'Most wanted’ list by Microsoft raises questions for employers about importance of compensation levels, flexibility, leadership, says academic
Microsoft’s recent push to secure top artificial intelligence (AI) talent has brought aggressive, targeted hiring practices into the spotlight, including fast-tracking critical talent with top dollar incentives approved within 24 hours.
While these tactics are making headlines in the U.S. tech sector, one Canadian expert warns that short-sighted hiring for big talent can backfire.
“Technology is one of those sectors that almost benefits from this kind of an approach, because they are signaling the competition that they are all in,” says Leda Stawnychko, associate professor of human resources and organizational theory at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business.
“The speed at which you can bring the talent, this rare expertise, you're accelerating innovation. But there are also some drawbacks that I'm not sure that in the Canadian context, we are ready to confront.”
Compensation isn’t everything
According to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider, Microsoft has compiled a “most-wanted” list of top individuals in the AI development field and is targeting them with a “compensation modeler” crafting bespoke pay packages for each person.
These include multi-million-dollar bonuses to match Meta’s already unprecedented compensation – however, Stawnychko notes that compensation cannot be everything, pointing out that many of these top dollar offers are rejected by employees.
“It's not just the compensation. They're looking at the culture of the organization, where they are in the case of AI, they are looking at the ethics of AI development and what else is happening within their own internal context,” she explains.
“Creative control matters a lot for those in AI, but those offers that I've seen rejected have to do with believing in an organization's vision, believing in the culture, and wanting to stay for that reason.”
Stawnychko adds that some specialized talent will sign on the dotted line for the promise of working with a particular leader: “We want to just understand that it's not a one-way street, that the highest bid is going to win — not always. Leadership still matters, and it matters a lot.”
Out-developing, not just out-bidding
For Canadian employers, especially those unable to compete on pay alone, the focus may need to shift to what the actual job provides, Stawnychko says – crucially, with a new focus on internal development.
With technology developing at a pace that is outrunning formal education, employers have a valuable opportunity to fill that gap, which in turn can be a powerful recruitment tool.
“What we can do to outbid is to out-develop, and to offer environments where there is mentorship, where leaders care about the people that they work with, and that we build cultures where innovation is encouraged,” Stawnychko says.
“The way that we do that is by making it safe to experiment, making it safe to speak up, making it safe to disagree and to make mistakes and to go on and fix them.”
Plus, flexibility is a key ingredient that employers shouldn’t forget, she adds, as research has shown that employees value flexibility over compensation.
“Give people the autonomy, the freedom, the flexibility … it's very important that we know the importance of flexibility,” she says.
“We need visibility on one hand, but we need flexibility on the other hand. So I think that is our competitive advantage for most employers in Canada.”
Cross-generational collaboration and transparency
A key challenge for Canadian organizations is adapting to new workplace dynamics, and Stawnychko stresses that intentional, cross-generational collaboration should be non-negotiable in today’s environment, tapping into the almost polar opposite skills of new versus more experienced professionals.
“Culturally, the new generation of employees, Gen Z, Millennials, they are not okay with the hierarchies as we had them in the last 50, 40, and 30 years,” she explains, adding that role-reversals are happening now in organizations, as younger employees are learning new technologies at faster rates than their superiors.
“I don't think we can do the top-down anymore, because the top doesn't know more, necessarily,” she says.
“We're seeing Gen Zs, they are at the foreground because they are interested, curious and energetic, and they're using technology for fun. And when they use technology for fun and to play, they can see ways to adapt it for the office and for the organization.”
Adding to this is the effect that social media has had on the perception of executives being untouchable, she adds, flattening hierarchies even more. For this reason, she stresses, open communication between all levels of an organization is vital – and hiring on specialized talent that are paid astronomically more than the rest goes against this philosophy.
“It's not enough to go and pay a billion dollars and bring on a spectacular CEO, if the CEO is not going to listen to the staff,” she says.
“There are ethical concerns with poaching. It causes problems with morale … I don't think we are okay to know that somebody in the organization is making $1 billion and we're still paying $18[per hour] to the front desk staff... that's just not as acceptable in our society.”
