More HR Trends with Britt Landrum: AI, Benefits, and Personal Passions

Tal Clark: Welcome to the Instant Payments podcast. I’m your host, Tal Clark, CEO of Instant Financial. And we’re back for part two of our conversation with Britt Landrum, the CEO of Landrum, Inc, a leading staffing and PEO service that serves thousands of clients with over 12,000 worksite employees. Britt, thanks again for being a guest on the show.

Let’s jump right back in and talk more about trends in the HR and staffing industry. So we left off the last podcast talking a little bit about AI and were you seeing much of an impact there in regards to, to your staffing levels and what you see. And it sounds like you, you’re optimistic about the role that AI will play and continue to be optimistic about the business.

So no anticipated sort of negative staffing impacts going forward for the roles that you’re placing.

Britt Landrum: Right, correct. Absolutely. To give you a little insight there, Tal, we already utilize AI in terms of our initial, recruiting outreach and [00:01:00] folks actually prefer it. We call our AI, Abby, for our staffing unit. And, Abby will reach out and call people and the first thing she says is, I’m an automated attendant here and or robot. And, just so you know upfront, if you’d like to continue, please press. I don’t know what she says exactly verbatim, but something like that. Abby is, she gets better feedback, she gets better ratings, then humans do.

Tal Clark: Oh wow. 

Britt Landrum: And she gets, she’s more productive than humans are.

Tal Clark: Okay. 

Britt Landrum: It’s unbelievable. We’re able, in other words, we’re able to find more people, more jobs that impact their lives, of course, utilizing AI. So that’s one of the tools that we’re using internally that I’m just very proud of.

Tal Clark: Okay. Well super. And then we talked a little bit about early on [00:02:00] your views on earned wage access and some of the things we’re doing there. You guys also have experience with payroll cards with us. What goes into evaluating these kinds of tools from both a worker impact and business ROI perspective as we start talking a little bit about the impact on employees and their financial wellness and those things. As you evaluate these types of solutions and others, what are you, what are looking at from a worker impact and a business ROI perspective?

Britt Landrum: Yeah, I mean, so it’s gotta be a win-win, right? It’s gotta be a win for the employees and a win for our well win-win… win for our clients and a win for us. For the employees, like we talked about before, it just it, it gives them more peace with their lives. They’re able to manage their information and their wages in a much more rapid manner.

It also streamline, streamlines payroll. It improves retention of employees for our clients. It improves the retention, improves their the happiness of their [00:03:00] team so that’s gonna increase retention. But, also too, it streamlines the payroll process when you’re not having to deal with paper.

I mean, my gosh, I think about all the warehouses of paper that we have dealt with over the years. It is so nice to have all that information digitally and on a card and secure of course. So yeah, it’s great.

Tal Clark: Super. That’s good. Hey, one thing I didn’t ask you, we were talking about your business in the last podcast, and just for clarity for everyone listening, what industries do you guys serve at Landrum? Just so, just for some perspective there.

Britt Landrum: It’s across the board. Our top three industries are business services, small banks and credit unions. Of course hospitality is in there due to our region. So, I mean, it’s we’re connected with several, private equity firms that have [00:04:00] retail spaces.

We’re, in staffing, we’re really heavily connected with a lot industrial space. We’re able to reduce costs for, a lot of, a lot of large manufacturers based upon our, our method of controlling costs with their employees, in different departments and things. That’s really big.

In our executive recruiting, we focus primarily on, on HR and marketing positions. So a lot of CHRO or VP of HR type positions, and that’s really all over the country. We’re heavily focused in the Southeast, but I mean, we’ve got lots of businesses in San Francisco, where that community is actually, is doing pretty well now.

For a while it was not during COVID and what have you, but it’s, doing a lot better, with the advent of AI and new technologies there. It’s just like [00:05:00] regrowing. So it’s.

Tal Clark: Wow. Well that’s good. And I didn’t know that, so and I was gonna ask you that question. You are regional, know you can do a lot of work in Florida, in the Southeast, I believe. How did you get the footprint in San Francisco?

Britt Landrum: Well, that was through an acquisition that, that we did right before COVID. Funny how those timing things work. You learn a lot of things, man, I’ve… you learn from the school of hard knocks a lot. At least I have, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Not knowing COVID was coming, of course.

