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How Companies May Respond to the Economy

Nov 7, 2008
This article is part of a series called News & Trends.

From October 15 to 24, 2008, Towers Perrin surveyed human resources executives and staff at more than 450 companies, asking what they’re likely to do now that the economy’s quite a bit less peppy than it was. Seventy-nine percent of the companies have more than $1 billion in annual revenues.

How Companies Are Likely to Respond to the Economic Crisis

Very
likely

Somewhat
likely

Somewhat
unlikely

Very
unlikely

Too soon
to tell

Cut travel and entertainment spending

41%

33%

12%

6%

8%

Freeze or reduce hiring

36%

26%

15%

13%

10%

Scale back holiday parties and/or other employee events

32%

26%

20%

13%

9%

Reduce pay/merit increase budgets

26%

23%

22%

18%

11%

Reduce training budgets

17%

30%

24%

15%

14%

Targeted reduction in headcount (focus on less critical roles or
lower performers)

22%

24%

17%

22%

15%

Reduce annual incentives/bonuses

18%

21%

23%

25%

13%

Cut back on perquisites

12%

17%

23%

32%

16%

Reduce number receiving long-term incentives

5%

13%

26%

41%

15%

Significant reduction in headcount (10% or more)

8%

8%

22%

44%

18%

This article is part of a series called News & Trends.