Howdy HR friends!👋

Hope you're all having a relaxed Friday and looking forward to the weekend!

The workplace is evolving faster than ever—from AI taking over job functions to global talent pools expanding, while skills gaps widen and compliance gets tighter.

Welcome to the Friday 5 - five articles, five takeaways. Five minutes away from the chaos to grab a coffee and get caught up on everything that's been happening in HR this week!

🚦Coming up

In today’s edition

📊 Meta ties performance reviews to AI skills

🔧 Ford can't fill $120k mechanic roles due to skills gap

🌍 African outsourcing boom offers new opportunities

⚖️ EEOC targets anti-American workplace bias

🤖 AI reshaping 89% of jobs by next year

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💭The Friday Five

How well can you befriend robots?

📊 Meta makes AI skills mandatory for career progression. Starting in 2026, employees will be judged on their "AI-driven impact," with the company rolling out an AI assistant to help write performance reviews this year.

🔗 Read more [Business Insider]

🔧 Ford has 5,000 jobs paying $120k—and nobody to fill them. CEO Jim Farley blames a collapsed trade school system for leaving critical mechanic and technician roles unfilled despite sky-high salaries and serious demand.

🔗 Read more [HR Grapevine]

🌍 Africa becomes the new outsourcing hotspot. US and European companies are tapping into skilled South African and Ghanaian talent to cut costs and fill IT gaps, with the market expected to hit $525 billion by 2030.

🔗 Read more [HR Brew]

⚖️ EEOC doubles down on protecting American workers. New guidance warns employers that favoring H-1B visa holders or discriminating against U.S. citizens violates Title VII—signaling 2026's compliance priorities under the Trump administration.

🔗 Read more [HR Dive]

🤖 AI is coming for your job (but maybe in a good way). Nearly 9 in 10 HR leaders say AI will impact jobs in 2026, with tasks being redistributed rather than eliminated—though cost-cutting, not efficiency, drives layoffs.

🔗 Read more [CNBC]

For easy reading

That’s it for today.

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