The Five Things Keeping Directors Up at Night: Labour Costs

58% of directors named labour costs as their biggest growing challenge this quarter. And yet most of them still need to hire. So what do you do when you are under pressure to grow the team and your labour costs are already too high to justify it?

Most directors under this kind of pressure think there is only one answer. Hire from outside. Post the job, sift the CVs, take the one in three gamble on someone unproven, and hope it works out.

But look inside first. There is a good chance there is already someone in your business who could fill the role you need. You just need to free them up to do it.

This is where AI comes in, and not in the way most directors think about it.

Accounts is the classic example. If three people are running your books largely by hand, AI might let one person do that same job just as well. Not better necessarily, just as well, with significantly less time and effort. That frees up two people. Two people you already know, already trust, already rate, who now have capacity to go exactly where the business needs them.

Customer service is another. The quotes, the order confirmations, the same handful of questions answered a dozen times a day. AI can take the routine version of that off someone’s plate entirely, leaving them free for the calls that actually need a human being on the end of them.

Think of it like musical chairs. AI takes a seat. Someone already in the business moves into the chair you actually needed filled. You skip the recruitment gamble, you come out with a leaner more capable team, and you do not add a single penny to your permanent labour cost.

That is not a redundancy conversation. That is a redeployment one. And right now, with labour costs where they are, it might be the most valuable conversation you have this month.

I am Mark Smillie. Have a great Friday.