The Business Operations Survey collects information about business practices for the latest financial year for which businesses had data available when they completed the questionnaire. The survey includes different modules or topics that may change each year. Each module has its own specific objectives. The survey covers businesses with six or more employees.
Key facts
The Business Operations Survey for 2023 included questions on business operations, innovation, business practices, and climate change.
In 2023:
- Four out of five businesses offered flexible working hours to their employees
- More than two out of five businesses offered their employees the option to work from home
- Seven percent of all staff worked from home on any given working day
- Almost half of all businesses had policies in place for preventing workplace bullying
- Four out of five businesses provided training to their staff
- One in four large businesses exported goods and/or services
- One-third of businesses anticipated that the prices of key goods and services used by their business would increase significantly in the next financial year
- Almost one in five businesses were able to access debt funds on acceptable terms
- More than half of the businesses carried out innovation activities
- Two-thirds of large businesses had measures in place to reduce their environmental impact
Four out of five businesses offered flexible working hours to their employees
When asked if they offered the option to work flexible hours, 81 percent of businesses said yes. Of which:
- 30 percent offered it to all their employees
- 51 percent offered it to some of their employees.
Larger businesses were more likely to offer flexible working hours, with 90 percent of large businesses (100 or more employees) doing so, compared with 79 percent of small businesses (6 to 19 employees).
| Items | 6-19 employees | 20-49 employees | 50-99 employees | 100+ employees |
| Flexible working hours | 79 | 85 | 88 | 90 |
| Option of part-time work | 74 | 81 | 85 | 91 |
| Option to work from home | 36 | 53 | 70 | 79 |
| Provisions for parental leave beyond what is required by law | 26 | 27 | 30 | 41 |
| “Provisions for redundancy | 23 | 25 | 34 | 48 |
| illness | 44 | 53 | 68 | 75 |
| or injury beyond what is required by law” | 47 | 63 | 80 | 92 |
| Support for physical health and wellbeing | ||||
| Support for mental health and wellbeing |
| Industry | Other location | Premises owned or rented by business | Staff member’s home |
| Information media & telecommunications | 5 | 68 | 27 |
| Financial & insurance services | 5 | 76 | 20 |
| “Professional | 11 | 70 | 20 |
| scientific | 43 | 45 | 12 |
| & technical services” | 13 | 76 | 11 |
| Administrative & support services | 5 | 85 | 10 |
| Wholesale trade | 21 | 69 | 9 |
| Education & training | 36 | 55 | 9 |
| “Rental | 5 | 88 | 7 |
| hiring | 36 | 56 | 7 |
| & real estate services” | 27 | 69 | 5 |
| “Electricity | 9 | 86 | 4 |
| gas | 3 | 92 | 4 |
| water | 5 | 91 | 4 |
| & waste services” | 73 | 23 | 3 |
| Arts & recreation services | 18 | 80 | 2 |
| “Transport | 32 | 65 | 2 |
| postal | 2 | 96 | 2 |
| & warehousing” | |||
| Mining | |||
| Manufacturing | |||
| Health care & social assistance | |||
| Retail trade | |||
| Construction | |||
| Other services | |||
| “Agriculture | |||
| forestry | |||
| & fishing” | |||
| Accommodation & food services |
Almost half of all businesses had policies in place for preventing workplace bullying
Forty-seven percent of businesses had formal policies or actions in place for preventing bullying at work.
These policies or actions were most common in the health care and social assistance industry (66 percent).
| Item | 6-19 employees | 20-49 employees | 50-99 employees | 100+ employees |
| Reducing pay gap | 8 | 13 | 17 | 25 |
| Preventing bullying | 40 | 60 | 71 | 81 |
| Promoting diversity and inclusion | 24 | 36 | 49 | 64 |
| Encouraging employees representation in health and safety issues | 47 | 64 | 77 | 83 |
| Employing people who do not live locally | 8 | 11 | 12 | 18 |
| None of the above | 44 | 24 | 13 | 8 |
The most common formal policy or action in place was encouraging employee representation in health and safety issues (53 percent).
