Upskilling your employees is one of the highest-ROI investments a small business can make right now — especially when recruitment is tough, the economy is uncertain, and employees are staying put rather than jumping ship. The question isn't whether you need a learning and development program. It's whether yours is actually working. In this episode, Kerri walks through how to assess whether your training and development opportunities are adequate, and then gives you a practical, step-by-step framework for building or improving them — most of it at little to no cost.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What upskilling actually is and why it matters right now — the six key aspects of a strong upskilling initiative including focusing on your current workforce, adapting to technological changes, filling skill gaps, and building a culture of continuous learning — and why employees are significantly more likely to stay with organizations that are intentionally investing in their growth
- Nine ways to assess whether your training and development program is adequate — employee feedback and satisfaction surveys, exit interview data, performance review scoring patterns in Excel to spot consistent skill gaps, turnover analysis (employees who leave in the first 90 days point to poor hiring and onboarding; six months to two years usually points to the supervisor), limited internal promotion patterns, outdated training content, budget allocation, low engagement in existing programs, and absence of mentorship or leadership development
- A real client example of a simple quarterly training framework — rotating between external vendor training, internal peer training, and offsite team building, and why candidates get genuinely excited about it during the interview process
- How to build career advancement visibility with a one-page document — why most leaders assume employees know how to grow inside the organization when they don't, and how a simple visual showing current role, next role, and the specific gaps to close changes everything for retention
- A 10-step comprehensive approach to addressing inadequate training and development — starting with a training needs assessment tied to your one, three, and five-year business goals, through enhancing programs with updated content, diverse formats, LMS systems, tiered tuition reimbursement, mentorship and coaching, learning culture, budget investment, measurement and KPIs, communication, and technology
Chapter Markers:
- 00:00 — What Is Upskilling and Why Is It a Hot Topic Right Now
- 01:10 — Six Key Aspects of an Upskilling Initiative
- 02:33 — Upskilling Examples: Training Programs, E-Learning, Cross-Training, Mentorship
- 04:27 — How to Assess If Your Training Program Is Adequate: 9 Indicators
- 04:42 — Indicator 1: Employee Feedback and Satisfaction Surveys
- 05:48 — Indicator 2: Skill Gaps in Performance Review Data
- 07:02 — Indicator 3: High Turnover and Low Retention Rates
- 07:51 — Indicator 4: Limited Career Advancement Opportunities
- 09:14 — Indicator 5: Outdated or Irrelevant Training Content
- 10:38 — Indicator 6–9: Budget, Engagement, Mentorship & Business Goal Alignment
- 13:58 — The 10-Step Comprehensive Approach: Starting With a Needs Assessment
- 14:43 — Step 2: Enhancing Your Training Program (Content, Formats & Refreshers)
- 21:14 — Building an LMS Without a Dedicated Trainer
- 25:13 — Tuition Reimbursement: Structuring It by Level
- 26:39 — Developing Clear Career Pathways and Skill Maps
- 27:44 — Mentorship, Peer Learning & Professional Coaching
- 29:30 — Fostering a Learning Culture: Leadership Involvement & Time for Growth
- 31:14 — Budgeting, Partnerships & External Trainers
- 36:45 — Measuring Training Effectiveness: KPIs, Feedback Loops & Pre/Post Assessments
- 37:51 — Communication, Transparency & Promotion Criteria
- 40:36 — Leveraging Technology: LMS, Gamification & VR/AR
If you want to know whether your HR foundation is actually set up to support a learning and development program — including whether your performance management and onboarding processes are ready — the free HR Audit will show you where to start: 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:
- ChatGPT / OpenAI — for modernizing training content and generating survey questions
- Canva — for refreshing training presentations
- Loom — free screen recording tool for building on-demand training videos
- SurveyMonkey — for building employee L&D feedback surveys
- Sage Culture Company — Brandy (external culture trainer)
- John Thomas — external leadership development trainer
- Salt and Light Advisors L&D assessment and program build — saltandlightadvisors.com/contact
Full show notes + transcript: kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/32
Support the show
