The surveyors also heard anecdotal evidence that companies are shifting workers to fewer than 30 hours a week to avoid having to provide coverage to them as required by PPACA.

"When we put the limit at 30 hours, we frequently had people that worked 32-34 hours, and if enough of them did so, it would put us at legal risk for fines. Therefore we now limit workers to 27 hours to ensure that we minimize the number that might exceed 30 hours," one respondent said.

Key stats generated by the survey include:  

• 78 percent report a rise in health insurance costs;
• Average increase is expected to be 7.73 percent;
• 37 percent report a rise in labor costs;
• Average labor cost increase is expected to be 5.6 percent;
• 73 percent say they have moved or intend to move employees to consumer directed health plans;
• 71 percent say they have raised or will raise employee contributions to health insurance;
• 30 percent say they have moved or they plan to move pre-65 retirees to PPACA exchanges;
• 27 percent report cutting back health insurance coverage eligibility;
• 24 percent report ensuring that part-time employees work less than 30 hours weekly to avoid penalty;
• 12 percent say they have increased or plan to increase the number of part-time workers;
• 10 percent say they have limited or plan to limit the full-time employee hires.

Patrick Wright, a professor at Darla Moore and director of the survey, said he was surprised the results weren't more "negative."

"Based on conversations I've had with CHROs, I thought the findings would be worse than they were. However, I think we can expect to see negative impacts increase as mandated requirements from PPACA become universal throughout the healthcare system," he said in a release. As the release noted, "87 percent of chief HR officers reported taking or planning to take last least one action to reduce costs. And, most of those actions are being shouldered by employees."