Don't Waste the Chaos
Don't Waste the Chaos is a weekly podcast for small business owners and HR professionals who want practical, no-nonsense people strategy.
Host Kerri M. Roberts is an HR strategist, consultant, and founder of Salt & Light Advisors with 20+ years of experience turning reactive HR into proactive systems.
Each Tuesday, she breaks down hiring, onboarding, compliance, culture, and leadership - the kind of strategy that typically costs thousands in consulting, delivered in under 40 minutes.
If you're managing people and want to do it better, this show is for you.
New episode every Tuesday.
Learn more about the show and Kerri at www.kerrimroberts.com.
Episodes
139 episodes
AI Fear at Work: Technostress, FOBO, and What Leaders Must Say
You've heard of FOMO. This is FOBO: the fear of becoming obsolete. Add technostress, the exhaustion of a new tool every week, and you get employees who either refuse to touch AI or use it quietly on personal accounts and never tell you. Your AI...
AI Is Replacing Middle Managers? Here's What's Left to Lead
AI is coming for the clerical layer of management, not the leadership layer. Approving PTO, copying last year's review template, building the schedule, chasing status updates - that's the half of the job that's going away, and honestly, good. W...
How to Scale a Business Without Losing Your Culture | Kristin Oja
Culture doesn't scale a company - systems do. Kristin Oja built STAT Wellness from one location into a multi-state operation, and in this episode she's honest about what actually made it work: the people systems under the growth, not a bigger b...
Your Team Is Already Using AI. Do You Have a Policy?
A policy isn't permission - it's protection. Your team is already using AI; the only question is whether you've told them the rules. Someone may be pasting compensation data or a Social Security number into a chatbot right now, with no guardrai...
Where To Start With AI in HR
Where do you start with AI in HR? Not with everything — that's how implementation goes sideways. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts gives you the five specific HR tasks to automate first, a human checkpoint for each one, and the three things t...
Is Your HR Actually Ready for AI?
Is your HR function actually ready for AI — or are you about to pour a powerful tool into a broken foundation? In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts kicks off a new 12-part series on AI and HR with the most important question first: not whether y...
HR Systems & Tech - The Audit, The Stack, The SOPs
HR systems and tech are the last piece of the HR foundation — and if you have the wrong tools, or the right tools you're not using, none of it is working for you. In this solo episode — the finale of the 14-part HR foundation series — Kerri Rob...
Culture & Engagement - Why It's the Most Misunderstood Part of HR
Culture is the most talked about and least understood concept in business — and Kerri Roberts doesn't love talking about it, because too many organizations want to start there before they've built anything underneath it. In this solo episode, s...
Leadership Development for Small Business — The Skills No One Teaches Your Managers
Leadership development for small businesses is the most consistently skipped investment Kerri Roberts sees — and it's also the one that causes the most HR chaos. In this solo episode, she breaks down why the individual contributor-to-manager tr...
Workforce Planning for Small Business - How to Hire Before You're Drowning
Workforce planning for small businesses isn't a corporate concept — it's the system that tells you when to hire before you desperately need to. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts breaks down the reactive hiring cycle most small businesses are ...
HR Metrics Every Small Business Should Track
HR metrics every small business should track aren't complicated — but if you're not tracking them, you're making people decisions based on feelings instead of data. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts walks through five categories of essential ...
Small Business Benefits That Actually Compete
Small business benefits can compete with larger organizations — and if you think you're failing your employees because you can't offer a Fortune 500 package, this episode is for you. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts reframes what benefits ac...
The 5 Root Causes of Underperformance (And How to Fix Each One) | HR Systems Series Ep. 7
The five root causes of underperformance have nothing to do with laziness, attitude, or bad hiring — and in four out of five cases, the fix isn't a write-up. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts walks through the root cause analysis you need to ...
How to Handle Employee Leave Without Getting Sued (FMLA, ADA & Bereavement Explained) | HR Systems Series Ep. 6
Handling employee leave incorrectly is one of the most common sources of lawsuits Kerri Roberts sees — and almost none of it is intentional. In this solo episode — HR Systems Series Ep. 6 — she walks through FMLA, ADA, bereavement, intermittent...
Salary Doesn't Mean Exempt: Employee Classification & Pay Equity for Small Business | HR Systems Series Ep. 5
Employee classification is the HR issue Kerri Roberts has seen mishandled at every single company in her 20-year career — and the Department of Labor does not care whether it was intentional. In this solo episode — HR Systems Series Ep. 5 — she...
Employee Handbooks & HR Policies — The Rules of the House | HR Systems Series Ep. 4
When was the last time something happened on your team and you said "we don't have a policy for that"? In this solo episode — HR Systems Series Ep. 4 — Kerri Roberts covers exactly what should be in your employee handbook, which policies are le...
Onboarding Isn't Paperwork: The 30/60/90 Plan That Actually Works | HR Systems Series Ep. 3
Onboarding isn't paperwork — and if your process looks like a quick tour and a "figure it out" attitude, you're handing someone a welcome sign while setting them up to fail. In this solo episode — HR Systems Series Ep. 3 — Kerri Roberts walks t...
How to Build a Hiring Process for Your Small Business (5 Components That Actually Work) | HR Systems Series Ep. 2
Building a hiring process for your small business isn't about software or fancy systems — it's about having five components that work together so the most capable candidate wins, not the most charming one. In this solo episode — HR Systems Seri...
The 13 HR Systems Every Small Business Needs - Start Here | HR Systems Series Ep. 1
Every small business owner who says "we'll deal with HR later" is one lawsuit, one resignation, or one DOL audit away from finding out exactly what that delay costs. In this series-launch episode, Kerri Roberts maps out all 13 HR systems a smal...
How to Have a Performance Conversation With an Employee (Step by Step)
Having a performance conversation with an employee is one of the most consistently avoided things in small business leadership — and the longer you wait, the more it costs you. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts ends the avoidance by giving yo...
5 Signs Your HR Is Broken (And How to Fix It for Under $400)
Most business owners don't think their HR is broken until somebody quits, somebody sues, or the Department of Labor sends them a nice little letter — and by then, the cost is already enormous. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts shares the five...
The Real Reason You Can’t Focus in Your Business
The real reason you can't focus in your business isn't discipline — it's that you know where the money is coming from but you don't trust it enough to go all in. In this solo episode from Kerri's brand-new podcast studio at the farm, she shares...
When Small Business Owners Hire Too Soon
Hiring too soon is one of the most expensive mistakes a small business owner can make — and the worst part is it usually feels like exactly the right thing to do at the time. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts shares the unfiltered story of he...
Is Marriage Still Worth It in Modern Life?
Is marriage still worth it in modern life — or has the culture finally convinced a whole generation that independence is better, commitment is risky, and love isn't worth the paperwork? In this episode, Kerri Roberts brings Terry back to tackle...
Why Business Owners Feel Responsible for Everyone | Leadership, Money, Faith & Control
Why do business owners feel responsible for everyone and everything — their team, their clients, their outcomes, and even what God is supposed to do — and what does that hyper-responsibility actually cost you? In this guest episode, Kerri Rober...