work, such as sales, want to be at a desk and want multiple screens.”

At level 50, Salesforce’s tower makes most of Sydney’s commercial towers look pale in comparison.

The building, Sydney’s tallest at the time of writing, stands 263m and 56-storeys tall, towering over its neighbours, including the Shangri-La.

The building is so tall that on its 50th floor it can’t allow glass in an outdoor event space, where wind can hit the tower at speeds of up to 150km/h.

Back inside Salesforce Tower, there are 1600 workpoints and 1300 staff. Unlike in many new tech buildings, the company has more desk space than it has staff, forgoing the trend of pushing new hires into hot-desk-like situations or sofa seats that often result in sore backs.

The reason for that is simple: “We’re going to grow in the region; there’s a lot going on for us,” Ms Bulchandani said.

“When folks come in, I want this combination of some density where you see the right people, but I also want to make sure that we have broad space.”

A meeting space at Salesforce Tower.

Companies that go heavy on collaborative space and fail to provide enough desks may fall victim to a larger trend occurring in the US.

“A lot of tech companies based in Silicon Valley are always playing catch-up as they grow, so I wanted to get a little ahead of it,” Ms Bulchan­dani said.

It had also begun to pick up the phone booth-like interview and meeting pods, which are often small, soundproof spaces through its office.

“We have focus pods, focus spaces. But we can also be productive in the office just working on things versus gathering,” Ms Bulchan­dani said.

Overall, about 65 per cent of Salesforce’s tower is made up of dedicated workpoints, including fixed desks, while 35 per cent is reserved for collaborative space, including meeting areas, lounges, eating areas and event space.

Salesforce Tower opened at a time when many of the nation’s largest tech companies were shifting out of the CBD and into neighbouring suburbs.

Sydney’s Tech Central, which has had a few office openings in recent months, including Block, exists across Haymarket, Surry Hills, Ultimo, Redfern, Chippendale and Eveleigh.

The Salesforce Tower is on George Street in Circular Quay, Sydney. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

Salesforce is a little more than 3km away, a decision Ms Bulchandani said was deliberate.

“A lot of tech companies do food at scale, and they do fitness, massage, ­recovery and all of that; we very intentionally want to be in a downtown CBD and support our local communities,” she said.

Ms Bulchandani said she wanted Salesforce staff to have options for different food and fitness inside and outside of the building, and CBD ­locations offered the best chance at that, as well as the best public transport options.

Salesforce also took a supermarket-like approach to its towers, opting for similar layouts, but used furnishings that featured locally sourced products and designs.

This was important so employees who travelled and operated across multiple locations could set up work stations with ease. It was also important for Salesforce customers who sought to expand internationally and regularly worked out of the company’s collaborative spaces.

Ms Bulchandani said the company had been working to determine the best kind of work stations for staff and determine who could thrive in open environments and who was more productive working by themselves.

Salesforce Tower stands out in Circular Quay.

It was important not to force ­people into environments where it ­actually became harder for them to work, she said.

“I’ve seen the seas of desks, which is sad and that was not the goal here,” she said.

“Our goal is vibrant, you come in, you see people, you finish work and maybe you step out for a drink. There’s some connection between spaces.”