Companies might relax hiring policies

USA - More than half of companies surveyed say they plan to do away with their recruitment freeze in the next 12 months.

In a recent Watson Wyatt survey, 62% of the 179 companies surveyed report plans to relax their hiring policies. Almost 70% of respondents that have frozen employee salaries also plan to remove those plans within the same time frame.

However, not all scaling back changes will be reversed, says Watson Wyatt in a report in Financial Standard. Despite 60% of employers planning to get rid of salary reductions, 20% of companies are still not making any changes, while another 20% are unsure if they will alter the current salary arrangements.

“While more employers now feel the worst of the current downturn may be behind them, most are not expecting to go back to ‘business as usual’,” says Laura Sejen, global director of strategic rewards consulting at Watson Wyatt.

“The challenge for companies will be to determine which cost-cutting changes can be reversed and which will become ingrained into the permanent business environment.”

The survey also show that more than half of companies expect staff headcount to reduce from pre-economic crisis levels in the next three to five years.

However, more than 40% of respondents think that there will still be long term issues in attracting (41%) and retaining (45%) “critical-skill” employees.

Sources and references: Sandbox Advisors, HRO