Tal Clark: Yep.

Britt Landrum: But that acquisition really, it was great for us.

It got us into a, it opened up a lot of doors for us. Got into it, opened up to a new world. Got us into some new markets, in the Midwest and Texas and San Francisco area. So it was good.

Tal Clark: Wow. That’s great. That’s quite a footprint. And then the other thing too, I remember from the last time we visited is you guys were putting an office in Greenville? 

Britt Landrum: Hmm. 

Tal Clark: Is that still the case?

Britt Landrum: Yes, correct. Yeah, and man, we’ve… so our grand opening is in December. It’s in a couple weeks. And we [00:06:00] just love that community. We’ve already, we’ve had clients there for years before. Prior to COVID, we had offices in Asheville, North Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina.

Closed those down during COVID, the midst of the unknown. But, and we’ve wanted to be in Greenville for 20 plus years, for one reason or another, hasn’t worked out. Finally my president, Kara Bloomberg and CFO Jonathan Taylor convinced me. Let’s just do it. So we opened an office downtown and I’m so excited to be in that area.

They are so welcoming there. They are, it’s a, it’s the most welcoming community I’ve ever been a part of or ever experienced. They’re excited for us to be there. They’re excited to help us get plugged in. Kara’s already keynoted two or three conferences there. I mean, it’s amazing and we, have some great clients there.

I’ve got some great peers there. Got some friends there and I’m just so excited to be in that community. It’s so alive. It’s really an [00:07:00] economic center in, surprisingly in, in the south. Lots going on there.

Tal Clark: Well, that’s good. And I’ve been up there a few times. We actually have Denny’s is a client of ours, and they’re based up in that Greenville, Spartanburg area.

Britt Landrum: Did you know, so I heard a story. Did you know that, of course, Kara loves this ’cause she’s a Gator. Did you know that allegedly AI started at a, the idea started at a Denny’s in Gainesville.

Tal Clark: No way.

Britt Landrum: Yeah.

Tal Clark: I would, I don’t know that I would, maybe I would question that though?

Britt Landrum: I, right, right? Yeah, I know, but I just that’s… anyhow remarkable.

Tal Clark: Especially, that’s one thing we’ve got in common is you’ve got a son at Georgia and I’ve got a son that finished at Georgia, so we might would have to.

Britt Landrum: He graduated. He’s actually a Duke now.

Tal Clark: Oh, is he really? Wow. Congratulations. Yeah. Maybe I, maybe you had told me that. Well, that’s crazy. But, with that Georgia background in our family we might have to question the fact that AI was founded by a Gator or somewhere in and Denny’s. So, [00:08:00] good. Look, I think that, you guys have a great footpath in business, but I, one of the things that I’ve been just getting to know you and impressed by, is your multi-talented skills, and I’m envious of one of them. I’m envious in the ability to play music. I’m not so envious in the ability to run triathlons, but I do admire you for both of that.

So, so talk about, I mean, just let’s, start with the one I view as easiest. Let’s start with musical talent and where that came from and how you pursued that.

Britt Landrum: Yeah, It’s, interesting. It’s interesting how that started. So my father being the entrepreneur he was. And I mean, my father worked very long hours all the time. A lot was on his shoulders. Whereas I get the privilege of sharing a lot of the weight with my executive team. At that time, a lot was on his shoulders.

So, he, my mom, I just, I learned [00:09:00] this later. You learn things later. My mom pushed him to do this. I didn’t know this. For us to take guitar lessons together at night. Our elementary school was offering it. So I would go to baseball practice and then have to go to guitar lessons with my dad.

And I remember we had Roy Clark’s Big No Guitar Songbook, which I didn’t know who Roy Clark was at the time. But anyhow, it was fun. It was a community thing and it was difficult. And and we weren’t playing, we were playing nylon string guitars. I later on, I was a music, I was a classical guitar major in college for a short while.

So, but this was not the same. This was, we were strumming nylon string guitars, like Willie Nelson does. And it was really difficult and didn’t enjoy it too much. But then later on, a couple years later, I was in middle school band. I played trumpet and we were doing the theme from Rocky and my band director said can anybody, we’ve got this guitar chart, can anybody play it?