Four out of five businesses provided training to their staff
Eighty-six percent of businesses had employees who participated in training in their last financial year.
The most common training type was health and safety, with 83 percent of businesses having at least one employee trained in the last financial year.
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 outlines how businesses must provide information, training, instruction, or supervision that is necessary to protect people from risks to health and safety.
| Type of training | 1-25 percent | 26-50 percent | 51-75 percent | 76-100 percent |
| Health and safety training | 25 | 12 | 12 | 34 |
| Professional / technical skills | 31 | 13 | 14 | 19 |
| Trade related skills | 24 | 14 | 13 | 16 |
| Management / supervisory skills | 43 | 11 | 4 | 3 |
| Customer services / sales skills | 25 | 11 | 9 | 10 |
| Computer skills | 31 | 9 | 6 | 8 |
| Other job-related skills | 19 | 10 | 8 | 13 |
| “Māori language | 10 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| culture | ||||
| or Treaty of Waitangi training” |
One in four large businesses exported goods and/or services
The industries with the highest proportion of exporters among large businesses (100 or more employees) were:
- manufacturing (73 percent)
- mining (56 percent)
- agriculture, forestry, and fishing (48 percent).
Overall, across all the business sizes, more than one-third of the businesses in the wholesale trade industry exported.
| Industry | Percentage of businesses |
| Wholesale trade | 38 |
| Manufacturing | 32 |
| Information media & telecommunications | 25 |
| “Professional | 20 |
| scientific | 18 |
| & technical services” | 17 |
| “Agriculture | 9 |
| forestry | 9 |
| & fishing” | 8 |
| Mining | 7 |
| Arts & recreation services | 6 |
| Retail trade | 6 |
| “Rental | 5 |
| hiring | 5 |
| & real estate services” | 3 |
| “Electricity | 3 |
| gas | 1 |
| water | 1 |
| & waste services” | |
| Education & training | |
| “Transport | |
| postal | |
| & warehousing” | |
| Administrative & support services | |
| Financial & insurance services | |
| Accommodation & food services | |
| Other services | |
| Construction | |
| Health care & social assistance |
Businesses’ expectations for 2024
One-third of businesses anticipated that the prices of key goods and services used by their business would increase significantly in the next financial year
Businesses were asked what changes they expected for their 2024 financial year. 33 percent of businesses anticipated a substantial increase in the prices of key goods and services used by their business.
Business price indexes: December 2023 quarter has the latest data on the producers price index for the changes in prices paid by producers for goods and services they use.
Almost one in five businesses anticipated a decrease in demand for their goods and services.
| Changes | Don’t know | Increase a lot | Increase a little | Stay the same | Decrease |
| Demand for this business’s goods and services | 6 | 8 | 36 | 31 | 19 |
| Total employment in this business’s industry | 14 | 5 | 29 | 41 | 11 |
| Prices of key goods and services sold by this business | 7 | 14 | 57 | 18 | 4 |
| Prices of key goods and services used by this business | 6 | 33 | 52 | 8 | 2 |
| Wage rates and salaries of this business’s employees | 3 | 22 | 61 | 13 | 1 |
Sixty-one percent of businesses expected the wage rates and salaries of their employees to increase a little over their next financial year, while 22 percent expected a significant rise.
Labour market statistics: December 2023 quarter has the latest statistics on wage rates and salaries.
One-third of businesses expected that the total employment in their industry would increase in their next financial year. The industries where the largest proportion of businesses expected an increase were:
- administrative and support services (46 percent)
- electricity, gas, water, and waste services (43 percent)
- health care and social assistance (42 percent).
On the other hand, 18 percent of businesses in transport, postal, and warehousing anticipated a decrease in the total employment in their industry.
Business employment data: December 2023 quarter has more information on number of filled jobs.
