Ten years. Seven different roles. One dynamic career path.
That defines the professional journey Kate Nienaltow has charted at Tapestry, where she has spent the past decade transitioning between roles related to various business areas, from talent acquisition to employer branding. Nienaltow’s involvement in business-critical tasks, such as leading company-wide performance management initiatives, has enabled her to build out a diverse, ever-evolving skill set, which she applies to her current role as senior manager, HR business partner.
But according to Nienaltow, it’s not just the work itself that has enabled her to evolve. She has benefited from having access to professional development courses and, most importantly, receiving encouragement from higher-ups.
“Tapestry’s purpose is to ‘Stretch What’s Possible,’ and I’ve been able to achieve this with the support and guidance of my leaders,” Nienaltow said.
As she continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, she feels well-equipped to continue carving out her career path at the company, supported by impactful resources — and empowering people. Read on to see what else Nienaltow had to say about how Tapestry has enabled her to transform her professional life.
Tapestry is the global house of iconic brands like Coach, Kate Spade New York and Stuart Weitzman.
When you first joined Tapestry, what were you hired to do?
I joined the company in September 2015 as an assistant on the talent acquisition team. I started as a temp before becoming a permanent employee. I was responsible for supporting recruitment efforts, including sourcing candidates, scheduling interviews, managing job postings and conducting reference checks.
What roles have you held at Tapestry so far, leading up to your current role?
I have held numerous roles at the company across talent acquisition, talent management, employer branding, and most recently, as an HR business partner — first supporting finance, legal, strategy, communications, and HR teams before recently moving in September 2024 to support global supply chain, communications, and HR.
Through my work on the talent acquisition team, I’ve had the opportunity to really understand the “why” behind hiring strategies and the talent marketplace. I’ve learned so much about how our Tapestry teams work and the skills and experience needed to be successful. When I moved into talent management and employer branding roles, I was able to leverage that experience to be successful in that role. For employer branding, it was critical I knew how to market Tapestry as an employer of choice for external candidates while also understanding how this work would directly impact the candidate pool and recruiting efforts of our talent acquisition team.
For talent management, working closely with business leaders enabled me to strengthen my communication skills and build strong relationships across teams. Ultimately, this helped me successfully lead company-wide performance management initiatives and contribute to the Tapestry’s talent strategy.
With my move into an HR business partner role, I felt well-equipped with a deep knowledge of talent strategy, development and succession planning, compensation planning, and recruitment, which allowed me to coach and guide business leaders to optimize their organizations and drive success across their teams.
Since joining Tapestry, how have you been able to grow your skills, and what resources have helped you do this?
Since joining Tapestry, I have been able to tap my on-the-job experience to strengthen my skills. My hands-on experience with leadership talent review supported my growth, as I partnered with senior leaders and HR colleagues to assess and calibrate talent, identify retention risks and develop succession and development plans. In addition, I became proficient in Excel by leveraging instructional videos through YouTube and LinkedIn Learning to support talent metrics and reporting. I also leveraged live and on-demand training provided by Tapestry’s Global People and Organizational Development team to strengthen my presentation and communication skills, prioritization and collaboration techniques, as well as strategic thinking.
What role have leaders played in your growth?
Leaders at Tapestry have been instrumental in my development, providing mentorship and encouragement to pursue various roles and interests across the organization from day one. For example, I had the opportunity to partner with a senior leader to launch a new company-wide performance management process that touched 20,000 employees globally — something I was able to own and manage with their encouragement and support. And when I transitioned roles to become an HR business partner, leadership rolled out a seamless onboarding process that set me up for success in my new position.
“Leaders at Tapestry have been instrumental in my development, providing mentorship and encouragement to pursue various opportunities and roles at the company.”
What structures are in place to help employees like you succeed at Tapestry, and what role did these play in your growth?
At Tapestry, our global people and organizational development team provides a range of learning and training resources for employees. There are live and on-demand trainings that the team created to cover various topics and skills, targeted toward individual contributors, people managers and leadership. In addition, Tapestry has partnerships with LinkedIn Learning and Blinkist, which provide additional external resources to employees focused on learning, development and growth. I have participated in many of these sessions over the years, which have targeted my development areas and needs in order to help me grow in my role and prepare me for my next opportunities.
