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⬇️ Inside this issue:

• What’s the return on an LER? Thania crunches the numbers.

• How you should tell everyone at the holidays about LERs

• The podcast episode to create safer, more inclusive workplaces

INTERESTING READS

🧑‍🏫 The tech speeding up skill-building in next-gen career training programs.

💰 Forget grades, the currency of success isn’t the diploma on your wall but the proof in your portfolio.

📚 Warren Buffett’s leadership lessons are surprisingly relevant for workforce pros.

🤖 Companies keep blaming AI for layoffs, but the real issue might be fear, not automation.

WORKPLACE

The ROI of LERs

I've never had to pitch an LER program to a supervisor, but I imagine the first question would be "what's the return on investment?"

Because the truth is, every organization cares about revenue, retention, and reputation. LERs may advance equity and mobility — but none of that matters if your leadership team can't see the business case.

So let's answer the real question: When you issue digital badges or microcredentials, how much measurable value does your organization actually gain?

To keep it simple, let's imagine you award 1,000 digital badges. Here's the measurable ROI that investment can realistically produce from a few different perspectives.

Revenue: The visibility engine

Digital credentials and microcredentials in the form of digital badges can act like mini advertisements whenever they're shared. Each badge is a brand impression, and your learners and earners become ambassadors for the learning experiences your organization or institution provides.

The average LinkedIn post carries a $6.59 CPM with users averaging ~750 connections, making a single badge share worth approximately $4.94 in earned media value.

If 1,000 badges are shared on LinkedIn (the most popular place to share), your organization will generate:

• $4,940 worth of brand exposure

• ~750,000 impressions

• $0 paid ad spend

If even 10% of your earners generate 50 website visits each through badge clicks, that's 5,000 new site visits. At roughly $2.50 per organic visit, that's $12,500 in marketing value created by your digital badge recipients alone.

Visibility → Traffic → Inquiries → Enrollments.

Digital credentials make your audience bigger without making your marketing budget bigger.

Retention: The cost-saving workhorse

This is where the math jumps dramatically.

According to SHRM, the average cost-per-hire is $4,700 for a typical role, which doesn’t include the loss of institutional knowledge when a seasoned employee leaves.

When your organization becomes known for recognizing skills and investing in growth, several things happen:

• Your applicant pool strengthens

• Hiring cycles compress

• Employees stay longer

A conservative 10% improvement in hiring efficiency can save approximately $47,000.

Now add turnover. Using the standard $15,000 cost-per-departure, even a 2% reduction in turnover for a 500-person organization equals $150,000 in saved costs.

Your LER program has the potential to become a retention strategy that pays for itself.

Reputation: The strategic advantage

This is the piece that leaders underestimate. LERs aren't just data infrastructure — they're brand infrastructure.

A digital credentialing ecosystem signals that you value equity, invest in learner mobility, support workforce development, and align with national policy trends.

New funding mechanisms make this even more compelling:

• Workforce Pell will make short-term credentials more accessible

• 529 plan expansion supports workforce credentials

• Skills Savings Accounts could enable co-investment at scale

Organizations that issue verifiable credentials will be positioned for more funding, more partnerships, and more trust from learners, employers, and policymakers.

What 1,000 badges actually produce

When you combine revenue lift, retention savings, and reputational payoff:

Branding & awareness: $4,940

SEO & web traffic: $12,500

Hiring efficiency: $47,000

Turnover reduction: $150,000

Total Annual ROI: ≈ $214,000

And that's a low estimate. It doesn't include grant eligibility, partnership growth, or learner mobility outcomes — all of which strengthen your flywheel.

Worth it, but only if your house is in order

When people ask whether LERs are "worth it," they're usually expecting a lecture about the future of work. But honestly? I think the answer is simpler:

Yes, well-executed LERs absolutely pay for themselves. But only if the rest of your house is in order.

If your organization already has solid operations, good learning design, and a clear value prop, then an LER ecosystem becomes a force multiplier. It boosts revenue through visibility, improves retention because people feel invested in, and strengthens reputation as a modern, skills-forward org.

However — a half-baked, poorly designed credentialing program won't magically fix deeper issues. If you do it halfway, you'll get halfway results.