Almost one in five businesses were able to access debt funds on acceptable terms
More than 1 in 4 businesses requested new or additional debt or equity finance in 2023. Nineteen percent of those businesses reported that the debt funds they requested were available on acceptable terms, down from 24 percent in 2021.
| Year | Debt funds available on acceptable terms |
| 2019 | 21 |
| 2020 | 22 |
| 2021 | 24 |
| 2022 | 21 |
| 2023 | 19 |
| Year | Businesses who requested equity or debt |
| 2019 | 24 |
| 2020 | 26 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 25 |
| 2023 | 27 |
| Reasons | Percentage of businesses |
| To improve productivity | 79 |
| To increase revenue | 74 |
| To increase responsiveness to customers | 69 |
| To reduce costs | 68 |
| To increase employee satisfaction | 61 |
| To increase market share | 56 |
| To establish or exploit new market opportunities | 46 |
| To improve work safety standards | 44 |
| To reduce environmental impact | 30 |
| To replace goods or services being phased out | 22 |
| To reduce energy consumption | 20 |
The biggest barriers to innovation were the cost to develop or introduce innovations, and the lack of management resources.
| Barriers | Percentage of businesses |
| Cost to develop or introduce innovations | 58 |
| Lack of management resources | 58 |
| Lack of appropriate personnel | 51 |
| Lack of information | 42 |
| Lack of marketing expertise | 42 |
| Government regulation | 35 |
| Lack of cooperation with other businesses | 29 |
| Access to intellectual property rights | 20 |
Two-thirds of large businesses had measures in place to reduce their environmental impact
Larger businesses were more likely to have measures in place to reduce their environmental impact, with 66 percent doing so, compared with 44 percent of small businesses.
Regardless of size, less than half of businesses (46 percent) reported having measures in place to reduce their environmental impact.
| Industry | Percentage of businesses |
| “Electricity | 67 |
| gas | 63 |
| water | 62 |
| & waste services” | 53 |
| Mining | 50 |
| “Agriculture | 48 |
| forestry | 48 |
| & fishing” | 47 |
| Retail trade | 46 |
| Accommodation & food services | 45 |
| Manufacturing | 43 |
| Wholesale trade | 42 |
| Other services | 39 |
| Education & training | 37 |
| Health care & social assistance | 36 |
| Information media & telecommunications | 36 |
| “Transport | 36 |
| postal | 31 |
| & warehousing” | |
| “Professional | |
| scientific | |
| & technical services” | |
| Administrative & support services | |
| Construction | |
| Financial & insurance services | |
| “Rental | |
| hiring | |
| & real estate services” | |
| Arts & recreation services |
Technical note
The Business Operations Survey reports on businesses with six or more employees.
Businesses were surveyed from August to November 2023, about their last available financial year. The survey included questions on business operations, innovation, business practices, and climate change.
Business Operations Survey 2023 questionnaire is available on Stats NZ website.
In 2023, the Business Operations Survey questionnaire was subject to an extensive review. This process involved significant updates to the business operations module, including the removal of some questions, modification of others, and the introduction of new questions. As a result, there is a discontinuity in the data series for some variables.
Additionally, the innovation module, which is conducted every two years, underwent a partial review. This led to a break in the continuity of the data series for the innovation indicator.
A new module, climate change, was also introduced.
Datainfo+ has comprehensive details on these changes.
In addition to the key facts, data is available in CSV format at the top of this webpage. The unchanged series from the business operations module are also available on Infoshare.
Survey response rate
The Business Operations Survey is a sample survey. For the 2023 survey, we selected a sample of 9,783 from a total Business Operations Survey population of 48,990 businesses. The response rate reached 75.1 percent, below the target response rate of 80 percent.
More data
Use Infoshare to access the Business Operations Survey time series
Subject category: Business
Group: Business operations survey – BUO
Definitions and metadata
Business Operations Survey – DataInfo+ details the methodology used for this release.
Business Operations Survey concepts – DataInfo+ provides the definitions of terms used in this release.
Technical enquiries
Valentine Modera
04 931 4600
[email protected]
ISSN 1178-0711
Next release
Business operations survey: 2024 will be released in March 2025.