And I was like, actually, I can. [00:10:00] And, and, so, anyhow, ended up doing that. Well, that same night, I don’t even know my parents know this. That same night I got my first kiss from a girl because that was a very impressive, right? Or, allegedly. And, so I was like, I kind of like this. So then in high school, I was one of those crazy kids that played three sports at a time as a kid. And in high school, so I played football and basketball in high school, and I was in jazz band. It was always this.

Tal Clark: Yeah, it.

Britt Landrum: I always have done too much stuff, Tal. Juggling my schedule has always been a challenge.

But anyways, I got in this local teen band, we were called Velvet Mellon and we actually became pretty big here locally. Later on, they ended up going to New York. I ended up going to college, but that’s when I caught the bug. We were playing the teen dance clubs and we weren’t all that great.[00:11:00] 

I can speak for myself, I, but, really that’s where I caught the bug. And I ended up getting a small, very small choral scholarship in college and sang in choir in high school and college, and of course church. This whole time I’m playing in churches and things. And, then in college, I was, I, I played in a band where we traveled around, played our own music, and for not getting paid.

Not much happened there, but then I got in this duo with this other lady, and, things started happening. And it was in Atlanta. I was just telling somebody we were in. I graduated from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, and we were, acoustic music was huge in Atlanta at the time, and some things started really happening.

Well, I won’t get into details to as to why we ended that. But, [00:12:00] but it was amicable. But I wanted to, lemme tie it back to the company. I wanted to learn. I was very curious what our company did. I didn’t understand it. Even though I actually I worked at a payroll company in Atlanta at the time.

I didn’t understand what Landrum did. I didn’t understand what our company did, so I moved back home to Pensacola. The plan was just for a year or so, so I could get an understanding. And of course, my dad instantly put me in sales and I had this shtick where I actually became pretty good at it. I could identify needs, and then bring in my father to help close a deal or an HR rep to help close the deal or, if it was a high risk business, a safety engineer to help close the deal.

And, and turned out I actually liked that. And I liked the stability of belonging to a company versus music. I was staying busy and I was paying rent and all that. In Atlanta, I was playing in Buckhead a lot by myself. But [00:13:00] it was just, it wasn’t intellectually challenging maybe enough.

And anyways. All that to say, fast forward today, I still I play too much music and I love it, of course, but it’s my second job. I mean, I play a lot by myself. I play with a band. I’m a worship leader at church, at our church. So, and I, I just I love to connect with people.

I think there is some continuity there with what I enjoy professionally with what I enjoy musically. I don’t enjoy playing for nobody. That is a big drain.

Tal Clark: Yep. Yep. 

Britt Landrum: A huge drain. 

Tal Clark: If you’re playing at a location and nobody shows up, that’s not any fun

Britt Landrum: That’s not fun. I did that a lot in my twenties. That was not fun. But, but yeah, I mean it’s, I do love it. It’s definitely a release for me and it and thank God I have a wife that, that is supporting and loves all my.

Tal Clark: Yeah, that’s crazy. And it’s a, and so where can everybody see you playing this weekend on Pensacola Beach? Are you playing an area this weekend?[00:14:00] 

Britt Landrum: I actually, I’m gonna play on Navarre Beach this weekend. Yeah, and of course at church, we, our church does meet on Pensacola Beach,

Tal Clark: Yep. Absolutely. That’s cool. All right, well good. That’s great. And so then for the more painful hobby of yours, in my view, is the triathlon experience. And that’s, I mean, it’s amazing to me. And you know what? Just living on the beach, there’s a crazy triathlon community around here. You see ’em every Sunday morning out there.

I think practicing and doing things. And I know my son Pace actually helped you with your swim at one point.

Britt Landrum: He did. Awesome. Fantastic. Incredible.

Tal Clark: Talk a little bit about, I mean, just how did you get there? How did you get into, ’cause I think that’s a question everybody has, and we’re certainly not on the business topic, but I think that it goes to leadership and it goes to commitment and all those things.

How did you get there? How did you get to the point of saying, Hey, I’m gonna go do triathlons, and what keeps you in it today?

