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Workers' 'mindset behaviours' influence their risk of psychological strain, and understanding them allows leaders to intervene before issues manifest as burnout, absenteeism or compensation claims, according to a new paper.

"Mindset reflects an individual's capacity to manage stress, regulate emotions, maintain focus, connect meaningfully with others, and transition effectively between work and home," says the Mindset Matters report, which compiled findings from Better Being's wellbeing index (WBI) and SuperFriend's indicators of a thriving workplace (ITW), involving more than 3,000 workers in total.

Regarding mindset specifically, it focuses on five behaviours that support mental wellbeing – social connection, communicating emotions effectively, switching off from work, prioritising health, and maintaining energy and focus – and translates them into scores.

As these behaviours can fluctuate depending on workload, recovery and environmental pressures, mindset is a useful indicator of strain and therefore represents a "critical psychological baseline for resilience", the paper states...