Growth and Wellness at the Heart of Spotify’s Employee Development Programs

As the world’s leading audio service we erase borders and boundaries across a wide array of people and cultures. That is why Diversity and Inclusion have long been central to our agenda at Spotify.

The HR Digest: We have seen you initiating HR walks lately, can you tell our HR digest readers more about HR walks and how they help?

Katarina Berg: [I actually introduced Walk & Talk some 18 years ago on Leadership programs to improve lateral thinking, exercise and getting a better understanding for whats on the managers mind] HR walks are a chance for meaningful conversation paired with a walk for a boost of creativity and focus. These walks are an opportunity to hear from the incredible partners that make Spotify great in a forum that is inherently non corporate. They also keep me physically healthy – I make sure to do them with my boss and team members no matter the weather.

In your journey of 9 years as a CHRO what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

The only certainty in tech is change. To successfully navigate change you need a constant healthy dialogue between leaders and employees. This begins and ends with listening.

Can you tell HR digest readers what’s next for Spotify?

Artists, wellness, and work from anywhere. Our future is always focused on delivering for the artists, creators and authors who utilize Spotify to connect with hundreds of millions of people around the world. In order for our teams to keep up with the pace of global creativity we are focused on continuing to accelerate Spotify’s pace of productivity as we grow. That might sound like a spring mindset but at Spotify we approach faster with a marathon mindset which means wellness. Removing stigmas around mental health issues, and raising awareness about, and celebrating the importance of, mental health support is more important than ever. Finally, we are continuing to optimize our WFA policies to ensure that work, wherever our band members choose to do it, is optimized for each individual while still connecting them to Spotify’s culture and ensuring a sense of belonging to the company.

What’s your take on DE&I?

As the world’s leading audio service we erase borders and boundaries across a wide array of people and cultures. That is why Diversity and Inclusion have long been central to our agenda at Spotify. We added Belonging to our focus areas in 2018, because you cannot connect the world without an open mindset. To remain innovative we need to have a workforce that mirrors the world we operate in. On the tactical front, we’ve found that our WFA policies have been enormously beneficial to our diverse recruitment efforts so we’re continuing to build on those results.

What are the training and development programs you pay attention to at Spotify that help you keep employees motivated?

Growth is our mantra and we are the pioneering company in our verticals so we place a special focus on the combination of on the job learning and cross-org collaboration that helps Spotifiers perpetually grow their skills profiles. A year ago we launched Echo, our internal talent marketplace, which makes sure that every single bandmate has equal access to growth opportunities. The band members enjoy access to a wide array of support mechanisms including the Heart & Soul team (mental health), the physical health and social well-being programming from the Px team (people experience), as well as the variety of learning and development offerings in the GreenHouse (learning) portfolio.

Katarina Berg,

CHRO, Strategy Operations, Global Workplace Services, Spotify

Katarina Berg has been heading up Spotify’s global HR team and she’s also head of the company’s Global Workplace Services and Strategy Operations teams. She’s been with the company since 2013, leading the talent transformation during the business transition from startup to a mature international company. Before Spotify, Katarina held high-profile HR roles in various multinational companies, such as Preem, Swedbank, Kanal 5 (SBS Broadcasting) and 3 (Hi3G Access).

Photo: Spotify  

This profile was published in the January 2023 issue of The HR Digest.

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