Pressure of economic uncertainty negatively impacting mental wellbeing of South West business leaders – Grant Thornton

By Peter Davison

18 May 2023

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Two thirds of mid-market business leaders say the uncertain economic climate is negatively affecting their stress levels and mental wellbeing

New data from business and financial adviser Grant Thornton shows that almost two thirds (61 per cent) of mid-market business leaders say the uncertain economic climate is negatively affecting their stress levels and mental wellbeing.

Grant Thornton’s bi-monthly Business Outlook Tracker research, which polls mid-market business leaders, showed that economic optimism plummeted -7 percentage points (pp) since February 2023, -3pp below the rolling average since the research began in 2021.

Leaders’ confidence in the funding position of their businesses has also taken a hit, dipping -11pp since February, which is -6pp below the rolling average.

Correspondingly, investment in wellbeing and mental health is an increasing priority for mid-market business leaders.

Around two thirds (65 per cent) intend to increase their investment in mental health in the coming year (up +14pp from 2022). Sixty three per cent say mental health forms a key part of their inclusion, diversity and wellbeing strategy, up from 51 per cent in 2022.

Employers’ awareness of the importance of investing in mental health has led to an increased number of businesses offering counselling, training, providing mental health first aiders, and checking in with their people more regularly.

Jonathan Riley, practice leader for Grant Thornton UK LLP in the South West, said: “Leading a business is a high pressure, high intensity role even in the steadiest of economic climates.

"Whilst leaders across the South West have demonstrated remarkable levels of resilience over the last few years, this research shows that the ongoing pressure of managing uncertainty is having a negative effect on wellbeing.

“While our study looks specifically at leaders of mid-market businesses, wellbeing is vital to productivity for all employees.

"Having a mentally healthy workforce at all levels of the business isn’t an optional extra, it’s a commercial imperative. Healthy people are better able to respond to stress and pressure, which is why it’s vital that employers invest in wellbeing and mental health support for their people and for themselves.”

Mental Health Awareness Week runs from May 15 to 21.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.