Some companies, like BNY Mellon, are utilizing data to guide their decision making. They originally implemented a three-day in office policy, but after conducting research on worker productivity, they decided to increase to four days in-person.
“We’re complementing [return-to-office] with other benefits, such as two weeks of ‘work from anywhere’ time,” Alejandro Perez, chief administrative officer at BNY, shared at Fortune’s 2025 COO summit. The company also designates two weeks at the end of the calendar year as a “recharge period,” where managers and employees alike are asked to solely focus on critical business and avoid meetings. “People get a little more time to recharge, to spend time at home and get ready for the next year,” he said.
Anne Raimondi, chief operating officer and head of business at Asana, also shared the importance of data in guiding the tech company’s in-office policy. While Asana is used as a platform to guide workplaces with asynchronous work models, the company prefers to utilize a “office-centric hybrid” model. “Especially given our demographic of early-career engineers and early-career salespeople, that in-person collaboration is the best way for people to learn and build cross-functional relationships,” she said.
Employees across the globe all go into the office on the same three days a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. But Asana also has “no-meeting Wednesdays,” in an effort to incorporate more flexibility into workers’ schedules. Even with in-office requirements, there are still important steps leaders can take to create flexible options for workers, Raimondi argued. One is allowing workers to manage their own calendars, especially as more members of the workforce are becoming part of the “sandwich generation” and are tasked with taking care of both young children and aging parents.
“Even though we are office-centric, we also want to treat employees like the adults that they are.”
Alejandro Perez, chief administrative officer at BNY, and
Anne Raimondi, chief operating officer and head of business at Asana, speak with Fortune's Kristen Stoller at the Fortune COO Summit on June 10, 2025, in Scottsdale.
Is RTO an employee perk or necessary retention strategy? The question has led to an endless debate among bosses in corporate America, but employees have never been more clear.
About 63% of workers would take a pay cut for the option to work remotely more often, according to a new report from Cisco, which surveyed 21,513 employees and employers across 21 markets globally to get a sense of where they stand on the future of work. Not only would employees sacrifice pay for flexibility—65% of workers have considered looking for a different job that offers better hybrid options.
The one-size fits nature of RTO policies is the crux of the problem, Francine Katsoudas, chief people, purpose, and policy officer at Cisco, tells Fortune. “The tension point here is that a lot of the return to office policies can’t take into consideration the individual needs [of the employee],” she says.
Unsurprisingly, workers whose employers provide a fully flexible work policy are most satisfied with their work arrangements, with 74% of them indicating approval of the policies. But a close second are workers whose hybrid model includes a mandated set number of days in the office (i.e. three days a week), with 71% of this group of workers feeling positively.
Flexible work is becoming particularly urgent for workplaces as more and more people enter the “sandwich generation,” says Katsoudas, in which they’re tasked with providing care for their young children and aging parents. These employees often have to balance responsibilities like doctors appointments and school pickups.
“Flexibility doesn’t mean that everyone is working remotely,” she adds. “It just means that there’s an ability to take into consideration the needs of every individual.”
Spotify has a new CHRO: Anna Lundström. Joining the music and podcasting giant in 2016, Lundström has held a variety of roles at the company, and previously served as the VP of HR. She also played a crucial role masterminding the company’s remote work strategy, otherwise known as “work from anywhere.”
Fortune sat down with the newly-minted HR leader to get her thoughts on workforce priorities for the company, what she thinks it takes to build a great work-from-home policy, and of course, AI.
Lundström and chief product officer Gustav Söderström have released a set of AI rules to the entire organization, and introduced a series of trainings for employees that range from prompt engineering to more advanced courses.
“Leaning fully into the learning, making our employees future ready, providing them with AI literacy skills—that will position them really well,” she says. “We don’t know what the future will hold, but the bet we’re taking is making everyone AI ready.”
Lundström says she’s also doubling down on employee well-being, which includes increased mental health support and an annual company-wide “Wellness Week.” An idea born out of pandemic-era Zoom burnout, that’s when the company closes all offices for the first week in November, and sends 7,500 employees home at the same time.
“People love that because usually, when you’re on vacation, you come back to a full inbox and a long to-do list,” she says. “But here, everyone’s off at the same time.”
You can read more of my interview with Spotify’s new CHRO here.
Spotify has found a new HR leader: Anna Lundström.
The native Swede and New York City dweller was appointed as CHRO of the music streaming giant in April of this year. She previously served as VP of HR, and has been with the company since 2016.
One of Lundström’s most notable contributions to the company so far was the formation of the company’s “work from anywhere” policy, which launched in 2021. A Spotify spokesperson previously toldFortune that the remote work strategy led to a 50% drop in attrition.
