Companies ‘must keep speaking’ to staff through US tariff uncertainty

US president Donald Trump has taken a highly unorthodox approach to trade policy, imposing large tariffs on almost all other countries for goods imported into the US. The policies, and the fact that they have been reversed, changed and reimplemented several times with no notice, are affecting the fortunes of companies around the world which depend on sales in the US.  

Many companies will be assessing the viability of their business models and considering significant change to their organisations ‘US tariff trade turmoil ‘will force some companies out of business’’ where they sell; what they sell; who they employ.  

For some this may involve restructuring of the workforce, either to reduce overall costs to accommodate lost revenue and higher tariff costs, or to refocus the business away from areas that are no longer profitable.  

Employees read the news and pay attention to the sector they work in, so pretending that there is no uncertainty is not an option for company management. They should communicate with their workers regularly and openly about the challenges their business may be facing and how they are seeking to address them.  

This is not easy when the situation is volatile, as it is with US tariffs. But the best approach is to do all you can to keep your people, trade unions and employee representatives informed.  

And certainly once you are formulating plans about what might happen within the firm, communicating that in an open and honest way, but presenting it positively. It’s important to use encouraging and transparent language. 

Companies will be projecting their financials and factoring extra tariff costs and if they calculate that revenue losses make parts of the business unsustainable they will have to reduce costs.  

Some companies will have to change their makeup to survive, and that might involve restructuring or making redundancies because that part of the business is just not profitable and sustainable any more.  

But some companies might see an uptick in demand, depending on how the international trade picture changes. So HR professionals may need to be ready to grow some parts of a business.  

Another HR factor to think about is potential skills shortages. Workers are mobile and can retrain. They might look at the trade turmoil and decide it is time to move to a similar job in a less affected sector. Or they could retrain in another field altogether because they don’t think their current role has a future in a high tariff economy.  

So employers must be alive to the potential loss of people that they need to keep their current business going. The potential to lose talented people is real.