Providing Mental Wellness Support and Services to Staff at Small Nonprofits
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
By the NRMC Team
The pandemic made clear that nonprofit employers must recognize and respond to employees’ mental health and wellness needs. It also brought to light workplace patterns that take a mental toll on teams. Learn how to provide assistance your employees value and avoid common pitfalls.
Listen. Staff surveys, exit interviews, and all-staff meetings can give you insights into where your staff is hurting or stressed and needs assistance. Gather and analyze information from all of these channels, make a plan to act on the feedback, and communicate your actions to staff.
Evaluate. Turn a critical eye to your organization’s mental health benefits. Analyze how you can improve them in response to the needs employees shared. Can you give staff members and families access to more sessions with a therapist each year? Provide more telemedicine options for therapy? Provide an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?
Talk. Make talking about mental health with your team a priority. Don’t make the conversation all about your own experiences—but as a leader, if you don’t share something, you can’t expect anyone else to. Share the message frequently that your workplace prioritizes mental health, and share how it does so. Emphasize that your door and calendar are truly open. Talk about stories in the news or that you’ve heard from other nonprofits of how their teams deal with mental health challenges and stress. And if an employee seems to be struggling, ask privately if they’re OK. Let them know you don’t want to overstep any boundaries, but you’re concerned about their well-being.
Train managers to promote wellness and mental health. Most managers don’t receive any training on how to supervise other people, let alone how to talk with them about the importance of mental health. Let staff see you take breaks and prioritize time for yourself, your interests, and loved ones. Provide positive reinforcement to staff members who do the same, and encourage all team members to do so.
Hold managers accountable. Consider adding new metrics to your management performance reviews, like how well a manager works with employees to help navigate work-life balance, keeps team members informed of changes at work that affect them, and provides timely and useful feedback.
Address workload. Workplace stresses can contribute to mental health concerns. Consider a four-day workweek or other modified schedule. Build as many options for flexibility into your organization’s schedule as possible. Look for ways to say yes to flexible scheduling requests, instead of no. Having control over when and how you work can be a powerful tool.
Move forward on equity. Evaluate leaders on how well they demonstrate equity in hiring, supervision, and business decisions, and how well they consistently learn on their equity journey. Listen to the needs of staff on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Frequently communicate the steps the organization is taking to create a culture of belonging.
Make sure staff know what mental health resources the organization provides and how to access them. Share this information frequently, in multiple formats, and on multiple platforms.
Consider “restoration breaks,” where the entire office closes to give staff time to rest and reset.
Communicate expectations clearly. As your organization’s priorities shift during a changing time, make sure employees know what projects take top priority and what can be put on the back burner. Clearly communicating expectations and helping employees problem-solve on workload can help alleviate confusion and burnout, lowering workplace stress.
Additional Resources
- Mental Health Has Become a Business Imperative – MIT Sloan Management Review
- How And Why Nonprofits Are Supporting the Mental Health Oo Their Employees – Council of Nonprofits
- 3 Steps Every Nonprofit Can Take To Support Their Employees’ Mental Health – LinkedIn
- Nonprofit Leaders, Prioritize Mental Health For Employees of Color – SGEngage
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
— Scott Brown, Mohonk Preserve
“BBYO’s engagement of NRMC to conduct a risk assessment was one of the most valuable processes undertaken over the past five years. Numerous programmatic and procedural changes were recommended and have since been implemented. Additionally, dozens (literally) of insurance coverage gaps were identified that would never have been without the work of NRMC. This assessment led to a broker bidding process that resulted in BBYO’s selection of a new broker that we have been extremely satisfied with. I unconditionally recommend the Center for their consultative services.
— Sidney Abrams, BBYO
“Melanie Herman has provided expert, insightful, timely and well resourced information to our Executive Team and Board of Directors. Our corporation recently experienced massive growth through merger and the Board has been working to better integrate their expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Melanie presented at our Annual Board of Director’s Retreat and captured the interest of our Board members. As a result of her excellent presentation the Board has engaged in focused review which is having immediate effects on governance.”
— Pamela Mattel, Basics Promesa Systems Inc
“The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has been an outstanding partner for us. They are attentive to our needs, and work hard to successfully meet our requests for information. Being an Affiliate member gave us access to so many time- and money-saving resources that it easily paid for itself! Nonprofit Risk Management Center is truly a valued partner of The Community Foundation of Elkhart County and we are continuously able to optimize staff time with the support given by their team.”
— Jodi Spataro, Community Foundation of Elkhart County
“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
— Marti Worshtil, Prince George’s Child Resource Center
Great American Insurance Group’s Specialty Human Services is committed to protecting those who improve your communities. The NRMC team has committed to delivering dynamic risk management solutions tailored to nonprofit organizations. These organizations have many and varied risk issues, hence the need for specialized coverage and expert knowledge for their protection. We’ve had Melanie speak on several occasions to employees and our agents. She is always on point and delivers such great value. Thank you for the terrific partnership and allowing our nonprofits to focus on their mission!