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Deloitte Private Survey: Cash Flow May Limit Private Company Hiring in the Year Ahead

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

According to the report, "Private Company Outlook: Talent," 60% of private company C-suite executives surveyed anticipate cash flow may limit their ability to hire in the next 12 months. The survey, from Deloitte Private, asked C-suite executives of private businesses in the U.S. about their hiring outlook, factors impacting talent acquisition, and strategies to compete in the talent marketplace.

Key Findings:

  • Increasing productivity (45%) and investments in technology (36%) lead private companies' list of business priorities in the next 12 months. Respondents ranked information technology (excluding AI and cybersecurity) (36%), sales/marketing (32%) and supply chain (32%) as the top three skills the organization needs most to meet its business priorities.

  • Smaller private companies surveyed expect greater hiring challenges due to cash flow. Nearly twice as many companies (78%) with annual revenue of $100 to under $200 million report cash flow limits their ability to make new hires compared with those earning more than $1 billion (41%).

  • In the face of hiring challenges, private companies plan to rely heavily on reskilling in the next 12 months.Training/reskilling employees (43%) is the primary approach among companies surveyed to meet their talent needs in the coming year, ahead of hiring (26%), engaging contract workers (19%) or automation (12%).  

  • Skills-based hiring and hybrid work are top strategies to compete for talent. More than half of respondents (51%) said their organization is increasing skills-based hiring to be more competitive, followed by hybrid work (48%), and implementing a new compensation strategy (47%).

"As private companies juggle limited cash flow, aspirations for digital transformation and efforts to increase productivity, they're relying on their own workforce to meet their business priorities," said Wolfe Tone, vice chair, and U.S. Deloitte Private leader. "Private companies are leaning into reskilling in combination with skills-based hiring and hybrid work as part of a broader portfolio of talent strategies."