5 Ways That Companies Can Empower Their ERG’s
Differently Abled (Facebook — Disabilities) WayBlack (Wayfair — African-American), Gayglers (Google — LGBTQ); These days, every company seems to have some form of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). A Bentley University found that about 90% of Fortune 500 companies have employee resource groups.
What is an Employee resource group?
ERGs are internal company networks that bring together people with similar traits, experiences, or interests. Some of the more common types of ERGs are Black, Latinx, Women’s, Veterans, and Disabled. Some companies have even set up additional networks for men and religious employees.
ERGs can be great ways for employees to build community and develop a sense of belonging in a workplace, especially for those employees that identify as minorities. However, from my personal experiences and from conversations that I’ve had with friends who participate in their own company ERGs, it seems that a lot of firms only set up the groups to check a diversity box and brag about it on their websites.
Here are five things that companies can do to truly empower their employee resource groups and help them make an impact:
1. Tie the ERG’s efforts to business objectives
Companies can benefit greatly by making sure that their ERGs are tied to business objectives. Goals around recruiting, marketing, and career development can be supported by incorporating related ERGs. For example, if your company has a goal of increasing applicants from Black and Latinx people by 20% this year, reach out to your ERGs for those groups and ask for their help. Offer increased funding for successful referrals for support with recruiting events. A real-world example of a company incorporating its ERGs into business objectives is Pinterest, whose Black and Latinx ERGs — blackboard@Pinterest and Todos Pincluidos — worked to create cultural content during heritage months.
2. Measure performance with defined metrics
Okay, it’s great that you’ve established ERGs, but are they actually… doing anything?
Businesses are built on numbers. The same idea should apply to ERGs. Define metrics that you can use to measure the success of the ERG. Diversity Best Practices suggests using the following four themes to tracking ERG performance:
- Commerce — focus on product development and marketing campaigns
- Careers — focus on professional development
- Community — focus on partnerships with external community service organizations and collaborations with other company ERGs
- Culture — focus on retention, employee sentiment, and number of members
Keeping these themes in mind, set goals for each area and track them periodically. As an example, for the Culture theme, use yearly surveys and HR data to track employee turnover and sentiment. Use that data as a benchmark for (call this year 0), and pick a challenging but attainable target for year 1, or even for years 1–3.
3. Encourage people from different areas of the company to participate
One of the best parts of employee resource groups is that they provide a chance for people that would normally not interact to get to know each other. Your human resources team gets to meet your finance team; an entry-level employee gets to have a conversation with a director. This cross-functional and cross-level networking has two great effects: it can improve employee morale, and it can lead to positive business conversations.
Regarding morale, employees begin to develop a sense of community as they network with people that are sharing their experiences. For the business conversations, as people from different corporate functions get to talking, they learn about new ways to tackle challenges that they face in their work. For instance, maybe your customer success team is struggling to reach a new group of clients, but after conversations with the recruiting team, they learn about new strategies that they can use for marketing to a certain clientele.
4. Encourage out-group people to join and participate in the ERG
While your Women’s ERG does provide a space for female employees to network with each other, they should also be a safe space for out-group employees to interact with people different from them. Invite people that don’t necessarily identify with the trait or interest covered by the ERG. Ask them to join your discussions or community service events. As they learn about the cultures and customs of people that identify with that ERG, they should also learn how to be more inclusive towards that group.
5. Make sure that there are dedicated liaisons from different departments supporting the ERG
A very common mistake made by companies is to ask employees with entirely separate, full-time jobs, to run the ERGs by themselves. The Black employees on your engineering or marketing team should not be solely responsible for maintaining the African-American employee resource group, especially not if the ERG is set up properly and tied to business objectives. Companies need to provide every ERG with dedicated HR support, executive sponsorship, and potentially even fully-dedicated ERG managers whose job is to work with the various ERGs to ensure their success. This takes some of the pressure away from employees who are already working on other things, but it also sends a signal to ERG members that their company is dedicated to improving the experiences of its employees.
When properly supported, employee resource groups can be great ways for employees to connect with each other. They can also be great resources for companies to improve upon their business. As more employers establish and market their ERGs, firms must make sure that they are providing the support that the groups need.
