Dreamforce Recap: Getting Ahead of the Growing Demand for Talent

By Anurag Gupta, SVP and Head of Product Partnerships

Last month, we made our way to San Francisco for the largest and most anticipated event in the enterprise tech world: Dreamforce. Dreamforce is Salesforce’s flagship annual event for bringing thought leaders together. The conference was in-person for the first time since 2019 and the excitement was palpable. It was tremendously energizing to participate in several thought-provoking panels and to speak with so many partners, customers, and Salesforce leaders—all in just a matter of days.

These conversations, and the event writ large, confirmed something we’ve known for quite some time. Salesforce continues to be an unmatched catalyst for digital transformation and the Salesforce ecosystem is thriving. But more talent is needed to keep it that way.

As a company dedicated to building diverse tech talent at scale—within the Salesforce ecosystem and beyond—we have a lot to say about this reality. We’ve been training and certifying developers for the core Salesforce platform for several years, and we just became Salesforce’s first authorized training partner for its B2B Commerce Cloud.

Here’s a recap of our time at Dreamforce this year, including some tips to help you better compete in the current race for talent.

Transforming the Talent Landscape

In a round of lightning talks by IT leaders, I described the current tech skills gap. In 2021, there were 3.6 million postings for tech jobs in the U.S. alone. But only 2 million tech employees are expected to join the workforce this year. On top of that, technology is changing faster than ever; the half-life of a tech skill is just 2.5 years.

This era of high demand and rapid change requires creative solutions. Revature’s hire-train-deploy model is one example. It helps us identify and train Salesforce experts from oft-overlooked talent pools. The individuals we train are ready to jump into projects on day one—a topic we touched on during another session at the conference. They have the technical skills, functional knowledge, project skills, and professional skills to be immediately billable.

In addition to identifying and training emerging talent, Revature also offers customized programs for upskilling and reskilling existing employees. To meet current levels of demand, these avenues must all be explored.

Improving Employee Retention

No one at Revature knows Salesforce better than Kevin Burch, our Vice President of Salesforce Business Development. At Dreamforce, Kevin helped run a three-part panel focused on how companies can retain IT talent in today’s uber-competitive market. With Salesforce in such high demand, employees who are experts in the platform are being heavily recruited—and are attracting top-dollar salaries.

Money isn’t the only way to incentivize employees to stick around, though. As Kevin explained, the type of work employees are offered can also affect their company loyalty. Work that is clearly significant to the business is more likely to generate buy-in. Individuals will be more inclined to stick around when their contributions are clearly linked to the company’s success.

At Revature, we know a thing or two about retention. Employees trained through the Revature program have an 89% retention rate over a two-year period. For new employees, retention is also bolstered by having a strategy for them to be supported by existing employees from the very beginning.

Deepening Marketing and Commerce Cloud Capabilities

Finally, I was excited to be part of a session about Salesforce’s Marketing and Commerce Cloud capabilities. These areas are experiencing head-turning growth. Once again, though, the workforce must grow to keep up. In the session, we discussed the positions required to successfully deploy Marketing and Commerce cloud capabilities: administrators, developers, and architects. Then, we dove into the technical learning journeys required of each.

Currently, Revature offers B2B Commerce Administrator and B2B Commerce Developer accreditations. These accreditations take place on top of our core Salesforce training, during which employees complete the Salesforce Platform App Builder and Developer I certifications. We are looking forward to building out additional training roadmaps to meet growing demand.

All in all, Dreamforce furthered our excitement about our partnership with Salesforce. Revature and Salesforce are both dedicated to bringing emerging and diverse talent to the tech world, particularly to support the ever-growing Salesforce ecosystem. Qualified Salesforce talent can be hard to find, but we are committed to making it easier. Already, we’re counting down to being back at Dreamforce next year. Join us!