Don't Waste the Chaos

Kerri M. Roberts
  • 5.0 (16)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

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. 

  1. 8h ago

    How to Build AI Fluency on a Shoestring Budget

    AI fluency is about to be as common as knowing how to use email. It's not a specialist role you hire for, it's a baseline skill every person in your business needs, and the training costs far less than you think. The problem isn't that your people aren't using AI. They already are. The problem is that nobody has told them what's allowed, what's off limits, and who to ask.  In this episode, Kerri walks through: Why AI skills belong to everyone now, not just your tech person (70% of job skills are expected to change by 2030)The adoption gap leaders keep getting wrong: the C-suite guesses 4%, employees say 13%What AI fluency actually means, and why it has nothing to do with viral prompt hacksThe human layer that never leaves your hands, including the never-eversFour free levers to build fluency: the 30-minute "here's how we use it here" meeting, a shared prompt library, named AI champions, and the free training already inside your toolsWhy untrained AI use is an unmeasured cost line, not a freebie (only 12% of workers got any AI training last year)How one client's managers turned five repeatable tasks each into documented, scheduled workYOUR ACTION ITEM: This week, ask your team one honest question. Are you using AI for work, and did anyone ever actually show you how? Whatever they say is your fluency starting line. If your team is already using AI and nobody has written down the rules, take the free HR Audit to see whether your people systems can hold up to it. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode: The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D HR coursework — saltandlightadvisors.com/resources Don't waste the chaos - embrace it. Support the show

  2. Sep 22

    Workforce Planning in the Age of AI: Skills Over Job Titles

    The job title on your org chart is not the job. LinkedIn says 70% of the skills your people use today will change by 2030, and AI is pulling tasks out of every role every month. If you're planning your workforce around titles and job descriptions you haven't updated in years, you're planning around a document that was already wrong.  In this episode, Kerri walks through: Why 9.9 out of 10 compensation outliers turn out to be a title problem, not a pay problemWhy she now runs the job description audit before the comp study, not afterThe difference between headcount planning (someone quit, backfill the seat) and skills planningMove 1: inventory the skills your people actually have, not what their titles implyMoves 2 and 3: map those skills to where the business is going, then plan the gap by training, hiring, or redeployingWhy a skills gap is a growth cap, and why HR metrics are finance metricsWhat AI can genuinely do in a skills inventory, and what has to stay human judgmentYOUR ACTION ITEM: This week, write down what each person on your team can actually do — the real skills, not their job title. One page. Then hold it up against where the business is going in the next 18 months. If your job descriptions haven't been touched in years and you're not sure what that's costing you, take the free HR Audit to see where your people systems actually stand. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode: The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D Don't waste the chaos — embrace it. Support the show

  3. Sep 15

    AI Governance for Small Business: The 4 Things You Actually Need

    No policy doesn't mean no AI. It just means you don't know where it's happening. Your team is already using AI, probably on personal accounts, and most of them aren't telling you about it. AI governance sounds like a Fortune 500 word, but at a 30-person company it's four things you can put in place this month.  In this episode, Kerri walks through: What governance actually means once you strip the boardroom out of it: a purpose, an owner, and a rhythmThe one-page usage policy, and what belongs on the "flat out not for" side of itWhy a named human has to own AI, and why a folder on your Google Drive doesn't countThe do-not-feed-it list: the specific data that never goes into a public modelThe review rhythm, and why quarterly is the outer limit right nowWhere state AI law already applies, what still applies in states without it, and where Missouri actually standsWhy hiding AI use makes good employees feel like they lack integrityYOUR ACTION ITEM: Before lunch tomorrow, name the one person who owns AI at your company, and tell them. If your team is using AI and you don't have a policy behind it, take the free HR Audit to see what else is running without a system underneath it. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode:  The HR Easy Button (book) — AmznAmazon.com: The HR Easy Button: A Practical Guide to Building a Strong HR Foundation: 9798896942559: Roberts, Kerri: Books Don't waste the chaos — embrace it. Support the show

  4. Sep 8

    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 rollout doesn't stall because the tool is wrong. It stalls because nobody addressed the humans. In this episode, Kerri walks through: What technostress and FOBO actually are, and why naming them changes the conversationWhy the facts don't calm the fear, and what to lead with insteadShadow AI: what happens when employees run client and employee data through personal accountsA real example of AI and a human intern splitting a project, and where the human stayed essentialWhat AI can draft for you (the FAQ, the training outline, the announcement) and what has to stay humanThe one sentence a leader has to say out loud, in their own voice, for any of this to landYOUR ACTION ITEM: This week, say one sentence to your team about how you personally use AI, then ask what they're using it for and make it clear it won't be held against them. If your team is quietly weird about AI and you're not sure whether the problem is the tool or the foundation underneath it, take the free HR Audit and find out where your people systems actually stand. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode: The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D Don't waste the chaos — embrace it. Support the show

