Māori Businesses Positive For The Future Despite Declining Wellbeing – BDO Māori Business Sector Report

Māori business leaders have seen their wellbeing decline since May, according to the BDO Māori Business Sector Report 2022, which this year focusses on wellbeing.

Over half (54%) of Māori business leaders said that they had been feeling less mentally healthy than normal, scoring an average of 64 out of 100 on the WHO-5 wellbeing index, an internationally-recognised measure of wellbeing that asks respondents to rate how they have been feeling across five key statements in the past two weeks.

A positive future outlook for Māori business

Despite a lower WHO-5 score, Māori business leaders are positive about the future, with 83% saying that they expect to feel positive about their business performance all or most of the time in six months’ time. This was 16% higher than the whole-of-business average. Māori business leaders also had a much more positive outlook for future life satisfaction, with 80% saying that they expect to feel satisfied with life all or most of the time, 8% higher than the whole-of-business average.

Angela Edwards, BDO Māori Business Sector Leader, said: “There are some sectors that are doing particularly well, and this aligns with a lot of the funding that was provided during this year’s Budget. Iwi organisations that are working in social services, as well as health and social housing providers, are stepping up to meet the needs of our people. In addition, Māori organisations have a strong base in primary producing, and those in food, farming and forestry continue to do well.

I believe some of the optimism is driven by factors that are not just business-related. It comes from a change in perspective and te ao Māori being valued more. We have seen this in a resurgence of te reo Māori, recognition of Matariki with a national public holiday, local Aotearoa history being taught in schools and co-governance being implemented in government. These factors and more make for a brighter future in Aotearoa.”

Cash flow overtakes COVID-19 as top concern for Māori business leaders

Cash flow was cited by Māori business leaders as the number one cause for declining wellbeing, with 36% of those who had been feeling less mentally healthy than normal saying that cash flow was causing this, followed by COVID-19 (35%) and workload being too high (31%). Not having enough people to rely on for support came fourth at 27% and business’ financial performance challenges fifth at 26%.

Those citing the impacts of COVID-19 was causing them to feel less mentally healthy have decreased by 20% since the last wave of research was carried out in May - when COVID-19 was the leading cause. This indicates that Māori businesses have been able to return to a degree of normality after the pandemic. Two-thirds of respondents said that they were feeling somewhat or significantly better than when their business was facing the most disruption from COVID-19.

Cash flow, however, has increased by 20%, with inflation and economic instability causing key challenges for Māori business leaders.

Despite Māori business leaders’ lower WHO-5 score in this measure, their businesses still appear to be performing relatively strongly, with 76% saying that they have felt positive about their business performance all or most of the time over the past two weeks.

When asked what Māori business leaders do to stay mentally healthy in their business life, flexible work came top at 63%, followed by managing boundaries at 52%. Next was delegating tasks when workload is too high (38%), seeking business advice from people you trust (33%) and having strong financial management processes (30%).

View the full Māori Business Sector Report at bdo.nz/MBS.

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