"Future of HR" dialogue series – Gregor Karolus, CHRO and Maria Castresana, CPO of SpringerNature

By Fabian Huhle and Constanze Schweinsteiger

Maria Castresana has been Chief People Officer (CPO) at Springer Nature since November 2024. She has more than 25 years of international experience in human resources. Holding degrees in law, business administration and human resources management, she has worked in both listed companies and family businesses in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Gregor Karolus, who worked for Springer Nature and its predecessor companies for 27 years, was previously Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). He began his career in research management at Helmholtz Zentrum München and subsequently held senior HR positions at Bertelsmann and later BertelsmannSpringer. Karolus was instrumental in driving the IPO of Springer Nature in October 2024 from the HR side. As part of the aim of this "Future of HR" dialog is to shed light on how an IPO affects HR matters and vice versa, we have taken the opportunity to speak to two proven experts in Maria Castresana and Gregor Karolus.

Fabian Huhle: Maria and Gregor, you have between you more than 50 years of experience in HR. How has the role of HR changed over the decades?

Gregor Karolus: In my 30 years in HR, I experienced two main phases: Early on, the role of HR was heavily focused on administration and legal aspects. At that time, HR was barely involved at all in strategic corporate management, and human resources development was still in a nascent stage or little more than a hobby. Later on – during my time at Bertelsmann and Springer Nature – HR gradually developed into a central, integrating function working across all business areas and bringing together corporate strategy and talent strategy.

Maria Castresana: I can confirm that. In the past, it was primarily about ensuring the company was legally protected and processes remained stable when any personnel decisions were made. Nowadays, it's about much more than that. Topics like organizational culture and leadership have moved further up the agenda. The HR department is also challenged whenever a company is buying or selling part of the business or undergoing any technology transformations, as we are currently seeing with AI: HR needs to increase people's acceptance of change processes and have a positive impact on performance, be that through change management or a better organization with optimized structures and processes.

Constanze Schweinsteiger: How do you think the HR function should be integrated into a company's business?

Gregor Karolus: In my opinion, HR is an essential element of the corporate strategy in successful companies. HR is not just a function that cuts across all departments or handles administrative tasks – it's an integral function. Especially in a company like Springer Nature, whose value lies primarily in its people, HR forms a natural part of the top management. And in businesses where that's not the case, the company's most important resource does not enjoy the right level of focus and is not represented in the leadership team.

Maria Castresana: As part of the management team, HR can have a huge impact. Part of that is about balancing the various interests in the company – always with the aim of ensuring the organization delivers outstanding performance and is optimally prepared for future challenges. Today, but also in the future, skills such as conflict resolution, stakeholder management and identifying sustainable solutions will be in demand in HR.

Constanze Schweinsteiger: What would you say are the reasons why HR is so involved at Springer Nature, whereas in many other companies the function is less involved?

Gregor Karolus: I think there are two reasons for this: Firstly, we are a people-centered and international scientific and educational community. Secondly, we have grown through transformation – and that can only happen if the necessary resources are available. All of our CEOs were therefore very interested from the outset in giving HR and its CHRO the freedom they needed to get on with HR work successfully. Other companies often don't take such a view of things. The HR function is reduced to contributing only indirectly to the company's success, for example by resolving conflicts with the works council or staff and keeping it away from management, and through restructuring and administration. With such a passive role, there is hardly any chance to look holistically at organizational and employee issues in the strategy.

Fabian Huhle: What sort of mission should management formulate for an HR department so that it can develop its full potential?

Maria Castresana: With Finance and HR, the CEO has two functions that are crucial for managing the company. Both of them take a holistic view of the company. To maximize potential, the financial and human perspectives need to be brought together. This is primarily the responsibility of the CEO. It's the CEO who decides on structures and processes within the company, such as the strategy process and the cooperation within the executive team.

Fabian Huhle: Springer Nature has been listed on the stock exchange since October 2024. What role did HR play in the IPO? What were your key learnings?

Gregor Karolus: Besides its role in organizational development, HR also plays a key role in shaping the corporate culture. In the context of an IPO, various things change: communication behavior, information transfer and confidentiality requirements. At the same time, there is a greater need for communication because fear and uncertainty can arise among employees, for example about whether business units are about to be spun off. In such transformation processes, it's important to communicate transparently, make clear decisions and thus strengthen trust. Our early alignment and the very close cooperation between the CEO, CFO, HR and Communications helped to make the process as smooth as it could be.

Constanze Schweinsteiger: What impact did the IPO have on your company's employer branding?

Maria Castresana: The IPO process is a great opportunity – not just for HR but for the entire company: With an IPO, the external perspective of investors is brought into the company. That can provide valuable impetus. The IPO also strengthens our corporate brand because the increased attention from outside the business makes the company more visible for talent.

Gregor Karolus: We also used the IPO to further sharpen our employer image. Because we are a very diverse company employing people from more than 40 different countries and many different professions, one of our key brand promises alongside "be part of progress" is "be yourself." We worked together with the Communications department to build up a network of brand ambassadors who authentically communicate, both internally and externally, what it's like to work for us. Culture and people are the main ways we can set ourselves apart from other listed companies in the long term.

Fabian Huhle: What measures do you use to shape the corporate culture and the way you relate to employees?

Gregor Karolus: We have introduced a whole range of measures. For example, very early on we developed and launched an internal social media platform, a place for employees to discuss things openly and in person. Cultural elements such as employee surveys and long-established events like our annual innovation tournament also make a contribution and are held on an ongoing basis. We also revised our cultural and leadership values together with the people in our business so that everyone can see themselves reflected in them and we have a shared point of orientation. Your employer branding must be authentic, otherwise it's worthless. The CEO's core message in this context has always been that the focus should remain on the quality of research, our customers and acting ethically. Going public did not change our values and our strategic direction.

Constanze Schweinsteiger: So, you don't see the IPO as a strategic milestone?

Maria Castresana: Yes, of course the IPO was an important step in our company's history. But many other strategic issues are and remain extremely important. For example, the fact that we are making more and more research freely available through Open Access. And we are developing technological solutions to enable us to publish high-quality scientific articles even sooner. Both of these are extremely important in order to solve the problems of our world faster.

Fabian Huhle: You have just touched on the topic of purpose again. What role does the HR department play in shaping a meaningful corporate culture?

Gregor Karolus: Management and HR cannot prescribe a culture, but they can try to foster one. To do this, it's important to have a dialog with the management team. This should include clarifying questions such as what culture we want to exemplify or how we can preserve and evolve that culture. The culture is also significantly shaped by the values and principles expressed through our leadership – at its best and at its worst.

Maria Castresana: For me, culture is closely linked with leadership culture. HR can make a valuable contribution to the development of corporate culture via the selection and support of managers as well as in a moderating role in strategy and in change processes.

Constanze Schweinsteiger: HR shapes corporate culture by considering cultural fit in the recruitment process. For example, by asking candidates about their values and expectations. How important is it to you to check people's values as a culture-shaping element during the recruiting process?

Gregor Karolus: On the one hand, fundamental values such as transparency and ethics must be present in people and must match ours in order to preserve the corporate culture. On the other hand, it's important to integrate new perspectives from different educational backgrounds, different countries and different communities - in short: to recruit in a way that's value oriented and performance based but at the same time diverse. HR has to strike a balance between preservation and innovation. The willingness to change makes us strong and makes the company fit for the future.

Constanze Schweinsteiger/Fabian Huhle: Thank you for talking to us.