Employers with the strongest workplace environments tend to make the most investments in workplace and employee initiatives, according to a survey by global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller and global research training firm Great Place to Work.

Thirty-one percent of lawyers plan to hire legal staff in the first quarter of 2012, but another 4 percent expect to cut staff, according to the a quarterly legal hiring survey by Robert Half Legal, a legal staffing firm.

Throughout 2011, employer hiring plans remained mostly flat during the last three quarters of 2011, and signs point to a slow first quarter of 2012, according to a recent quarterly survey by BNA, a legal, regulatory and business information provider.

Twenty percent of chief financial officers expect to hire full-time accounting and finance employees in the first quarter in the first quarter while 11 percent plan to reduce staff, according to the recent Robert Half Financial Hiring Index.

There could be a stronger connection between corporate finance and human resources executives as U.S. companies start to focus on the implications health care reform could have on their reward programs and talent management strategies, according to a new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson and Forbes Insights....

Sometimes even the best performers in the workplace can slip, but by having a performance management program in place, employers can often control any problems before they go too far, says Sheryl Kovach, president and CEO of Kandor Group, a human resources consulting firm in Houston.

Since the economic fallout of 2008, more employees have been picking up extra work since departments have been slashed; however, many of these employees are often left untrained for their new tasks, says Sharon Sellers, president of SLS Consulting in Summerville, S.C.

Western European employees typically have the most statutory paid holiday globally while employees in Asia Pacific have the lowest, according to research by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.