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How Trade Wars Are Reshaping Hiring in 2025
Inside: Mastering Workforce Planning in the Age of AI
The HR Takeaways
March 05, 2025
In partnership with
Hello HR Pros,
The future of work isn’t coming—it’s here. AI, global shifts, and evolving talent strategies are transforming how we hire, develop, and retain employees. This edition of The HR Takeaways dives into workforce planning in the AI era, the hiring impact of trade wars, and why HR must adapt—or risk becoming obsolete.
Our goal? To give you the insights to stay ahead, not just keep up. Let’s get to it.
📰 Upcoming in This Issue
🤖 Mastering Workforce Planning in the Age of AI
🌍 How Trade Wars Are Reshaping Hiring in 2025
🚀 How AI is Transforming HR—And Why HR Must Evolve
👥 How to Manage Generational Conflict at Work
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AI is reshaping work, and McKinsey’s article, The Critical Role of Strategic Workforce Planning in the Age of AI, explains how top companies stay ahead. Businesses that treat talent like financial capital generate 300% more revenue per employee than the average firm. Instead of reacting to disruption, they use strategic workforce planning (SWP) to anticipate talent needs before AI transforms jobs.
With 30% of worked hours potentially automated by 2030, hiring alone won’t cut it. Leading companies are reskilling, redeploying, and investing strategically to align talent with long-term business success. McKinsey outlines five best practices to help organizations turn workforce planning into a competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways:
💰 Talent = A Major Asset – Companies excelling at workforce planning earn 300% more revenue per employee than the average firm.
⚙️ AI’s Big Impact – Up to 30% of worked hours could be replaced by automation by 2030, reshaping jobs and required skills.
📊 Forecasting = Power – Leading firms predict talent gaps, instead of scrambling to fill them when disruption hits.
🚀 Beyond Hiring – Smart businesses upskill, redeploy, and strategically invest in talent, avoiding outdated “hire-fire” cycles.
Tariffs aren’t just disrupting global trade—they’re upending hiring strategies in 2025. Dr. John Sullivan’s article, How Tariffs And Trade Wars Are Impacting Recruiting (The Top Trends to Follow), highlights how companies must rethink workforce planning amid rising costs.
With 25% tariffs on imports, companies are slashing budgets, pausing hiring, and shifting jobs to low-tariff countries like Vietnam and Australia. Recruiting teams will face higher applicant volumes, longer hiring cycles, and reduced resources, making talent acquisition more complex than ever.
Smart leaders will focus on "total labor costs"—factoring in tariffs, wages, and location—to keep hiring aligned with business survival. The message is clear: adapt now or get caught off guard.
Key Takeaways:
📍 Location is everything – For the first time in decades, where work is done outweighs factors like labor costs and transportation.
💰 Hiring slowdowns ahead – Cost-cutting means fewer jobs, except in AI, quantum computing, and tariff strategy roles.
📈 Job seekers surge – Corporate layoffs + government downsizing will flood the market, making screening and selection harder.
⏳ Time-to-hire increases – With fewer open roles, managers will take longer to decide, causing top talent to take faster offers.
AI isn’t just changing HR—it’s challenging its very existence. This episode of HR Leaders explores how AI is automating HR functions, forcing HR professionals to redefine their value. AI-powered chatbots can already handle routine employee questions, and companies are hiring "prompt engineers" to manage AI tools, creating entirely new job categories.
But AI brings risks, too. Ethical concerns, bias, and the rise of AI-optimized resumes could make hiring more difficult, while poorly managed AI adoption could create organizational chaos.
To stay relevant, HR must lead AI implementation, develop new skills, and become AI consultants for their organizations. Here’s what HR leaders need to know:
Key Takeaways
🤖 AI is replacing routine HR tasks – Chatbots can now handle common HR queries, forcing HR professionals to focus on higher-value strategic work.
🎭 Bias & "AI gaming" are real hiring risks – Candidates can now optimize resumes for AI screening, making it harder to identify the most qualified applicants.
🔄 HR roles are evolving—fast – Companies are hiring "prompt engineers" to manage AI tools, while HR must upskill to avoid becoming obsolete.
🌪️ AI implementation can create chaos if unmanaged – Multiple AI systems in different teams can cause inefficiencies, requiring HR to ensure seamless integration.
HR isn’t going away, but it must adapt fast to remain a key player in the AI-driven workplace. 🚀
Think Millennials are lazy? Boomers are out of touch? Gen Z is glued to TikTok? Think again.
David Burkus’ article, Managing Generations at Work: The Differences Don’t Really Make A Difference, reveals that generational clashes are mostly myths. Research shows the real workplace challenge isn’t age—it’s career stage. A new Gen Z hire today will face the same struggles a Boomer did decades ago.
The fix? Ditch stereotypes and focus on strengths. When teams connect, communicate, and align work to skills—not age—performance soars. Want a high-performing team? Stop managing generations. Start managing people.
Key Takeaways:
💡 Generational stereotypes hurt teamwork – Research shows generational differences are small, but our assumptions about them create unnecessary divides and workplace friction.
🚀 Life stages matter more than birth years – Career needs change with time; a Gen Z intern today will face the same challenges as a Boomer once did.
🤝 Relationships build trust, not age labels – High-performing teams thrive when members connect outside of just work—quick chats, coffee runs, and shared experiences matter.
🔄 Reverse mentoring is the future – Younger employees bring digital fluency; experienced professionals offer leadership wisdom. The best mentorship flows both ways.
The bottomline
HR is at a crossroads. AI is automating tasks, trade dynamics are reshaping hiring, and outdated workforce models are breaking. But one thing remains constant: companies that prioritize strategic talent management win. As HR leaders, we must think ahead, adapt fast, and lead with impact.
Keep questioning, keep innovating, and most importantly—keep driving the future of work. Until next time! 🚀
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