But if you want to know the potential value of your LER? It's pretty big, and if you agree that skills-based hiring and LERs are the future, then $200K is a small estimate of what's possible.

What do you think? Do you agree with my estimations, or have a different view? I’d love to hear your first-hand experiences. Simply reply to this email to send me your thoughts.

COMMUNICATION

Why & how to tell everyone at the dinner table about LERs

Holiday table conversations usually orbit the same topics every year: jobs, the economy, rising education costs, and why certain relatives are still struggling to find work. Those discussions are actually the perfect entry point to introduce Learning and Employment Records (LERs) — a tool increasingly shaping how people train, receive recognition, get hired, navigate disruption, and move through the workforce.

This guide offers a simple way to explain LERs at the dinner table through familiar issues your family is already thinking about.

1. Job search frustrations

Many families have at least one member who’s applying to jobs without much success. LERs help by giving individuals a clear way to demonstrate skills, not just job titles. Instead of relying on résumés that may not reflect someone’s full capabilities, LERs present verified achievements that employers can easily evaluate.

How to explain it: “LERs are digital records that show what someone can actually do — like teamwork, customer service, coding, caregiving, or project management — even if their past job titles don’t.”

2. Rising education costs

College affordability and student debt are frequent dinner-table topics. LERs make short-term, affordable training easier to validate and use during a job search, which helps more people access economic opportunity without relying solely on degrees.

How to explain it: “LERs make smaller, low-cost learning programs count. They show employers you’ve built real skills, even if you didn’t follow a traditional degree path.”

3. Employers saying they “can’t find talent”

Many workplaces are understaffed, especially in healthcare, service industries, and government roles. LERs support skills-based hiring, allowing employers to match candidates to roles based on proven competencies rather than résumé keywords or pedigree.

How to explain it: “LERs help employers hire based on ability, not assumptions. It shortens hiring time and improves job matching.”

4. Workforce mobility and shortages

Families often talk about turnover, job switching, or staffing shortages. LERs help workers move between roles or industries more easily by giving them a portable skills profile that stays with them for life.

How to explain it: “It’s like having a digital portfolio of everything you’re good at. If you switch jobs or industries, you don’t start over — your skills go with you.”

Talking about LERs at the dinner table isn’t about turning Christmas or Hanukkah into a workforce policy seminar. It’s about helping the people you care about understand the world they’re living—and working—in. When everyone can see themselves in these changes, the conversation becomes less abstract and more empowering.

These ideas matter because they touch real lives: your cousin searching for a job, your aunt changing careers, your grandparents wondering why everything feels so different now. When you explain LERs simply and clearly, you’re giving people a way to make sense of the shifts happening around them.

So if the topic comes up, share it in a way that connects. Keep it human. Keep it grounded. And remember: the future of work gets stronger when the whole table understands it—together.

BY THE NUMBERS

Only 4 in 10 workers have quality jobs

💡 60% of U.S. workers lack quality jobs—meaning only 40% hold positions that meet key thresholds for financial stability, safety, growth, voice, and autonomy.

_{Source: American Job Quality Report, JFF.}

KNOWLEDGE

What to read, watch, and listen

📚 Read: State Progress Linking Postsecondary Education and Employment Data

From the 2025 State Opportunity Index, this piece spotlights how states are improving data linkages between education and employment. The result? Smarter policies, stronger talent pipelines, and a clearer picture of how postsecondary learning translates to real opportunity.

📺 Watch: We keep saying we support skills-based hiring...

SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. drops a truth bomb: only 1 in 700 jobs is actually filled based on skills. In this short video, he unpacks what’s holding employers back from turning good intentions into real hiring reform.

🎧 Listen: Supporting Your Transgender Colleagues

In this Honest HR episode from SHRM, experts explore how leaders can create safer, more inclusive workplaces for transgender employees—and why inclusive culture is foundational to genuine skills-based equity.

FOR FUN’SIES

Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.

Remember when software made business simpler?

Today, the average company runs 100+ apps—each with its own logins, data, and headaches. HR can’t find employee info. IT fights security blind spots. Finance reconciles numbers instead of planning growth.

Our State of Software Sprawl report reveals the true cost of “Software as a Disservice” (SaaD)—and how much time, money, and sanity it’s draining from your teams.

Read the full report and see how your company stacks up→

The future of work is unified. Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.

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