About half the middle managers at Ford Motor will not get stock bonuses this year in what is seen internally as CEO Jim Farley's latest attempt to cut the automaker's bloated costs, according to six people familiar with the matter.

Changes are being implemented to incentivize employees as Ford competes with other corporations for talent, the company said in a statement.

In what the company calls an “effort to incentivize an improvement in employee performance,” but looks more like pre-emptive cost-cutting ahead of changes in U.S. trade policies, Ford (NYSE:F) will reportedly pay annual bonuses to only half its middle management,