More than half of 500 employers surveyed by Robert Half Technology and CareerBuilder plan to hire full-time employees over the next 12 months, while four in 10 will hire contract, temporary or project workers, and four in 10 will hire part-time employees. These are among the findings of a survey of 500 employers who employ at least 500 people.

An RSM McGladrey study that asked how companies are trying to hold the line on costs found only a slight increase in those passing costs on to employees, rising from 61 percent of those surveyed for 2008 to 62 percent for 2009. Only 2 percent of respondents said their companies did not offer any health plan. Those with annual revenue of less than $100 million are shifting to self insurance while those with greater revenue are moving slightly to fully insured plans. The biggest change was the 4-percentage point drop in companies providing wellness programs. Again, the larger companies were more likely to have such offerings.  The findings were part of the firm's fourth annual Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution National Survey. The online survey drew responses from 923 executives.

Templeton Consulting, a Miami Beach, Fla.-based accounting and consulting firm, has found that accounting firms don't understand Customer Management Relationship applications. Templeton's survey of 500 firms discovered that 86 percent don't use CRM while many reporting they use CRM packages employ applications such as ProSystem fx Practice Management and Outlook that are not CRM programs. Templeton also found the accounting firms are confused about the definition of CRM, what functions such packages provide and the best practices for using them. The firm markets Customer Relationship Management Solutions which is based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM