Imagine your most valuable employee just got back from an intensive, weeks-long, and very expensive AI training class – and dropped these two documents on your desk at the same time.
For you, this is a disaster. Rather than taking a chance on an unknown resume who knows nothing about your company, you did the smart thing and retrained your best people on how to use AI. You thought you were getting an employee who understands your processes and products, AND one that has the training to apply AI techniques to them.
You DID have that employee – until a headhunter lured them away for 3X what you were paying. Now you’ve not only lost the training investment, but you’ve also lost a critical member of your team.
For a lot of managers, this is not imaginary. AI skills are in such high demand that AI training graduates are being poached as soon as they get their certification – and often even before.
Retooling your team for AI comes with risk – but it’s manageable risk. What kinds of things can you do to be prepared?
1. Have a frank conversation with that employee before you start them on a formal training program. Let them know that they will be fairly compensated for their new skills and negotiate a contractual ‘stay period.’ Make sure they understand that leaving during that period will have serious consequences – and get it all in writing.
2. Before you make the investment, talk to your HR team and make sure they understand what has to happen to retain AI-trained employees. HR may balk at approving triple-digit percentage raises, even if that is what the market demands. Expect to hear things like, “paying for their training is reward enough,” or “let’s wait a year and see how they do, then we’ll talk about raises,” or “company policy says no one can get over a x% raise.” Ironically, these are the same HR people who will gladly extend an offer to an unproven resume, with no knowledge of your company, at 4X what your recently trained employee makes.
3. Be ready to answer the ‘What about me?’ questions from those that don’t get sent to training. People aren’t stupid – they will see that some are getting incredibly valuable training, increased responsibility, and more pay. They will want to know when they will get the training that the others are getting. Anticipate these questions and have the answers. Be honest with them about their path forward, and keep the commitments you make.
It’s the wild, wild West in AI-recruiting out there, and there are poachers lurking behind every tree. Internal retooling is the smart way to build your AI team, but you have to be smart about the way you do it.
Ethical Bankruptcy: Gradually, Then Suddenly 