Perceptive’s latest survey shows COVID is having a major impact on the mental health of businesses and key decision-makers

Perceptive’s latest COVID-19 Tracker Survey shows more than half of New Zealanders believe COVID-19 is having a negative impact on businesses with mental health concerns increasing significantly from last year.

Data shows that the current lockdown is having a disproportionately higher impact on the mental health of business owners and key decision-makers compared to the general population (33% amongst business owners and decision-makers reported concerns around mental health vs 17% amongst the general population).

New Zealanders trust in the government doing enough in response to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic has also seen a decline (60% vs 75%), with one-quarter (25%) believing they could be doing more (at 26th March 2020, this was one-fifth 20%).

Perceptive’s Managing Director, Daniel Shaw, says: “Perceptive’s COVID-19 Tracker survey aims to gauge the attitudes and perceptions of New Zealanders as we navigate through COVID-19, through both a business and consumer lens.

“As we find ourselves in another lockdown, what’s really interesting is how our attitudes towards COVID have changed from 2020. The overall concern towards COVID-19 including the economic, health and wealthiness impacts have dropped significantly although there is growing concern towards the impact on our children’s education, which is up 24% vs 18% in 2020.”

“And while overall New Zealanders are less concerned compared to 2020, what we are seeing is the impact another lockdown is having on business owners, not just economically but also on their health and wellness.”

The results from Perceptive’s survey offer insights into how New Zealanders are feeling emotionally, what the impact on businesses is looking like, how New Zealanders feel about the health implications of COVID-19 and the level of support for the current Government and their response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“We believe that it is more important than ever for brands to stay connected with their customers and truly understand what New Zealanders are thinking and feeling.

This understanding should be based on evidence and not on gut-feelings or assumptions. It’s our hope that businesses can use the information from these free reports to stay connected to customers on the issues that matter most to them” adds Shaw.

New data from Perceptive’s COVID-19 Tracker survey will be collected each week in order to stay up-to-date as the situation evolves.

Perceptive’s latest data from the COVID-19 Tracker survey can be found here: https://www.perceptive.co.nz/2021-covid-19-insights-tracker

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