Finding What Employees Want and Employers Need
From Peloton to Microsoft, SHS IO Alumna Linn Hadenius Helps Companies Optimize and Support Their Workforce
When Linn Hadenius left Stockholm for New York City in 2015, she imagined a year or two of graduate school, an international experience, and then a return home. Instead, she found herself falling in love twice: once with industrial-organizational psychology, and once with the city that never sleeps.
“We just loved New York,” she said of herself and her husband. “I loved the program, and I had a wonderful experience.”
The program? Touro University School of Health Sciences Industrial-Organizational Psychology program. Linn remembered the program as intense and applied. Students were expected to secure internships, get hands-on training, and learn how to work confidently. “You needed to make yourself attractive in the job market, get a foot in the door, and try things out as part of the program,” Linn recalled.
A professor’s referral soon opened the door to PepsiCo, where Linn landed her first U.S. role in leadership development. “Everyone around me was more formally educated in psychology, and I only had my master’s,” she said. “But PepsiCo was so learning-oriented. I felt safe having my first professional failures and successes.” She worked there for two years before she and her husband attempted a return to Sweden, though they lasted only a year before realizing how much they missed New York. “There’s a spontaneity and diversity in New York that I really love,” she said. They returned to a small East Village community that felt like home.
Her time in Sweden had already introduced her to a startup focused on unbiased psychometric testing, helping companies hire based on objective behavioral and cognitive data. What began as the graduate course everyone dreaded—psychometrics—became the foundation of her career. “It’s ironic,” she said. “That’s the skill I used the most.” That experience brought her to Harver, an Amsterdam-based assessment company operating in New York, where she served as a senior consultant and subject-matter expert. The work deepened her expertise, but she found herself wanting to see the long-term impact of her efforts. “When you work with clients as a consultant, you miss the long-term feedback loop,” she said.
One of her clients was Peloton, and a conversation with a contact there led to what she calls “the dream job I didn’t know I was looking for.” She joined to lead employee sentiment and engagement, helping the company understand its workforce during an era of extraordinary growth, followed by equally dramatic decline. “It was a lovely journey and also chaotic,” she said. As Peloton’s pandemic boom reversed, her team delivered difficult insights to leadership, supported the company through layoffs and CEO transitions, and emphasized the importance of culture during periods of uncertainty. Her work became increasingly integral, and she was eventually asked to build a new People Analytics and Employee Listening team from scratch. She selected new tools, hired staff, and developed a data strategy during one of the company’s most tumultuous periods. “It was a big leap,” she said. “But it showed the trust you can build when you do your work well.”
This year, Linn begins a new chapter at Microsoft as a senior manager in culture intelligence and analytics, a company she has long admired for its disciplined, research-driven approach to employee listening. “It’s exciting and humbling,” she said. “More and more companies want to show the numbers behind culture and inclusion. That’s where the field is heading.”
Looking back, Linn credits Touro’s applied and personal approach with helping her launch her successful career. She considered other New York-based programs like Columbia and NYU, but Touro’s responsiveness and emphasis on real-world experience stood out. “They encouraged us to build our own networks and be active in our learning,” she said. “It mattered what you took away and the connections you made.” Her guidance for current students reflects the mindset that has shaped her professional journey: stay curious. “We’re science-driven, but curiosity and openness matter just as much,” she said. “Even with abstract things like behavior, you can get to a shared truth if you follow the data.”
