Pop quiz: Your CFO's No. 1 concern is: a) controlling spending and improving profitability; b) staff morale; or c) healthcare spending.  The answer is: c) healthcare spending, according to a survey of CFOs by staffing firm Robert Half.

Financial executives are under extra pressure these days with ongoing economic and regulatory uncertainty, and skyrocketing healthcare insurance expenses. Before approaching the CFO with your list of priorities, it may be useful to have a good sense of what his or hers are, writes Dennis McCafferty at CIOInsight.

Between 1999 and 2009, premiums for employer-sponsored healthcare coverage rose 119 percent, according to the National Coalition on Healthcare Statistics. To deal with the rising costs, 34 percent of the CFOs surveyed said their companies are raising the amount employees have to contribute. One-fifth of the respondents said their organizations are reducing health benefits, and 15 percent said they are getting rid of the benefits altogether or they never offered any.

For CFOs--not unlike CIOs--it has become increasingly challenging to hold a position of leadership, the survey participants indicated. More than four-fifths said it is more challenging now than it was five years ago. The report from Robert Half is based on a survey of more than 1,400 CFOs.

For more:
- see Dennis McCafferty's slideshow at CIOInsight

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