On's CHRO on why AI is a mindset shift, not a tech shift
From The WorkOps Podcast · 39:47
Show by by Kinfolk
SummaryKatarina Berg, CHRO at On, joins Jeet Mukerji on The WorkOps Podcast to explain what an HR leader carries from company to company after 30 years in the function, and what she leaves behind. She has run People at Spotify and now at On, the Swiss running brand that benchmarks itself against tech companies, and she has deliberately changed industry every time so she never does a "blue copy" of the last playbook.The conversation covers the 5 Cs she hires for now that leadership is both and rather than either or, why she still backs experience over tech-native hires (intuition, she argues, is just experience), and why AI in the People function is a mindset shift, not a tech shift. She describes the one-day agentathon where her HR team built plug-and-play agents in Claude and Lovable, how On buys and tweaks platforms like Sana rather than building from scratch, and the question she thinks nobody in HR is asking: when AI removes repetitive work, what replaces the recovery it used to give people? For CHROs, People Ops leaders and anyone deciding where AI sits in their organization.Chapters00:00 Cold open00:51 Welcome Katarina Berg, CHRO at On01:08 30 years in HR and never a blue copy06:21 The 5 Cs to hire for when everything is both and11:14 Does experience still matter in the AI era?17:01 From Spotify to On: listen before you change anything21:46 A mindset shift, not a tech shift28:16 AI first does not mean people lost: HR, IT and the agent hackathon34:50 The micro pauses AI takes away36:31 Build, buy or tweakTakeaways- Katarina hires for 5 Cs, communicative, consistent, compelling, able to conceptualize and able to put it in context, because leadership today is both and, not either or.- She still backs experience over tech-native hires: intuition is compressed experience, and it is what lets a team judge AI output and dare a contrarian bet.- AI in the People function is a mindset shift, not a tech shift, so HR has to be the change agent and cannot be tech averse or scared.- On's HR team built plug-and-play agents in Claude and Lovable during a one-day agentathon, aimed at repetitive work, and talent acquisition already answers every applicant instead of leaving them in a black hole.- Nobody's unique: On buys and tweaks platforms like Sana rather than building from scratch, and Katarina's open question is what replaces the recovery that repetitive work used to give people.Connect with the GuestKatarina Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarina-berg-5375074/Company Website: https://www.on.comKatarina's book, BOLD: A new era of strategic HR: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/BOLD-new-era-strategic-HR/dp/8327289802SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Kinfolk, the AI service desk built for HR.See more at kinfolkhq.com
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