Creative Talent Development on a Small Team in Professional Services with Kelsey Kelly from Point B

Today, I am talking with Kelsey Kelly who is Manager of Learning and Employee Experience at Point B, a small professional services firm.

In this conversation Kelsey and I dive into the real-world challenges and opportunities of building impactful learning cultures—especially within professional services firms that demand both continuous client value and employee growth. With experience spanning HR, military service, banking, and consulting, Kelsey shares lessons from her journey and how she’s driving holistic learning, employee experience, and leadership development with a lean team and limited resources.

Subscribe to our weekly updates and monthly talent development newsletter here.

Order Own Your Career Own Your Life on Amazon

Apply to Join us in the Talent Development Think Tank Community!

This episode is sponsored by LearnIt, which is offering a FREE trial of their TeamPass membership for you and up to 20 team members of your team. Check it out here.

Also iSpring Suite, an eLearning authoring tool that offers thousands of assets, quizes, and role play simulations. They are offering our listeners a free trial here.

Connect with Andy here: Website | LinkedIn

Connect with Kelsey Kelly here: LinkedIn

In this episode, Kelsey shares:

• Her winding path from accounting to HR to becoming an L&D champion—with key moments that revealed the "fun side of HR" and her passion for helping people grow.
• Why learning in professional services is both rewarding and tricky, with experts who love billable work—and how to position learning as both a personal and business imperative.
• How she scaled L&D at Point B with a drastically reduced team—leveraging partnerships (like Learnit), learning ecosystems, and creative problem-solving to provide meaningful development at scale.
• Strategies for shaping employee experience: building manager communities, creating branded programs (like the Empower Manager Exchange), and amplifying leadership through hubs and local adaptation.
• The pivotal role of onboarding, integrating with talent acquisition, and working cross-functionally to deliver welcoming, effective experiences for every new hire—no matter where they are.
• Practical leadership development tactics: focusing on relevance, adaptability, and community; supporting both current and next-generation leaders; and embracing constant change—even if it means pivoting or retiring programs.
• On measuring impact: Why authentic conversations, continuous feedback, and genuine connection with employees matter as much as hard metrics—and how being “human-centered” means evolving with your people.
• Brave, personal reflections on grief and work—how sharing her experience with loss, caregiving, and family shaped her perspective, deepened her empathy, and fueled her purpose.
• The power of personal branding on LinkedIn: Kelsey’s strategies for authentic connection, building visibility (even on a small team), and using social media to amplify both personal and organizational impact.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe and share with your colleagues and friends.