The Affordable Care Act had no effect on most CFOs' hiring decisions
When the Affordable Care Act was announced, many companies threatened to cut worker hours and slash jobs in an attempt to lower the costs they would incur from Obamacare. Fast forward five years after the ACA was signed into law and two enrollment periods later, and many CFOs have yet to take any negative action, like punishing employees or potential new hires.
A new survey by corporate event firm Consero found 78% of CFOs stayed the course and continued hiring as planned after the ACA was put into action. Some 46% of CFOs said their staff size increased over the last 12 months, while only 24% reported a decrease and 30% said they experienced no change at all.
The survey also found that 67% of financial executives have taken an active role in hiring, and 76% of respondents said they had a formal plan in place to handle the Affordable Care Act when it moved forward. That number was up from 67% from the Consero 2014 Corporate Finance Data Survey.
One reason for the steady course may be a CFO focus on long-term growth over short-term cost-reduction.
"The fact that CFOs have not seemed overly concerned with the ACA in making hiring decisions over the last year is likely a function of the lack of a steady-state economy," says Consero's founder and CEO Paul Mandell. "At the time the ACA was implemented, CFOs in the US were in the midst of battling through a pretty inhospitable economic environment. Facing weak income figures and diminished access to capital, most CFOs were focused less on the ACA in hiring decisions, and hiring decisions generally, than on how to finance existing staff."
He adds: "In 2014, as the downturn showed signs of ending, CFOs and other senior corporate executives seemed to have accepted the new reality of the ACA and skipped ahead to helping their companies increase staff quickly however possible to capitalize on increased market opportunities - a fact evident in the relatively rapid drop in unemployment from the heart of the downturn to today. Had the ACA's implementation occurred in a relatively stable economic environment, I suspect that the new legislation would have had a greater impact on hiring decisions."
The company admits that its sample size was small. Consero surveyed 46 CFO participants at an invitation-only event in June 2015. Despite the small sample size, the firm believes the data offers some valuable insight into the "opportunities and challenges senior finance executives face in the coming year."