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
132 episodes
Culture & Engagement - Why It's the Most Misunderstood Part of HR
Culture isn't what you say - it's what you do, consistently and under pressure. Everybody wants to talk about culture, but you can't build a healthy one without the HR foundation underneath it.In this episode, Kerri walks through:
Leadership Development for Small Business — The Skills No One Teaches Your Managers
Being excellent at the work doesn't make someone excellent at leading people in the work - they're two completely different skill sets, and almost no one teaches the second. Most small businesses promote their best individual contributor into m...
Workforce Planning for Small Business - How to Hire Before You're Drowning
Reactive hiring creates desperate hiring, and desperate hiring creates bad hiring decisions. Most small businesses only hire when they're already drowning - the worst possible time to hire well. Workforce planning is the system that gets you ah...
HR Metrics Every Small Business Should Track
"We don't have a lot of turnover" is a feeling, not data - and feelings aren't a strategy. If you can't say when your people left or why, you're making decisions blind.In this episode, Kerri walks through: • The five categori...
Small Business Benefits That Actually Compete
You're not failing your employees because you can't offer the big, comprehensive benefits package. People leave six-figure jobs for smaller employers all the time - because they stay for stability, trust, respect, and flexibility, not the packa...
The 5 Root Causes of Underperformance (And How to Fix Each One) | HR Systems Series Ep. 7
Performance management isn't about reviews — it's about clarity. If your team is confused, resentful, or underperforming, it's an expectations problem, not a motivation problem. Most employees aren't failing to meet the standard; they just don'...
How to Handle Employee Leave Without Getting Sued (FMLA, ADA & Bereavement Explained) | HR Systems Series Ep. 6
One employee asks for time off and you say yes. Another asks three weeks later and you say no. Neither of you realizes you just created a discrimination claim. In Part 6 of the HR Foundations series, Kerri breaks down leave management — the ope...
Salary Doesn't Mean Exempt: Employee Classification & Pay Equity for Small Business | HR Systems Series Ep. 5
Are your salaried employees actually classified correctly under federal law — or are you sitting on overtime liability without knowing it? Most small business owners don't realize there's a three-part exemption test under the Fair Labor Standar...
Employee Handbooks & HR Policies — The Rules of the House | HR Systems Series Ep. 4
Most small and mid-sized businesses don't have an employee handbook problem - they have a "we don't have a policy for that" problem. Scattered Google Drive docs, a handbook from 2017, three managers making three different calls on the same issu...
Onboarding Isn't Paperwork: The 30/60/90 Plan That Actually Works | HR Systems Series Ep. 3
A bad hire costs about 50% of their annual salary in year one - and most of that cost doesn't come from a bad hiring decision. It comes from failed onboarding.If your onboarding looks like paperwork, a quick tour, and "let me know if you...
How to Build a Hiring Process for Your Small Business (5 Components That Actually Work) | HR Systems Series Ep. 2
Think back to the last person who didn't work out in your business. Was it a people problem - or a process problem? Nine times out of ten, it's the process. In this episode, Kerri Roberts walks through the 5 components of a r...
The 13 HR Systems Every Small Business Needs - Start Here | HR Systems Series Ep. 1
Most small businesses put HR off until later, and then "later" shows up as a lawsuit, a resignation, or a conversation they never saw coming. This episode launches a brand new series: the 13 HR Systems every small business needs. We're going on...
How to Have a Performance Conversation With an Employee (Step by Step)
You know the conversation I'm talking about. The employee who's consistently late, creating tension, or putting up bare minimum numbers - and every week you find a reason to put it off one more time. Today that ends. In this ...
5 Signs Your HR Is Broken (And How to Fix It for Under $400)
Most business owners don't realize their HR is broken — until someone quits, files a complaint, or a lawsuit lands on their desk. In this episode, Kerri Roberts breaks down the 5 most common signs that your HR foundation is crumbling, why ignor...
The Real Reason You Can’t Focus in Your Business
In this episode of the Don’t Waste the Chaos Podcast, Kerri Roberts challenges a common assumption among entrepreneurs - that lack of focus is the problem. Instead, she reframes the issue as a lack of commitment to the work that actually drives...
When Small Business Owners Hire Too Soon
In this episode of the Don’t Waste the Chaos Podcast, Kerri Roberts examines a question many founders face too late: when is it actually time to hire? Drawing from her own business over the last three years, she walks through the ...
Is Marriage Still Worth It in Modern Life?
Is marriage still worth it in modern life? Why are so many people skeptical of marriage, commitment, and starting a family? In this episode of Don’t Waste the Chaos, Kerri Roberts sits down with her husband, Terry Roberts, for an ...
Why Business Owners Feel Responsible for Everyone | Leadership, Money, Faith & Control
Why do business owners and leaders feel responsible for everyone in their company? In this episode, Kerri Roberts and Rachel Wortman unpack leadership responsibility, money mindset, stewardship, control, and the hidden pressure many founders ca...
What No One Tells You About Leaving a Six-Figure Corporate Job
What happens after you leave a six-figure corporate leadership role? For many executives, the decision to step away from corporate America is framed as a pursuit of freedom, flexibility, and autonomy. Yet the deeper reality is rarely discussed....
The Identity Crisis After Leaving Corporate Leadership (And What Actually Helps)
Kerri Roberts, senior HR strategist and fractional CHRO, continues her personal leadership series with a deeper look at what happens after you leave corporate leadership—when the title goes away, the scoreboard disappears, and you’re suddenly a...
How Do You Start a Consulting Firm After Leaving Corporate?
Kerri Roberts, senior HR strategist and fractional CHRO, shares the strategic and psychological shifts she experienced leaving a Vice President of Operations role to build her consulting firm. After 20 years inside corporate systems — from 50 e...
Why Everything Escalates to You — And What That Reveals About Your Leadership System
Why does everything escalate to you as the leader — and what does that say about your leadership system?Senior leaders, founders, and CEOs often feel trapped reacting to nonstop questions, interruptions, and last-minute decisions....
Why Motivation Fails and Discipline Wins When You’re Rebuilding Everything
In this episode of the Don’t Waste the Chaos Podcast, Kerri Roberts — senior HR strategist, fractional CHRO, and podcast host — interviews Kelsey Thompson, entrepreneur and recovery advocate whose platform blends honest con...
Are Your “Soft” Boundaries Creating Leadership Chaos? How Executives Hold the Line Without Losing Trust
In this episode of the Don’t Waste the Chaos Podcast, Kerri M. Roberts, senior HR strategist, fractional CHRO, and podcast host - dives into the leadership topic most executives think they’re strong in but often struggle ...
How Does Leadership Indecision Quietly Erode Trust and Authority?
How do you lead when your team is waiting, and your silence is doing damage? In this episode of the Don’t Waste the Chaos Podcast, Kerri M. Roberts unpacks why indecision is a decision, how stalled leadership quietly erodes trust, and why leade...