Jason and Bart had a conversation about running an agency and the importance of human resources. They discussed the labor market and the current period as it pertains to HR. They also talked about their experience in New York and waiting in line for pizza. They concluded that conversations about HR come up often, and that the most important resource is people, whether they are clients or employees. They discussed the evolution of the HR industry and the importance of hiring and firing.

This conversation is about the current labor market, where people are getting paid high salaries by large companies. Small companies are unable to match the salaries of the larger companies and this has caused low unemployment. However, some of the big companies have had to begin laying off people and those people are finding jobs the next day. Inflation has also been increasing, making it difficult for people to cover their costs. A partner in Europe pointed out that inflation is even higher in their country and employees are asking for raises to counter the costs.

**Timestamps**

**0:00:02**

**Conversation on Human Resources and Agency Management**

**0:02:53**

**Exploring the Impact of the Pandemic on Labor Costs and Profitability**

**0:04:11**

**Heading: Navigating the HR Wilderness: Managing Cost and Operating Efficiently in the Post-Pandemic Labor Market**

**0:05:47**

**Heading: Analysis of the Labor Market and Inflation in the US and Europe**

**0:07:16**

**Heading: The Impact of Hybrid Work on HR Investment**

**0:09:21**

**"The Benefits of Investing in Talent Acquisition and Retention"**

**0:12:59**

**Discussion on Recruiting and Benefits for Growing Companies**

**0:16:54**

**Heading: Managing a Changing Labor Market in 2021 and Beyond**

**0:19:59**

**Heading: Hiring and Firing in 2021: A Discussion on Quality Assurance and Employee Leverage**

**0:22:04**

**Heading: The Challenges of Making Difficult Decisions as a Business Owner**

**0:23:36**

**Discussion on Investing in People and Resources for Business Success**

**Highlights**

**And so it is important to invest in your people. Right to your point, you don't like to call them resources. That said, there's a cost to that. There's an emotional cost to it.**

**And again, I think there's some residual scar tissue for a lot of owners between sort of the over empathetic owner who really wanted to guide their team through this really difficult time and an employee base that really took advantage of having leverage there for a period of time.**

**But, yeah, as we see sort of a changing labor market. This is sometimes hard to say to owners, but patience at this point, if you can, I think is going to be a virtue.**

**So would you say that giving them back more time to focus on sales, for example, or bringing in revenue might offset that kind of investment in $80 to $100,000 a year person internally?.**

**And you start having those kind of value based conversations around the value that your employees are bringing back as opposed to their cost, and having maybe somebody dedicated to that role internally can reap some benefits for owners.**

Microsoft, Alphabet & Cruise 10/24/23