Ask anyone what kind of music they like and there’s a strong chance they’ll mention their favorite Spotify playlist. Since breaking into the audio streaming business in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify has offered a huge variety of tunes and become the world’s leading music streaming service.

Behind the great music, of course, are great people. And leading them is Katarina Berg, the company’s chief human resources officer, who joined Spotify in 2013 after working in the automobile, oil, telecommunications, finance, and retail industries. In part, Spotify founder Daniel Ek lured Katarina to his young streaming service by asking her, “Why wouldn’t you want to be part of spreading the joy of music to the world?”

It was in this spirit that Katarina sat down with LinkedIn’s chief people officer, Teuila Hanson, for the first in a new series of interviews with CHROs. In this series, we’ll ask some of the smartest, most innovative CHROs around the globe to share their perspectives on the changing role of talent leaders and how their organizations are navigating the ever-shifting landscape of work.

The best part of being a CHRO

Teuila kicked off the conversation by asking Katarina what she wished people knew about the CHRO job.

“I wish people knew how complex and exciting and challenging and fun it is,” Katarina said. “For anybody who has the mindset that they want to come to work and learn new things every day, I think it’s one of the best jobs you can have.” She said that people also probably don’t know that the job entails about 50% business acumen and 50% HR — and how fulfilling that combination can be.  

This prompted Teuila to ask what Katarina found most fun about the job. “That I come to work and I plan to do something and then the day turns out to be 100% totally different,” Katarina said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”  She explained that for someone who’s controlling or likes things to go according to plan, the job might cause anxiety. “But,” she added, “for a person who wants to constantly stay passionate, curious, and learn new things about people, the business, or org design that will pivot the company forward, it’s perfect.”

Spotify embraces a culture of change even as they “believe in the homegrown”

Teuila mentioned that at many companies, managers want to hoard talent. But Spotify is known for being innovative while also embracing internal mobility. “So, is there anything special about Spotify’s culture,” she asked, “that explains why you’re able to do it?”

It helps, Katarina replied, that Spotify is headquartered in Sweden, a country known for its openness and transparency. “Collaboration is one of the things we’ve cracked in Sweden because we’re small,” she said. “If we didn’t collaborate, we wouldn’t be able to compete.”

Because Spotify has its roots in tech, she said, the company also embraces innovation and leans into the idea that everything is constantly changing. But when Spotify makes changes, Katarina said, they explain why they’re making the change, so that employees understand their reasoning.

They take the same approach with talent. The company explains to managers why they want to move an employee to a different role, even as they emphasize that it’s not the manager’s talent, it’s Spotify’s.  

“Something that we said from the get-go,” she said, “is that we believe in homegrown and we’re going to recruit from within.”  Of course, Spotify recruits external talent when they need a special kind of knowledge or skill set. But their preference is to look within. “It keeps the institutional knowledge,” Katarina said, “and it makes us move much, much faster.”

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