Grow the People You Already Have So They Stay and Build a Career.
Chris Sund is a workforce development speaker for workforce boards, chambers of commerce, economic development groups, community colleges, and healthcare and trade associations. His sessions are about the half of workforce development that happens after the hire: helping the people already on the payroll grow into bigger roles, so they choose to stay, and so the region keeps the talent it worked so hard to train.
What Should a Workforce Development Keynote Leave Behind?
Most workforce summits spend the day on the pipeline: training programs, credentials, recruiting events and the partnerships that bring new people into a field. All of that matters. What often gets less time is what happens to those people in their first two years, when a supervisor either helps them grow or quietly lets them drift, and the investment the whole community made walks out the door to the next employer down the road.
Chris speaks to that second half. He runs companies where people are the entire product, so he spends his days thinking about how a new hire becomes a good employee, how a good employee becomes a lead, and how a lead becomes someone who develops others. His sessions give employers and the partners who serve them a practical way to do that on purpose, with the managers and budgets they already have.
Development After the Hire
The habits that turn a trained new hire into a long-term employee: clear expectations, regular feedback and a visible next step.
Built for Employers
Plain tools a plant manager, clinic director or shop owner can use without an HR department behind them.
Useful to Partners
Workforce boards and colleges hear what employers actually need from them, from someone who hires every day.
Hopeful, Not Grim
No doom about the labor market. The focus stays on what every room can do next with the people in front of them.
Topics for Workforce Summits and Partner Convenings
Every session is built around your region, your industries and the people in the room. These are the themes workforce audiences ask Chris about most.
- Keeping the people you trained. Why new hires leave in the first year and the small, steady things supervisors can do to keep them. More on the employee retention side.
- Growing frontline employees into leaders. Spotting potential early and giving people stretch work, so promotions come from inside. See the emerging leaders program.
- Hiring for traits, then training the skills. Widening the door to career changers, people without degrees and people with unusual paths, then building them up.
- Making development part of the culture. The SPARK approach to a workplace people want to grow in, rather than one they tolerate until something better comes along.
- Giving employees time back with AI. Small, practical uses of AI that free up hours for training and coaching. See Take Back Your Time with AI.
What Employers Say After Hearing Chris
Chris has spoken at the Greater Omaha Chamber POWER Conference, led a young professionals workshop for the Greater Omaha Chamber, and speaks regularly to healthcare associations and recruiting groups whose members are working on exactly these questions.
I’ve heard Chris present several times. His topics are well researched, his presentation style has a good flow, and he weaves in practical tips and real-life examples that make the discussion realistic and relatable. We would love to have him present again.
Chris consistently brings a wealth of knowledge, insight, and practical advice to every presentation. At our NAHCR Conference he led two impactful sessions, acknowledged the real challenges we face, and shared valuable strategies. His deep understanding of our audience and commitment to the profession elevate the value he brings to every engagement.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Chris speak a few times now, including at our company’s Sales Kickoff in front of 800+ people — which he crushed. Each time he finds a unique way to connect with his audience on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
Programs for Workforce Audiences
Each program is adjusted to your region and your members, and most groups pair one general session with a breakout or workshop for supervisors.
You Are Capable of More: Leadership
For supervisors and managers who want to grow their people instead of just managing the schedule.
Your Team Is Capable of More
How a team gets better together, with shared ownership and honest feedback.
You Are Capable of a Better Culture
The SPARK framework for a workplace people choose to stay in and grow with.
Winning the Talent Battle
Recruiting and employer brand for employers competing for the same people.
Take Back Your Time with AI
A practical working session that frees up time for the coaching that development needs.
Formats
Every program runs as a keynote, a breakout, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop, delivered in person.
Keynote
An opening or closing general session that gives employers, educators and partners a shared language for developing people.
Breakout
A focused session for one track, such as supervisors, HR leaders or educators, with time for questions.
Half Day
The keynote ideas plus working time, where managers build a development plan for one person on their team.
Full Day
A full leadership day for an employer cohort, an emerging leaders class or a regional supervisor academy.
Who Books This Session
Related pages: Employee Retention Speaker · Chamber of Commerce Speaker · Emerging Leaders Speaker
What Workforce Development Planners Ask
What does Chris cover at a workforce development conference?
He focuses on developing the people employers already have: keeping new hires through the first year, growing frontline employees into leaders, hiring for traits and training the skills, and building a culture people want to grow in. Each session closes with actions employers can take the following week.
Is this session for employers or for workforce partners?
Both. Employers leave with practical tools for their supervisors, and workforce boards, colleges and economic development staff hear plainly what employers need to keep and grow the people their programs send them.
Can attendees earn continuing education credit?
Yes, and it has been done before. His sessions have been approved for CE credit at past conferences. The host association handles the CE application with its accrediting body.
What formats are available?
A keynote, a breakout, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop, all delivered in person. Many summits pair a general-session keynote with a supervisor breakout or a workshop for an employer cohort.
Can attendees get the book?
Yes. Many hosts give each attendee a copy of You Are Capable of More, and signed copies with bulk pricing are available through bulk orders.
You Are Capable of More
The bestselling book behind the keynote, and the winner of the How-To category at the 2026 Paris Book Festival. It is a no-excuses guide to becoming your best self, built on ten principles for closing the distance between what people are doing today and what they are actually capable of.
Workforce groups often put a copy in every attendee’s hands, so supervisors have something to come back to after the event and share with the people they are developing.
He Develops People for a Living
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue in two years, which earned it #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest, along with a Fortune Best Workplaces award.
He has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, where a company only grows when its people do. Much of what he teaches came from promoting recruiters into leads and leads into managers, and from learning what helps people take that next step with confidence.
He is the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More, a Maxwell Leadership Certified coach, Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors, chair of the NAHCR Membership Committee, and he writes for Forbes and Inc.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Where Workforce and Business Audiences Hear Chris
Chamber, HR and association stages where the same development material is used.
Greater Omaha Chamber POWER ConferenceOmaha, NEGreater Omaha Chamber YP WorkshopOmaha, NEemPower BreakfastBellevue, NEDisruptHR OmahaOmaha, NEIowa Health Care AssociationHealthcare associationMICA Fall Business MeetingsOmaha, NE · Oct 2026Also: Skilled Trades Speaker · Labor Shortage Speaker · All Industries · See all speaking engagements →
Bring Chris to Your Workforce Summit
Tell Chris who will be in the room, the format you have in mind and what your employers are working on this year. You’ll get a quick, honest answer on fit and availability.
Check Availability & FeesResponse within one business day · Speaker kit, bio & headshots