  5. Sep 1

    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. What's left is the job managers were actually hired to do, and the job most of them were never trained to do. In this episode, Kerri walks through: What AI genuinely takes off a manager's plate today, from first-draft performance reviews to one-on-one prepWhy more than half of a manager's week was never spent managing people in the first placeThe Gartner and Gallup data behind manager overload: 51% more responsibility, 47% working harder, engagement at a global lowWhy a disengaged manager is a turnover line item, and what every regrettable exit actually costs youThe roughly nine hours a week that stay human no matter what tool you buyThe trap of handing managers AI with no training, no expectations, and no accountabilityHow to redesign the manager role: fewer approvals, more coaching, less reporting, more decidingYOUR ACTION ITEM: List every recurring task on your managers' plates this week, then sort each one into two columns - what AI can draft, and what a human has to own. That list is the first step of your manager role redesign. If your managers are about to have time they've never had before, take the free HR Audit to see whether your people systems are actually built to support coaching, performance, and hard conversations. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode: The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D · HR Foundations course — saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations Don't waste the chaos - embrace it. Support the show

  6. Aug 25

    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 brand or budget. In this episode, Kerri walks through: Framing business growth in stages - childhood, adolescence, young adulthood - and what "tying knots" means before the next locationHiring for culture and growth mindset, not just skillThe two core values that run the business: relentless customer service and a growth mindsetRadical transparency with the team, including the financials, and how it built ownershipWhere transparency ends and leader boundaries beginUsing data and KPIs so decisions get made on numbers, not feelingsYOUR ACTION ITEM: Pick one number you've been running on gut, put a real KPI on it this week, and tell one teammate what it is. Scaling your team and your people systems still live in your head? Take the free HR Audit to see exactly where the gaps are before your next hire finds them. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode:  The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D STAT Wellness — https://www.statwellness.com/ Don't waste the chaos — embrace it. Support the show

  7. Aug 18

    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 guardrails at all. In this episode, Kerri walks through: Why 40% of employees already use AI at work, and only ~30% of companies have any guidelines (Gallup)How an HR policy gap becomes a finance risk sitting on your balance sheetThe 5 sections of a one-page AI policy: approved tools, a never list, human ownership, disclosure, and an owner + review dateThe "never list" - what should never go into a public AI toolWhy 54% of existing AI policies fail by being too restrictive (SHRM)What has to stay human, and how to avoid AI slop that kills trustThe exact prompt Kerri uses to have AI draft a compliant first-round policyYOUR ACTION ITEM: Block 30 minutes this week and draft your one-page AI policy using the five sections - approved tools, never list, human ownership, disclosure, owner + quarterly review. Something beats nothing. Not sure whether your people systems could survive an AI mistake right now? Take the free HR Audit to see exactly where your gaps are in 5 minutes. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit Resources to keep building: 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 📚 Explore the HR coursework — Self-paced courses, tools, and resources to build your HR systems step by step. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/resources ✉️ Get the Monday Email — One practical idea for leaders, every Monday at 5:28am. 1,000+ leaders, 50%+ open rate. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact 📖 Mentioned in this episode: The HR Easy Button (book) — https://amzn.to/3SbYO0D Don't waste the chaos — embrace it. Support the show

  8. Aug 11

    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 that should never be handed to AI no matter how far along you get. In this episode, you'll learn: Resume screening — load minimum qualifications into a Claude Project or custom GPT; AI ranks candidates; you read every shortlisted resume; never auto-reject for employment gapsInterview scheduling and candidate comms — eliminate the back-and-forth with a booking link; build AI-drafted templates for every stage; automate logistics, not empathyOnboarding paperwork and new hire workflows — offer letter, I-9, W-4, e-signatures, IT setup, 30/60/90-day check-ins; AI gets you 70–80% of any checklist, you do the last 20%Employee FAQ chatbot — build an AI assistant trained on your handbook; employees get instant answers from your actual policies, not the internetFirst drafts — job descriptions, offer letters, policy language; AI gets you to 80%, you edit the last 20%; always run new policies by your attorneyWhat never to automate: final hire and fire decisions; performance and coaching conversations; sensitive judgment calls, investigations, or anything touching individual rights. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Last Week Was Readiness — This Week Is Where to Start  01:00 How AI Saved Kerri $65–70K a Year  03:37 The Rule — High Volume, Low Judgment, Repeatable  04:17 Task 1 — Resume Screening and Initial Filtering  10:51 Task 2 — Interview Scheduling and Candidate Communication  17:05 Task 3 — Onboarding Paperwork and New Hire Workflows  19:54 Task 4 — Employee FAQ and Policy Chatbot  22:36 Task 5 — First Drafts  24:06 Three Things to Never Automate  26:35 The Stats — Deloitte, SHRM, and Why This Pays Off  29:16 Action Item — Pick One of the Five and Start Today Before you start automating anything in HR, you need to know where your foundation stands — the free HR Audit shows you exactly that: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are. 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit 🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations. 👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast 📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses. 👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh ✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday. 👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors — Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own? 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Deloitte: HR teams spend up to 57% of time on administrative tasksSHRM: 85% using AI report time savings; AI cuts cost per hire by 30%HR Foundations course ($49) — saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundationsStrategic HR course (August 2026) — saltandlightadvisors.com/resourcesThe HR Easy Button by Kerri Roberts — Amazon; amzn.to/4cPyrFhFree HR Audit — saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ai-in-hr-5-tasks-to-automate-first Support the show

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5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

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. 

Information

  • Creator
    Kerri M. Roberts
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    142
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Don't Waste the Chaos
  • Show Website
    Don't Waste the Chaos

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