A new survey has found that U.S. business leaders are increasingly stressed due to a number of risks and challenges their companies face.
The Sentry Insurance “2025 C-Suite Stress Index” report found that two-thirds of executives had higher stress levels than in 2024 and 25% of companies were considering downsizing or shuttering altogether.
In light of their concerns, many executives plan to boost their company’s risk management efforts and reassess their insurance coverage to better protect their organizations against an increasing number of challenges.
Concerns are varied and executives at the largest companies report being the most stressed.
These are the main issues keeping business leaders up at night:
- Economic uncertainty (47% cite this as one of their primary concerns)
- Supply chain challenges (44%)
- Rising cost of employee health (41%)
- Labor shortages (38%)
- Inflation (36%).
The survey found that:
- 97% of businesses are postponing upgrades and purchasing new equipment due to cost pressures or scarce resources.
- 48% are asking employees to work longer hours or take fewer breaks.
- 72% recognize increases in litigation and multimillion-dollar verdicts as a problem in their industry.
Workplace safety focus
Workplace safety is a growing area of focus, with 82% of executives saying they plan to increase their investments in worker safety. Ninety-nine percent of largest employers, those with more than 1,000 workers, said they would increase workplace safety investments this year.
Employers hope that these efforts will increase employee retention as well as yield improved output.
Severe weather effects
Impacts from increasingly common severe weather are starting to hurt U.S. businesses.
Nine out of 10 companies report having been affected by extreme weather events in the past five years, leading to a range of operational challenges.
Business disruption was the most common result of severe weather:
- 45% reported outages that left their company unable to operate,
- 39% experienced supply chain disruptions, and
- 34% cited staff unable to come to work.
Additionally, during the last five years, executives report that severe weather caused damage to:
- Company equipment (34%)
- Company facilities (32%)r
- Company vehicles (30%).
Insurance needs
As a result of these increasing challenges, many executives are re-evaluating their insurance needs, with 74% saying they were not fully confident in their current insurance coverage.
Four in 10 said they planned to expand their coverage in the coming year.
Among those re-examining their coverage needs, the top reasons were:
- Increasing coverage as business expands (44%),
- Lowering risk by adding coverage (43%), and
- Securing coverage for areas of the company not currently covered (38%).
