Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

May 17

What are ERGs?

ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) are organized groups of employees who find common ground in their identities and experiences, such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. These groups are voluntary, authorized by employers, and managed by the employees. ERGs are meant to unite often underrepresented groups, and promote equity and inclusion throughout an organization.

Why Do ERGs Matter?

Employee Resource Groups are a great opportunity to unite your employees and promote inclusion. Let’s look at some other areas where ERGs can improve your organization as a whole:

Engagement: ERGs give employees an opportunity to engage with their company and co-workers in a meaningful and personal way. These groups provide a sense of belonging and inclusion that can often be missing for employees who identify as belonging to an underrepresented group. ADP Research Institute found that US employees who feel strongly connected to their company are 75 times more likely to be engaged than those who do not feel connected.*

Feedback: ERGs are lead, organized and managed by the employees themselves. This being the case, they can be a valuable resource for unfiltered employee feedback. Employees have the opportunity to have an open forum where they can call out areas where they feel their organization is supporting them, and flag opportunities for improvement.

DEIB: ERGs are a great place to boost and monitor your company’s DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) practices as well. These groups are often focused around identities who have traditionally experienced marginalization in the workplace. Promoting inclusion and belonging is the top goal of these groups. ERGs can also become a source of data where you can measure the success of your DEIB efforts and make adjustments.

Professional Development: ERGs are a fantastic place to provide career development resources to your employees. These resources will help your employees stay engaged and motivated to grow their skills. This can include workshops, seminars, and other learning opportunities that are tailored to the interests and needs of the group.

Community Engagement: ERGs are also a great opportunity to connect your organization and team to your community through volunteer work, donations and more. ERGs can help by organizing volunteering events, fundraising for charitable causes, advocating for social and environmental causes, building partnerships with local organizations, and organizing cultural events that celebrate diversity and promote understanding.

Creating ERGs

Creating ERGs should be a thoughtful and purposeful task. Let’s follow the steps to setting up a successful ERG:

Run it by your company leaders: Informing your leaders of the benefits of ERGs and a general overview of what would be involved is step one. Be sure to include some of the points listed above, such as the link between ERGs and employee engagement, to increase the incentive.

Gauge interest: Before you create schedules and start promoting your ERGs, you should get an idea of who is interested and what ERG focuses resonate most with your workforce. Begin by explaining what ERGs are to your employees, then consider sending out a survey to gain a better understanding of how you want to structure your ERGs.

Structure your ERGs: Once you have your data, you can start structuring your groups. Consider starting on a monthly meeting schedule, and leaving the opportunity to add more as your groups evolve. You will also want to set goals for your groups based on your employee survey.

Examples of ERGs goals are:

Providing resources for career development
Fostering DEIB and promoting awareness and inclusion throughout your organization
Building a relationship with your community through volunteer opportunities, donations and more

Promote: Now that you have your ERGs organized, you can start building the groups. Utilize your internal communication systems to communicate to current and potential group members.

Maintaining ERGs

With all of the effort that has gone into creating ERGs, now comes the follow through. You will want to ensure that your employees are equipped to run meetings and progress towards their goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Set the standard: Though ultimately ERGs should be run by and for the employees themselves, providing initial guidance from a manager or leader may be required for the first few meetings. Here, you can let employees know the goal of the group and gather feedback on how they envision the meetings evolving.

Provide Resources: One of the main things that ERGs can provide to employees is resources for career development. Make sure your employees are set up with the resources that they need and information on how to utilize those resources. Providing connections to industry groups via LinkedIn or Slack, conferences, training courses (many of which are available virtually), guest speakers, stipends for independent learning opportunities and more are fantastic perks to include.

Allow your employees to take control: When your ERGs are established and employees feel comfortable, allow them to take the reigns. Open discussions, independent brainstorming session and more can help elevate engagement and create community within your ERGs.

Collect feedback: As we encourage open discussion in ERGs, your company should be prepared to receive and act on that feedback, when appropriate. Set up a system for relaying employee feedback from ERG meetings to the appropriate manager or department.

Collect DEIB data: ERGs are a great place to monitor DEIB data. Rely on the feedback that you receive, employee engagement, goal setting and other measurable factors to keep your DEIB program flourishing.

Summary

We hope that you’ve gained insight into the value of Employee Resource Groups. If your organization is interested in learning more, or getting help creating your own ERGs, HENSLEE is here to support! Feel free to contact us here!

As always, we appreciate your support and interest in the HENSLEE blog. If you would like HENSLEE to address a specific topic in one of our upcoming blogs, email hello@hensleehr.com. We are always interested in exploring the topic and trends that our community is curious about.

Thanks you again, and remember to Make Space and Elevate!