Poll: Companies Prefer Budget Cuts over Layoffs
HR Professionals Outline Measures Taken to Survive Recession
Apr 20, 2009
In Financial Challenges to the U.S & Global Economy and its Impact on Organizations, a survey dated April 7, 2009, the Society of Human Resource Management listed 20 options available to companies to survive the recession during the next six months. According to the survey, 43 percent of respondents said they would cut their budgets. Another 40 percent of respondents said they plan to implement hiring freezes. About 40 percent of companies polled said they won’t fill jobs lost to attrition.
Layoffs Not Likely, Survey Says
While 37 percent of respondents believe they will freeze employee wages, only 24 percent said they would resort to layoffs to stay afloat. Only five percent of companies polled are willing to cut employee benefits.
The survey also found companies
- Continued health care coverage even though about 78 percent of respondents reduced coverage in the last six months
- Predict they will not need to resort to short periods of shut down
- Believe they won’t go out of business
- Feel they aren’t a target for a merger
- Won’t cut environmental initiatives
- Will continue volunteer efforts
The Society of Human Resource Management surveyed 467 human resource professionals across industries. It is part of a series of economy-related surveys conducted by the society’s research arm. In addition to the survey, the society released its Labor Market Outlook Survey: Q2 2009 on April 7, 2009.
Companies Cut Jobs
According to the Labor Market Outlook, companies of all sizes are cutting jobs. Human resource professionals do not believe it will change any time soon. About 70 percent of those surveyed said they expect a continued weak environment for hiring in the second quarter of 2009. The respondents went on to say that they plan to keep their payrolls flat or will eliminate jobs. Most of them did not add any new jobs in the first quarter or last quarter 2008.
Human resource professionals do not have much faith for a recovery in the labor market. Only 14 percent reported they were optimistic of job growth in the second quarter of 2009. Geographically, the results were relatively the same, the survey reported. Companies in the Southeast expressed the least amount of job growth pessimism. But two-thirds remained pessimistic about improvements in job growth for the second quarter. About three-fourths of companies in the Midwest responded they were the least optimistic about job growth. The Midwest had been hit hardest in all areas of the economy, the report said.
The two surveys indicate job seekers will continue to have a hard time getting work, but companies are taking measures to survive the recession.
