Tatum, a leading professional and interim services firm offering hands-on strategic, financial and technology solutions that measurably improve business performance, today announced the results of its Survey of Business Conditions, based on the opinions of financial executives spanning a variety of industries and geographic locations.

Through its Survey of Business Conditions, Tatum CFO partners reflect monthly on 30-day business trends and projected business conditions for next 60 days. These responses are reflected in the Tatum Survey of Business Conditions, which shows little upward momentum going into the third quarter in terms of capital expenditure commitments and hiring.

This month's survey also provided insights into the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on business costs and staffing models. The findings reveal some interesting statistics about how CFOs are contending with ACA implementation. Although this legislation has led to increased healthcare benefit costs, the survey found that the widely held belief that ACA would be an across-the-board headcount game changer did not hold true. When asked if the ACA has altered their company's staffing model and approach to headcount management, only 18 percent of CFOs responded that their companies have done so as a direct result of ACA implementation. The majority, 65 percent of respondents, state that they have not altered their approach at this time.

The survey also asked participants to qualify the increase in healthcare benefit costs for their companies. Overall, less than half of all respondents (43 percent) reported that employee out-of-pocket expenses are up, and just one-third (33 percent) said employee contribution percentages are increasing. Additionally, respondents were asked about their overall healthcare cost management strategies (such as self-insured, insured, combination of self-insured and insured, use of exchanges, etc.), how they would describe them today and where they expect to be in three years after they've had more time to adapt to the new healthcare regulatory landscape. The responses show that insured arrangements are the most prevalent, with exchanges being the least utilized; with a sizeable shift anticipated with insured arrangements dropping and use of exchanges increasing.

"The Survey of Business Conditions gives us an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of senior finance leaders to see how market conditions impact their companies and their strategies for the future," said Suzanne Donner, Managing Partner, Knowledge Management for Tatum. "The results from our latest survey may be surprising to some, showing that the vast majority of companies are not adjusting their staffing models in light of ACA implementation."

"Healthcare is our largest industry practice," Donner continued. "We see a rapidly-evolving landscape for our provider, payer and supplier clients – each of which is wrestling with their own issues and concerns – looking for new ways to collaborate, to organize and to be cost-effective that will work for them in their markets. We believe employers are correct to be cautiously evaluating their options while this all plays out."  

In addition to sharing insight into future business outlook and staffing practices, Tatum's Survey of Business Conditions also serves as a way for the company to give back to the community. For each survey completed by respondents, Tatum also makes a contribution to Junior Achievement, the world's largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Tatum has made its Survey of Business Conditions, Second Quarter 2014 available for download at: http://www.tatum-us.com/documents/SecondQuarterTatum_SoBCDetailReport.pdf