Here are some of the survey’s key findings:
Hiring:
• 58.6% of small businesses surveyed are hiring. Increased demand (60.9%), attrition (46%) and expansion into new products, services or markets (44.1%) are the top driving forces. All three point to economic improvement.
• 23.7% of small businesses need new employees, but either can’t afford them or are too concerned about economic uncertainty to hire them.
Economic Outlook:
• 52.3% of small business owners think the economy has improved in the last 6 months, compared with 23.4% who think it has worsened.
Employee Retention:
• 82.2% of small business owners think employee retention is extremely or very important.
• However, the majority of employers (73.3%) say they aren’t concerned about employee retention as the economy improves.
• Nonetheless, some small business owners and decision makers (32.3%) have begun to make changes to improve retention.
• Manager/
Employee Benefits:
• 10.9% of employers are planning to add paid benefits in the next 12 months.
• Health care is the top paid benefit (62.1%) that employers are planning to add in the next 12 months.
• 15.5% of employers are planning to add unpaid benefits in the next 12 months.
• Among unpaid benefits, team-building activities are the most popular addition (53.7%).
“Our survey confirms what I’m hearing in my talks with small business owners: They’re feeling more optimistic about their own businesses and the economy, and making investments to help their businesses and the economy grow,” said Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media. “I’m especially pleased to see small employers recognizing the importance of both paid and unpaid benefits to employee retention, and taking steps to compete with big businesses in this area.”
The survey of 700 U.S. small business owners, the majority of whom have between two and 50 employees, was conducted in March 2012 using SurveyMonkey Audience.
“We are really excited to see companies using our new SurveyMonkey Audience product offering. Talking to 700 small business owners is a fantastic way to take a pulse on the hiring market and create unique, quality content to help the GrowBiz Media readership,”
View the full survey results here https://www.research.net/
ABOUT GROWBIZ MEDIA AND RIEVA LESONSKY: Before co-founding GrowBiz Media in 2008, Rieva was SVP/Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine for more than 25 years. A nationally recognized speaker who regularly addresses audiences across the country, Rieva has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and numerous local and national television programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox Business News, The Martha Stewart show, Oprah and MSNBC’s Your Business.
Rieva is also the author or co-author of several books for small business owners, including 23 Hot Businesses to Start Right Now, Startup Success: Boost Your Chances for Business Success With Web 2.0, Marketing 101 and Startup 101: Quick Tips for Starting a Business, all available at her website, SmallBizDaily.com http://www.smallbizdaily.com.
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