If you haven’t already seen some belt-tightening with your clients, expect to see slight changes in HR departments over the next 12 months.
One in four U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months, and a new survey of 248 companies reveals that most are focusing on other cost-saving measures.
The Watson Wyatt survey asked companies with a median of 6,800 full-time employees how they are responding to a new economic environment. One in four is planning layoffs (26 percent), hiring freezes (25 percent), or raising employee contributions to healthcare plans (25 percent).
Things that are not changing in companies? Eighty-four percent of companies are not planning a hiring freeze, and 86% do not plan a pension freeze.
Still though, the survey warns, the full fallout from the financial crisis has yet to be seen.
