More than a year after launching Work.com for post-pandemic planning, Salesforce is using the platform to formally move into the HR and “employee experience” market. The latest iteration of the platform puts Salesforce more directly in competition with other SaaS vendors with HCM products, like Workday and Oracle — all cloud companies aiming to help organizations move to new models of hybrid work.

The new Work.com products focus on two areas — employee growth and well-being, as well as employee service tools. The products were designed to meet the quickly changing needs of organizations adapting to the post-pandemic world, Jodi Innerfield, director of product marketing for Salesforce, told ZDNet.

Tools and strategies for the digital workplace

ZDNet examines the trends that will define the workplace over the next five years, and the technology that will help businesses adapt.

Those needs, she said, “went from reopening the office to work from anywhere — from work from home to this hybrid working world. And what we’re hearing is that the technology that our customers used for employee experience, when everybody was in an office, just isn’t cutting it anymore.”

Work.com is introducing new Talent tools for both employees, as well as managers and HR teams. For employees, the Work.com Talent section offers a way to publish and track their skills, development goals and potential career paths. They can receive career guidance, such as learning recommendations and content from Trailhead, Salesforce’s online learning platform. They can also use the Talent tools to find internal roles that align with their interests and career goals.

Meanwhile, managers and HR teams can use Work.com Talent to get insights into their workforce. For example, they can find people within the organization that have the skills needed to complete a new project or take on a new role.

The new HR tools were inspired by customers that have used Salesforce to build their own, customized talent solutions, Innerfield said. For instance, the professional services organization Jacobs has used Salesforce to build employee service tools for its global workforce of 55,000.

The new tools “definitely take us more formally into the category of tools that help support HR teams,” Innerfield said, but “the real differentiator here is we’re taking an employee-centric approach.”

For instance, the new HR Service Center streamlines HR processes that are typically fragmented, like onboarding, into one integrated experience. Employees can also use the HR Service Center to search for answers about HR policies and benefits, or to complete HR tasks like updating a direct deposit. HR teams manage requests through a dedicated service console with AI-powered recommendations that automate case resolution.

The new Employee Service features also include a new Service Catalog, so employees can find products and services they can request, like a new laptop or a request to fix their mobile device. The Service Catalog lets organizations automate requests for common products and services.

There are also new Employee Concierge Bots to help employees answer questions.