In her new role, Lundström oversees all aspects of the company’s human resources department, including people strategy, and managing a workforce of 7,000 employees across 180 markets. And her appointment comes at an exciting time for Spotify: the company celebrated its first full year of profitability since it was founded in 2008.
Lundström sat down with Fortune to discuss her vision for the CHRO role, plans to integrate AI into her department’s workflow, focusing on employee mental health, and connecting people strategy with business strategy.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune: What first brought you to Spotify?
Anna Lundström: I was with NASDAQ for almost a decade before joining Spotify. I still had about 20 years in HR, but was obviously working in more of a financial services environment. I loved it, but Spotify reached out and was just starting to expand in the U.S.
[Spotify] is obviously a product that I love and use, so that was important for me as I took my next step, but also the match with me being a Swede in the U.S. and being part of the Spotify journey and expansion here, was really attractive.
You’ve said that one of the goals is to make AI a key focus across the organization. How are you planning to integrate AI into your HR department?
My team partners closely with the product and technology team. A couple weeks ago, Gustav [Söderström], our chief product officer, and I, went out to the full organization with a set of guiding principles around not only the importance of AI, but [how] we are taking the learning approach.
A lot of companies are missing out [by] saying, ‘Get on the AI train!’ But they’re not really doing that. They just want to be fast and out there with the world.
We launched a set of trainings for our employees—everything from prompt trainings to more advanced ones, based on your role. It’s not about rolling out [AI]. It’s rolled out, and now everyone is working on learning.
Leaning fully into the learning, making our employees future ready, providing them with AI literacy skills—that will position them really well. We don’t know what the future will hold, but the bet we’re taking is making everyone AI ready.
In HR specifically, we have also been early adopters. We’ve had a couple of people analytics tools for about two years. Disco is one of them, which gives us real time data. So no more Excel spreadsheets. We go into a Disco feature we’ve built ourselves that gets real time attrition, engagement, and more. We have another platform, Echo, that is built on machine learning and serves as our internal LinkedIn.
What are some of your other priorities as CHRO?
Another big focus is mental health. We’re really leaning into that. We have doubled down on more support for our employees. This year we launched a new mental health platform that provides a more personalized experience, Modern Health. We believe that a sustainable and healthy workforce is a competitive advantage. Retaining our top talent is a massive focus of mine.
Culture is always evolving. Product and business have evolved a lot one year into profitability. For me, a genuine people experience is when you really tie people strategy to business strategy, and they are one.
One of Spotify’s hallmarks is its “Work from Anywhere” policy. How do you view the RTO debate in 2025?
Fun fact: My colleague, Alexander Westerdahl, and I were the architects of that policy. We launched early in 2021. One of our key success factors, as a product but also in our employee offerings, is that we do not look at other companies that much. Of course we set benchmarks. But we have always believed that we have really talented, driven employees with high agency—motivation to work hard, have fun and deliver on the results. Then we don’t necessarily care where you work from. What we have found in the years since we started “Work from Anywhere” is that we need to have those touch points where people come together.
We recently implemented what we call “Core Week,” which is one week per year when your core team comes together and you work from an office of your choosing. The whole purpose is coming together, working, socializing, and planning together.
What mistakes do you think leaders are making when it comes to RTO?
When we launched Work from Anywhere, we said that [companies] need to do what’s right for their business. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. If you really trust and respect your employees, as long as you’re able to explain the reasoning, then you can pick whatever works for you.
Which Spotify benefits are you most proud of?
Parental leave is huge. Our employees love it. Six months, all paid. For all parents: men, women, same sex couples, those carrying a child via surrogacy—it’s for everyone.
One of our most beloved ones is what we call Wellness Week. That came out of the pandemic. Everyone was at home and getting Zoom fatigue. So we came up with an idea to offer one week where the whole company is off. So now we are, for the fifth year in a row, closing all our offices in the first week of November. All 7,500 people, including executive management—no emails, no slacks, no WhatsApp. People go and spend their time recharging, being with their families.
People love that because usually, when you’re on vacation, you come back to a full inbox and a long to-do list. But here, everyone’s off at the same time.
Sometimes CHROs can be left out of conversations around the C-suite. What is your relationship like to the other executive leaders at Spotify?
One of the key success factors of being an effective HR professional, at all levels, is obviously your capability to build relationships, to harness the relationships, act with high integrity. But it’s also about being able to connect the dots between business, product priorities and people strategy—that’s high level.
I’ve been with the company for 10 years. I’ve supported almost all teams in the organization. I know the business and product inside and out. I’ve spent a lot of time with our C-suite and executive team.
Once a week, the “E-team,” or executive team, meets for three hours every Tuesday afternoon. We discuss top priorities, how we’re tracking progress on these priorities, people and culture items, whatever that may be. That has made us so connected and collaborative and fast as an organization. I feel extremely well positioned for the job based on my tenure here and where I’ve worked in the organization and the relationships I’ve had.
