A recent survey shows willingness by small business owners to hire more employees. More than 40 percent of respondents are adding employees and 55 percent are maintaining current staffing levels, according to the Business Confidence Survey by Insperity.

Only 5 percent of small business owners are laying off employees, which represent a decrease from 9 percent in October 2012.

“Business owners are slowly beginning to implement business plans that they hope will take advantage of any coming economic opportunities,” said Paul J. Sarvadi, Insperity’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Insperity provides human resources and business performance solutions for businesses in America. The company also released compensation metrics leveraging its base of small- and medium-sized workforce optimization clients.

Findings from compensation metrics indicate that average compensation has increased to 3.7 percent and bonuses have decreased to 0.6 percent when compared to data collected in the first quarter of 2012.

Average commissions received by worksite employees increased by 4 percent but overtime pay is 8.7 percent of regular pay.

Insperity’s survey also shows that 74 percent of respondents are either meeting or exceeding their 2013 performance plans and 26 percent are doing worse than expected.

28 percent of the respondents think an economic rebound is currently in process and 26 percent expect a rebound in the third quarter or later.

“A significant number of respondents express continuing concerns about the negative impact of governmental policies on business activity,” added Sarvadi.

Many companies are working toward boosting efficiency of small businesses. Earlier this month, ShoreTel (News - Alert) announced that it is bringing enterprise-class benefits to small businesses by launching a new simple unified communications solution.


Edited by Rachel Ramsey