Episode 147: Empowering Workforce Development with Raluca Apostol, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Nestor

In this episode of Product Thinking, Raluca Apostol, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Nestor, joins Melissa Perri to unveil how a people intelligence platform like Nestor empowers workforce development and helps managers build better teams. They also explore Nestor's innovative approach to skills-based talent management, the advancement of HR practices, and the role of AI in big data for effective skill matching.

Nestor is a people intelligence platform that empowers organizations to harness the power of skills, nurturing workforce agility, high performance, and sustained growth. The platform adopts a skill-centric strategy, which enables HR and business leaders to get a holistic view of skills within their organization, ensuring talent strategies are aligned with evolving business needs.

Before Nestor, Raluca held several key positions as the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder at Emojer, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Marionette Studio, and Co-Founder and Managing Director at Girls Who Code - Iasi. Moreover, she served for over 5 years at Endava in various roles, including the Development Discipline Lead, Career Coach, and Professional Scrum Master.

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You’ll hear them talk about:

[09:25] - Nestor is an innovative people intelligence platform designed to improve workforce agility, performance, and growth by leveraging a skills-based approach. The platform integrates performance management, employee engagement, and career development, offering total skills visibility and enabling HR and business leaders to make informed talent decisions. Born from the need to better manage and develop large teams, Nestor focuses on aligning individual skills with business needs, nurturing growth through personalized opportunities and development plans.
[17:54] - Nestor's data-driven approach enables tailored employee development and optimal team assembly by analyzing each employee's skills profile, including their current role expectations, acquired skills, and career aspirations. It then matches employees with relevant internal jobs, learning experiences, and mentorships based on a "smart score" that evaluates compatibility. Further, Nestor suggests ideal team members for specific projects, ensuring both business objectives and individual growth opportunities are aligned.
[20:32] - With the development of AI tools, platforms like Nestor got the chance to collect a substantial data set from various HR processes and user interactions, which enhances skill-matching accuracy and maintains data integrity, especially with diverse skill definitions. The key is to gather enough relevant data before integrating AI into your product to ensure personalized experiences for employees.
[33:32] - Recent trends in HR software highlight the importance of prioritizing the employee experience to drive system adoption. There has been a significant shift toward continuous performance management, which begins with transparent leadership and involves setting clear strategic goals, often using OKRs. As a result, performance reviews transform into a more efficient process, allowing employees to clearly see and understand their contribution to broader organizational goals.

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Previous guests include: Shruti Patel of US Bank, Steve Wilson of Contrast Security, Bethany Lyons of KAWA Analytics, Tanya Johnson Chief Product Officer at Auror, Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School, Stephanie Leue of Doodle, Jason Fried of 37signals, Hubert Palan of Productboard, Blake Samic of Stripe and Uber, Quincy Hunte of Amazon Web Services

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