Business leaders’ wellbeing has improved slightly since September 2024, when leaders reported feeling troubled by business financial pressures, economic concerns, not having enough people to rely on for support, workload, and employee performance and conflict.
Our May 2025 BDO Business Wellbeing Index shows that while these remain the top five wellbeing issues, the extent to which business leaders are troubled by them has decreased. In September, 64% of business leaders who had been feeling less mentally healthy than usual said that finances were a driver of this. Our latest survey shows this has dropped to 46%, suggesting that while finances remain a concern, this pressure may not feel so overwhelming as in 2024.
Happily, climate and environmental concerns are having the least impact on the mental health of business leaders. Less than 10% of survey respondents report feeling less mentally healthy due to the transition risks associated with climate change, physical risks to infrastructure caused by climate change, or sustainability/ESG-related compliance.
This could suggest that the storms and floods of 2022 have prompted New Zealanders to get on top of climate and environmental risk factors and proactively prepare for future weather events. However, it may also be a symptom of leaders having more immediate economic and financial pressures to contend with, pushing climate concerns far down the list of worries.
To track business leaders’ wellbeing, our report applies the World Health Organisation’s internationally recognised WHO-5 Index, which measures wellbeing over the last two-week period. Our April 2024 survey shows that business leaders’ WHO-5 Index score is now 64, a two-point increase from September 2024. The percentage of leaders feeling less mentally healthy in the last six months has improved by 1%, while the impact of business financial concerns on mental health has considerably reduced.
While these results reflect a more positive mental wellbeing measure for business leaders, the future outlook is less positive. Just 46% of business leaders expect to feel generally satisfied with life in six months’ time, a worrying drop from 58% in September 2024 to its lowest level since our first survey in 2022.
Our BDO Business Wellbeing Index has long shown a close link between business financial performance and wellbeing. Similarly, our latest survey shows that the leading drivers of negative wellbeing are aligned with the major business performance issues for business leaders.
Financial performance/cash flow, workload, and economic factors are now leading drivers of both negative business performance sentiment and negative wellbeing for business leaders. Interestingly, while personnel issues – not having enough people to rely on for support and employee performance/conflict - are major contributors to negative wellbeing, they’re less of a concern when it comes to business performance. This may be attributed to challenging economic conditions causing business leaders to take on increased workloads in order to save costs and ensure their business stays afloat.
Finally, it’s encouraging to see business leaders employing a wide range of strategies to help support their mental health, most notably managing boundaries and adopting flexible work practices.
