CFOs See Flat Hiring Trends

A news release said the CFO poll found no industries are projecting employment decreases and some are projecting significant increases.  CFOs project an average 3.6% increase in offshore personnel and 2.8% in outsourced staffing.

More than 60% of CFOs believe structural shifts are at least somewhat responsible for high unemployment. Supporting this view, nearly half of all surveyed CFOs said that despite high unemployment, they are finding it harder to find sufficiently skilled staff than they did five years ago — equally citing changed staffing needs and regular staffing profiles that are now harder to find. Only 20% report easier hiring, according to the survey.

CFOs expect health care reform to substantially impact their resourcing and costs, with more than 90% expecting benefit cost per employee to rise and half expecting the quality and/or breadth of offered benefits to decline.  Despite concerns about health care reform, 80% of the CFOs surveyed are not projecting major changes in their human resources strategies or approaches to employer-sponsored coverage, according to the news release.

“Our findings around health care reform may suggest many companies are in a tactical or ‘wait and see’ mode. They also face significant challenges in benefits design strategies that are both compliant with the regulations and cost effective,” said Sanford Cockrell III, national managing partner, CFO Program, Deloitte LLP, in the announcement.