Outdated HR practices aren't just inefficient — they're actively costing you talent, productivity, and your competitive edge in the market. Most business owners and HR teams know something feels off about how they're running their people operations, but they don't know exactly where to start fixing it. This episode is the practical, no-fluff walkthrough you need to identify what's holding you back and exactly how to modernize it — one step at a time.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Ten outdated HR practices that may still be running your business into the ground — manual paperwork and filing systems, once-a-year performance reviews with no calibration and a three-point scale, rigid nine-to-five schedules, one-size-fits-all benefits, lengthy and complicated recruitment processes, over-reliance on resumes and interviews, gut-feeling decision-making instead of HR data, infrequent training, reactive employee relations, and failing to measure diversity and inclusion in any meaningful way
- Why updating these practices isn't just a "culture" investment — the ROI case for modernizing HR including improved employee engagement and retention, attracting top talent your competitors are currently poaching from you, boosting efficiency and reducing costs, ensuring compliance with ever-evolving labor laws, and staying competitive in a market that is moving faster than most HR systems
- How to conduct a DIY HR audit — reviewing your current practices across recruitment, onboarding, performance management, benefits, and compliance to identify gaps, comparing against industry standards, and using a quick employee survey to surface what you're already missing
- How to adopt continuous performance management that actually gets done — why Kerri recommends starting with a formal annual review plus a bi-annual 360 review before attempting real-time feedback systems, what calibration meetings look like in practice, and why managers scoring employees in isolation without comparing notes is one of the most expensive mistakes in performance management
- How to use data-driven decision-making in HR without making it complicated — using free tools like SurveyMonkey and OpenAI to build and send an employee satisfaction survey, identifying themes in the data, communicating results back to employees, building action plans, and turning that process into an ongoing culture committee
Chapter Markers:
- 00:00 — Why Outdated HR Practices Are Killing Your Business (And What to Do About It)
- 01:49 — Outdated Practice 1: Manual Paperwork and Filing Systems
- 02:41 — Outdated Practice 2: Annual-Only Performance Reviews
- 03:42 — Outdated Practice 3: Rigid Nine-to-Five Schedules
- 04:10 — Outdated Practice 4: One-Size-Fits-All Employee Benefits
- 05:00 — Outdated Practices 5–7: Slow Recruitment, Resume-Only Hiring & Gut-Feel Decisions
- 06:15 — Outdated Practices 8–10: Infrequent Training, Reactive Employee Relations & D&I Gaps
- 08:22 — Why You Should Care: Engagement, Retention, Talent, Efficiency & Compliance
- 12:18 — How to Start: Conducting an HR Audit and Gap Analysis
- 13:06 — Leveraging HR Tech: What an HRIS Actually Does (And Why It's Simpler Than You Think)
- 15:04 — Shifting to Data-Driven Decision-Making: Surveys, Themes & Culture Committees
- 17:11 — Creating Flexible and Inclusive Work Policies (And What Your Insurance Broker Should Be Doing)
- 19:48 — Adopting Continuous Performance Management: 360 Reviews, Calibration & Real-Time Feedback
- 22:44 — Focusing on Employee Development: IDPs, Cross-Training & E-Learning
- 23:48 — Involving Leadership, Building a Task Force & Reviewing Practices Regularly
The free HR Audit is specifically designed to help you identify exactly which outdated practices are most urgent for your organization — take it before you try to DIY any of this: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit
🔍 Ready to find out what's really going on inside your business? Take the free Salt & Light HR Audit at saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit. In about 10 minutes, you'll get a clear picture of where your people operations stand — and exactly where to focus next. No fluff, no sales pitch. Just clarity.
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
🎙️ 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
Connect with Kerri: 📷 Instagram: instagram.com/kerrimroberts 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kerrimroberts 🐎 Hippo Creek Farm on Instagram: instagram.com/hippocreekfarm
Episode-specific resources mentioned:
- Episode 33: Paytient with Brian Whorley (flexible employee benefits) — kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/episode-33-paytient-solving-the-healthcare-affordability-crisis
- SurveyMonkey — for building employee satisfaction surveys
- ChatGPT / OpenAI — for building survey questions
- Salt and Light Advisors HR tech partnerships — saltandlightadvisors.com/contact
Full show notes + transcript: kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/36
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