Health and safety remains the No. 1 risk for directors and officers globally for the second year running, according to a survey by Willis, a WTW business, in collaboration with Clyde & Co.

The survey found that 80 percent of directors and officers consider health and safety risks to be very important or extremely important to their organization. Physical workplace risks were deemed the most important by 43 percent of respondents, followed by employee mental health and well-being impacted by work (28 percent) and personal matters (12 percent).

More than 3 in 4 (77 percent) of those surveyed said they consider data loss and cyber attacks, including extortion, to be very important or extremely important—making them the second and third risks overall. However, artificial intelligence did not rank in the top seven in any region for the 2025 Global Directors’ and Officers’ Survey Report, with only 51 percent of respondents saying they consider it to be very or extremely important.

Regulatory risk came in at No. 4 globally. Willis noted in a related article that “the regulatory landscape is complex, with a range of new rules and regulations continually being introduced (especially in the financial services sector), thus increasing the chances of non-compliance, leading to significant penalties for companies and, potentially, personal liability for directors.”

Coming in at No. 5 were risks deriving from systems and controls failures, which was a new entry on the top seven last year.

Civil litigation and third-party claims came in at No. 6—making the top seven concerns for the first time since 2018, with 63 percent of those surveyed considering these significant risks to their directors and officers.

Taking the final spot on the top seven list was bribery and corruption. Willis noted that this is a greater concern for larger companies—81 percent of respondents in companies with a revenue over $5 billion ranked bribery and corruption as a very or extremely important concern, compared with 51 percent of those in companies with revenue below $50 million.

Willis said two new risks were added to the survey this year: diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and geo-political risk. DEI made its way into the top seven for Great Britain, North America and Africa.

Willis also highlighted a notable increase in concern regarding social risks. For example, 62 percent of respondents this year consider breach of human rights within or by business operations to be a very or extremely important concern compared to only 23 percent in 2021.

The report can be downloaded here.

About the survey:

Respondents include 765 global senior decision-makers working in services, finance and insurance, healthcare, industry, energy and utilities and transportation and retail. Company size includes revenues of $5 billion or more (10 percent), $1 to $5 billion (15 percent), $50 million to $1 billion (33 percent), and less than $50 million (33 percent).