The arrest of a high-profile union leader during ICE protests last week has prompted an outcry across labor organizations across the U.S., and could mark the beginning of a new escalation between organized labor and President Donald Trump in the war over immigration.
David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California (SEIU), was taken to the hospital on Friday where he was treated for injuries sustained during his arrest by ICE, according to a statement from the SEIU. He was released from federal custody on Monday, on a $50,000 bond, and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer. If convicted, he could face six years in prison.
The SEIU did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Huerta’s arrest took place during protests against ICE, when demonstrators in Los Angeles took to the streets to protest the immigration raids of garment workers. The Trump administration has long promised lofty deportation goals, and has set a quota in May of arresting 3,000 immigrants a day. The ICE raids in California are part of that new push. In response to the protests, President Donald Trump has ordered up to 4,000 National Guard troops and another 700 Marines to the city, over the objections of state officials. California has sued over the move, saying it violates state sovereignty.
Huerta’s arrest has prompted several unions across the U.S. to condemn the administration’s actions, and may prove to be a turning point in the relationship between organized labor and the Trump administration. In his campaign last year, the president made inroads when it came to winning the support of union members, if not the unions themselves, and major unions like the Brotherhood of Teamsters chose not to endorse any candidate. But the actions of ICE in Los Angeles, and Huerta’s arrest, have prompted an outpouring of support from organized labor.
SEIU President April Verrett released a statement after Huerta’s release on June 9, condemning his arrest by ICE, their immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, and Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard. “[T]his struggle is about much more than just one man. Thousands of workers remain unjustly detained and separated from their families,” she wrote. “At this very moment, immigrant communities are being terrorized by heavily militarized armed forces. The Trump regime calling in the National Guard is a dangerous escalation to target people who disagree with them. It is a threat to our democracy.”
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country, wrote in a statement on June 7: “As the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has unnecessarily targeted our hard-working immigrant brothers and sisters, David was exercising his constitutional rights and conducting legal observation of ICE activity in his community.”
After Huerta’s arrest, the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees wrote on June 8: “This is yet another example of the reckless and dangerous way deportations are being carried out, targeting hard-working community members. They are now trying to silence union leaders who dare to speak up.”
Huerta’s arrest and the ICE raids in Los Angeles have also counter demonstrations across the country over the past few eays. “Make no mistake, history is being written right now,” said Abel Fuaau, a district representative for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 39, at a rally in San Francisco on Monday, KQED reported. “And as the old Union hymn goes, which side are you on? Who are you with?”
At another rally in New York City, Manny Pastreich, president of SEIU’s 32BJ chapter, told the assembled crowd: “We must fight back. We reject these attacks on our communities and demand the immediate release of our union brother David Huerta.”
Los Angeles, CA, Monday, June 9, 2025 - Thousands rally at Grand Park in support of union leader David Huerta who was recently detained by ICE agents and faces federal charges. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
On April 28, Duolingo cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn posted an email on LinkedIn that he had just sent to all employees at his company. In it, he outlined his vision for the language-learning app to become an “AI-first” organization, including phasing out contractors if AI could do their work, and giving a team the ability to hire a new person only if they were not able to automate their work through AI.
The response was swift and scathing. “This is a disaster. I will cancel my subscription,” wrote one commenter. “AI first means people last,” wrote another. And a third summed up the general feeling of critics when they wrote: “I can’t support a company that replaces humans with AI.”
A week later, von Ahn walked back his initial statements, clarifying that he does not “see AI replacing what our employees do” but instead views it as a “tool to accelerate what we do, at the same or better level of quality.”
In a new interview, von Ahn says that he was shocked by the backlash he received. “I did not expect the amount of blowback,” he recently told the Financial Times. While he says he should have been more clear about his AI goals, he also feels that the negativity stems from a general fear that AI will replace workers. “Every tech company is doing similar things, [but] we were open about it,” he said.
Von Ahn, however, isn’t alone. Other CEOs have also been forthright about how their AI aspirations will affect their human workforce. The CEO of Klarna, for example, said in August of last year that the company had cut hundreds of jobs thanks to AI. Last month, he added that the new tech had helped the company shrink its workforce by 40%.
Anxiety for workers around the potential that they will be replaced by AI, however, is high. Around 40% of workers familiar with ChatGPT in 2023 were worried that the technology would replace them, according to a Harris poll done on behalf of Fortune. And a Pew study from earlier this year found that around 32% of workers fear AI will lead to fewer opportunities for them. Another 52% were worried about how AI could potentially impact the workplace in the future.
The leaders of AI companies themselves aren’t necessarily offering words of comfort to these worried workers. The Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, told Axios last month that AI could eliminate approximately half of all entry-level jobs within the next five years. He argued that there’s no turning back now.
“It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it,” he said. “We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.”
Login
