Chief Human Resources Officer, Spotify Technology
Search every verified Anna Lundström interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Anna Lundström, Chief Human Resources Officer at Spotify Technology, has discussed the company's efforts to prevent proximity bias in the workplace. In a September 2023 interview, Lundström stated that Spotify is working to ensure there are no disadvantages or advantages depending on where an employee works. She described tailored manager and leadership programs for leading distributed teams, and said the company analyzes compensation data to check for differences between home-based and office-based employees in promotions and salary increases. Lundström noted that Spotify has not yet seen inequalities in its data, but emphasized the importance of awareness and regular bias checks. Lundström previously discussed Spotify's "Work From Anywhere" program in a September 2021 interview. She said the company chose to implement a single salary range for all of the US rather than paying per location, to avoid reinforcing historical pay disparities and simplify internal mobility. Lundström described two offerings: working the majority of time remotely while staying connected to Spotify culture, or spending most time in the office with greater flexibility. She noted that a common misconception is that Spotify has gone fully remote, stating the company still reinforces its culture and values through in-person gatherings. Lundström also said Spotify launched a "Band Reunion" program to reconnect employees with company values, and that the company underestimated the time needed to address leaders' concerns about the transformational change.
“We are aware and need to make sure that there is no disadvantages or advantages depending on where you work from and where your manager sits.”
“We have tailored manager and leadership programs tied to what we expect from a leader at Spotify, with new content added to lead in a distributed environment.”
“Every single employee that starts at Spotify gets invited to an introduction event where they learn about our cultural values and meet the executive and leadership teams.”
“We analyze data during our two compensation cycles to check for any notable differences between home-based and office-based employees in promotions and salary increases.”
“So far, we haven't seen any inequalities in our data, but being aware and regularly checking biases is crucial.”
“We really want to become a distributed first company and enable our talent to be the very best regardless of where we work from.”
“We landed in two offerings from an HR point of view: one is working the majority of your time remotely while staying connected to Spotify culture, and the other is spending the majority of your time in the office but with greater flexibility than before.”
“We chose to move into one salary range for all of the US rather than paying per location or region, to avoid reinforcing historical pay disparities and to simplify internal mobility.”
“If you move from New York to Minnesota, it's probably to move back home or family, and if you come from an underrepresented group, the market data might be skewed lower in that region due to historical reasons, so we don't want to reinforce that.”
“We received about 1500 questions when we launched the program, but because of thorough preparation and the playbook, we had answered most of them already.”
“A big misconception is that we've gone fully remote; we have not. We are still reinforcing our culture and values and believe people need to come together in person regularly, but day-to-day work can be more flexible.”
“If you have great managers and leaders, you don't need to control your employees; you just put trust in them and they will do great work.”
“We underestimated how much time we needed to spend with leaders and managers to address their concerns and questions about this transformational change.”
“We launched a program called the Band Reunion to reconnect employees with our values and culture, including jam sessions led by managers and leaders.”
myHRfuture #DigitalHRLeaders In the first episode of series 26 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Anna Lundström, VP of HR for ...
Anne-Marie invites guest Anna Lundström to deep dive into Spotify's Work From Anywhere program.
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