Britt Landrum: It’s an interesting question. I think, first of all, riding a bike [00:15:00] reminds me of my childhood. I love to ride a bike. It is much different. Riding competitively than of course casually riding, but I just love it. It totally takes me back. So I love that. Swimming, I grew up here, everybody body surfed or what have you.

So that’s been a huge part of my life. And then running, I just took up a while ago. Of course every every sports activity you do, you’re running somehow. So anyways, and then, and so I got into triathlons a little bit and, Kara, our president, told me she’s like pretty soon you’re gonna be doing Ironmans.

I said no way am I gonna do that. That is the craziest thing. Those people, there’s no way, like, I enjoy it. But there’s, and sure enough, during COVID, a lot of my friends were turning to the bottle and and. other things [00:16:00] and I just I wanted a healthy outlet. I was, it was so incredibly frustrating everybody.

I know every body understands that. And I, as a business owner and leader, I was so frustrated. We had just I said earlier, done that transaction. We were getting some traction. We were getting actually we grew a lot during COVID. But, but then again I couldn’t see my peers and we’re all working in our own spaces and it was just, it was incredibly frustrating.

So I, I just, I started exercising more and got more into it and then realized, it kind of it keeps me going. I need that level of activity every day to to regulate my, my mood. To regulate my thinking, to clear my mind and to kind of juggle all the balls.

It sounds crazy, but more [00:17:00] time I spend exercising, the better I’m able to juggle all the different facets of my life, work included. So I wanted to bring my best self to the job every day. And that that really just helps me do it.

Tal Clark: Yeah, well, I tell you what, so I work out most every day as well. I think there’s a big leap from that though to completing a an Ironman. So, ’cause you have completed an Ironman, right?

Britt Landrum: I’ve done, I’ve actually done six. Yeah. I’ve done six fulls and six halves.

Tal Clark: Oh, wow. Tell which one stands out and I mean, have you been to Hawaii or any of that kind of stuff?

Britt Landrum: I’m not that good. I’m not that fast, unfortunately. I still have I wish I could lose an I wish I had your body, Tal. If I had your body, I would be a lot faster.

Tal Clark: Okay. 

Britt Landrum: But, no, My favorite by far is Wisconsin. I just did that a couple months ago because I, again, I love riding a bike. The hills of Wisconsin, Madison.

It is it’s just beautiful. And [00:18:00] so, yeah, that was just a wonderful experience for me. A lot of people, it’s the opposite. They want flat, I want it hilly. I wanna go up and down as fast as I possibly can.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Oh, wow.

Britt Landrum: So that was great. We’re fortunate enough here we’ve got events in Panama City locally.

There’s a new one in Jacksonville I’m doing in May. So excited about that as, as well. But, my favorite, so my favorite full’s in Wisconsin. My favorite half was in Louisville. I did a couple years ago. Same kind of thing. Lots of hills, great community. Madison’s a great community. Very supportive.

It’s just a great event. You can’t Ironman events are definitely unique. I mean, it’s definitely a melding of the community and the overall experience rather than just a race. So.

Tal Clark: Yeah. Okay.

Britt Landrum: It’s cool.

Tal Clark: Well, that’s good. You’ve channeled some of your fitness and exercise routine [00:19:00] into an event you guys sponsor here in town, which is a big deal as well. And talk about that. I think we had actually a few people participated in it. What’s just a couple weekends ago, right?

In October?

Britt Landrum: It was in October. It was, yeah. I mean, so one of the things I rarely do I get on a platform and preach about anything, but one of the things I’m a big proponent of is the integration of physical health and mental health. I mean I’ve seen it affect so many people in large and small ways.

Again, you can go the other direction and turn to some things that aren’t so good for you. Man, you just can’t beat when somebody is physically healthy. Nine times outta 10, they’re mentally healthy as well or at least it helps, and so just watching the transformation of some of my friends and my family exercising and being more, more functional every day is just very impactful. And so it’s just my small way [00:20:00] of trying to bring awareness for the intersection of those two things.

Tal Clark: Okay. Well, I think that’s great and, that’s a little bit of advice I think for leaders in business out there. I, so, if you had one piece of advice for HR leaders or business leaders today associated with staffing of their people and hiring and managing other people and providing benefits for their people, what would it be?

