Want to recognize ERG leaders? Let them do their job.

6 min readOct 13, 2020

In the quiet of night, in wee hours of the morning, in weekend pockets of stolen time away, there’s an Employee Resource Group leader thinking about colleagues. Maybe this leader is synthesizing responses from a survey or planning details for an event, or considering a Slack message from a struggling coworker. ERG leaders are intrinsically driven to such work, work which ultimately elevates the organization. The irony is that they often lack the support necessary to do their job.

ERGs are often seen as “extracurricular” and their work is deprioritized against their “day job” or “real job,” leaving them with little or no dedicated time to meet needs and goals. A limited budget further constrains efforts. Attracting and retaining underrepresented employees is reduced to a “nice-to-have” atop more critical business goals. But if organizations truly hold diversity as a priority, then they should enable ERG leaders.

To learn more about the motivation of ERG leaders’ and recognition, we spoke to twenty parent and caregiver ERG leaders in the Working Parent Group Network. Though this conversation was focused on the challenges faced by parent and caregiver ERG leaders, we believe other ERG leads have much in common.

ERG leaders demonstrate skills in project management, collaboration, employee engagement and, of course, leadership. By sustaining their communities, ERG leaders support retention. Parents and caregivers are 30% more likely to stay with employers who provide support, and ERGs are a primary source of support.

ERG leaders are motivated by their mission and its results. Uber is one of few companies to grant ERG leaders a cash bonus of $5,000. Rewarding its leads direct compensation for their tireless work is incredibly progressive, even radical. When ERG leads learned of this, they were initially wowed. Then, one leader shared, “$5,000? That’s bigger than [our] budget. [I’d rather have] money to operate with.” While ERG leaders appreciate recognition for their often unnoticed work, they ultimately want the means to do their ERG job more fully. Organizations are investing in both themselves and their employees when they afford ERG leaders TIME, METRICS, a PLATFORM and CAREER GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES.

Time

Companies find clever ways of carving out time for things deemed important. For example, in the tech industry, internal Hackathons encourage innovation and collaboration across departments. To maintain a strong culture, some companies nominate and train individuals to conduct interviews and write evaluations. If diversity and belonging are as important and valued as innovation and culture, ERGs could be given similar company-sanctioned time.

To help ERG leaders gain dedicated time, let’s borrow inspiration from other models of approved company time…

Hackathons. Each quarter, ERG leaders could be given 1 or 2 days to collaborate with one another, review wins from the last quarter, and plan for the next quarter.
Part-time work specifically dedicated to the ERG. Implement a process for ERG leaders and their managers to carve out dedicated, structured time, on a certain day each week to spend exclusively on ERG work. Success will require company and manager support as well as widespread communication.
Company-sanctioned efforts similar to recruiting & ethics boards. Joining an interview panel for a candidate or recruiting college graduates at a job fair is considered valuable time use; these activities do not adversely affect performance reviews. When leadership and management signal from the top down that ERGs are effective and scalable paths in achieving diversity and belonging goals, then ERG leaders would feel more legitimized.
Creditable billable hours. In billable hour worlds, permit a certain number of ERG-related hours to count toward annual billable requirements. For example, the law firm Cadwalader grants employees 100 billable hours per year for activities related to firm citizenship and engagement, including participation in the firm’s networks, recruiting, pro bono work, and diversity and inclusion programs.
Support for administrative tasks. ERG leaders often have to file their own purchase orders, update their own mailing lists, create their own posters and develop their own strategy for geographical expansion. Providing them with administrative support from the Diversity & Inclusion office or other sources would be a helpful, appreciated time-saver.

A platform

Consider this: at your next organization-wide meeting, senior leaders tee up a presentation on the importance of ERGs, and how they can support career growth. Then, ERG leaders present their initiatives, successes, challenges, and how colleagues can be allies and accomplices. This helps raise general awareness of ERGs, validates their work, places diversity and inclusion in the spotlight next to other company initiatives, and gives ERG leads deserved recognition.

Metrics

As management guru Peter Drucker says, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” With access to diversity and inclusion data and target metrics, ERG leaders can align their strategy and programming accordingly and track goals over time. They can contribute more specifically to the company goals, particularly recruiting and retention efforts.

While examining the breadth of activities to which ERG leaders devote time, one participant wanted companies to “tie it back to data and direct alignment with the company’s bottom line.” Most companies do not have data on parents and caregivers. Creating a legally-guided initiative to voluntarily elicit information from employees would prove instrumental in planning.

Career growth

A cash bonus is rewarding and generous; however it pales in comparison to sustained career development, which compounds over time. ERG skills should count towards career competencies. Within self-reviews, ERG leaders should be able to delineate their ERG-related accomplishments and impact and include reviews from co-leaders, collaborators or ERG members. Including ERG leadership in performance evaluations is only a first step. Leadership should become a driving factor for promotion and career growth.

Providing ERG leaders with unique professional development opportunities and pairing them with executive leaders are valued experiences. Twitter recently announced that they will be paying their ERG leaders and hosting an annual summit for ERG leaders “to connect with executive leaders at the company and share best practices across groups.” One ERG leader shared that working with someone in the organization’s leadership was one of the biggest perks of the job. In fact, 82% of ERG leaders cite that exposure to and recognition by senior leaders is a significant benefit of the role because it drives career advancement.

Supporting ERGs render strong return on investment

A company that believes achieving diversity is essential, and not extracurricular, will ultimately validate ERG work with metrics and a platform, and grow its leaders. It will consider ERG leading to be part of a “day job,” not one done by underrepresented minorities, women and caregivers on top of a “real job.” Companies have long relied on free labor to accomplish diversity and inclusion work, which begs the question: Is diversity and inclusion truly a priority? To answer it, examine how an organization views and provides for its ERG leaders.

Ever wonder what ERG leaders do? Here’s a summary…