Ensuring that staff members have the necessary tools and training to handle any challenge thrown at them is just one aspect of being a nonprofit leader. What’s also key to the role is creating a safe environment where employees and volunteers feel supported both as critical members of the team carrying out important work and as people also dealing with personal matters outside of the job.

While organizations have taken more steps in recent years to provide employees with benefits like job location flexibility, caring deeply about your staff’s mental state and making efforts to connect can go a long way in alleviating the burdens employees carry. Below, 13 Forbes Nonprofit Council members share how nonprofit leaders can actively support the mental health of their staff members.

  1. Take A People-First Approach
  2. Create Mental Health Policies
  3. Ask Staff What Would Be Most Useful
  4. Have Resources And Benefits Readily Available
  5. Integrate Positive Mental Health Habits Into The Organization
  6. Have Direct Conversations About Mental Health
  7. Be An Active Listener
  8. Make Fairness Your Company's Foundation
  9. Recognize The Need For Flexibility
  10. Consider Implementing Restoration Weeks
  11. Allow For Autonomy
  12. Make Well-Being And Wellness Part Of The Mission
  13. Acknowledge The Connectedness Of Work And Personal Lives

Read the full article about mental health policies in nonprofit organizations at Forbes.