Britt Landrum: Man, be adaptable I think. I think today you have to be willing to pivot rapidly, obviously. You’ve gotta have a sense of direction know where you’re going, but I think change, everybody has to be open to change. Because our industry and our world. Let’s face it, our world is changing so rapidly.

You’ve gotta be able to listen to your clients, what their needs are, listen to your employees, what their needs are, and be willing and courageous [00:21:00] enough to change. I’ve got so many of my peers who have gone the other direction and you mentioned many of ’em have sold out.

Many of ’em are forced to sell because they’ve, been taught one way to do things and they just don’t know how to change. And that’s, it’s kind of a, kind of a sad thing, but it’s it’s the evolution of life and of business. And you’ve got to be willing to take some risks that that you weren’t in the past.

I’ll give you one that that we took that it’s not my favorite thing, but remote work is a huge part of all of our lives. Now I’m a very, I get my energy as you might could tell from being around other people. And I love being around other people. I love talking about what’s going on and. But I do realize that the world has changed.

We picked up a lot of great employees. This would’ve never happened in the past but because of remote work, there’s some advantages. We picked up a lot of great employees around the country that worked for companies that weren’t as flexible as we [00:22:00] are. And I’m very fortunate in that regard.

We’ve got like again, I just can’t brag enough on our team. But going back to that question, be flexible and communicate. Communicate why you’re having to be flexible and why you’re having to be open to change. Also too, I think everybody’s gotta be creative in this time.

I mean, you’ve gotta be able to offer your own slant as to why you’re unique. I mean a good friend of mine that was a former CEO of our national association, he says if you’ve met one PEO, you’ve met one PEO. Which is true, we’re all different. As well as our staffing, we provide a through our industrial workforce management we, provide a little different slant than most other staffing companies do. You’ve gotta figure that out for yourself and do things in a unique [00:23:00] way that’s valuable for clients.

I think all that’s great advice. So, this has been great Britt. Let’s end with a round of few rapid fire questions.

In one sentence, just a few words. Tell me what you think about the following topics. What is one book or podcast that you would recommend listening to or reading?

I’m a huge Patrick Lencioni fan: Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I mean, it’s a little dated at this point but I think anybody who reads it will find the characters in that story. You work right alongside with ’em and there’s so many lessons, life lessons to learn in there as well as lessons for business.

My favorite podcasts is Andy Stanley. I love listening to Andy Stanley. I mean, he’s a religious leader, but he’s, so good at he’s he operates a large organization as an enterprise now and so many great business lessons as well.

Tal Clark: Yeah, I’ve actually been, he’s up in Alpharetta, right? I’ve been up I’ve been to his church one time. So [00:24:00] that’s, yeah you’re right. Great, great point there. So let’s back up a little bit. What musical instruments do you play? We talked about it, but not exactly what instruments do you play?

Britt Landrum: So love to sing. Again that’s, probably my favorite thing. I’ve done that forever, play guitar forever, all genres. And I do play piano, a little bit. I’ve I over the, years I’ve been, especially now in church, you’re kind of, kind of forced to get to to be, be skilled at that as well.

So probably those are the main three ones I’d say.

Tal Clark: That’s outstanding. Alright, last, what professionally speaking are you most excited about for Landrum in 2026?

Britt Landrum: Just seeing how all this unfolds with AI and automation. And I think, we’ll, we will there’ll be a lot of predictive analytics that work. I think we’ll be able to sometime in the near future be able [00:25:00] to recommend via AI, be able to recommend personalized benefits for employees, be able to recommend scheduling for clients.

For example, I just I really look forward to how AI is gonna be a helpful tool in that regard and helping us all in the workplace and operate more efficiently.

Tal Clark: Okay. That’s great. Well, Britt, thank you for joining us on the Instant Payments Podcast. Your legacy in this industry and your insights into the future make you such a valuable voice in this conversation. To our listeners, you can learn more about Britt’s work at LandrumInc.com and follow along with the new podcast episodes at instant.co/podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Britt, thank you again, and thanks to all of our listeners for tuning into the Instant Payments Podcast.