With all of the time and effort you put into your work, it’s natural to crave deeper connections at the office. And while it’s valuable to learn how to communicate and interact with your colleagues from different backgrounds and identities, you can still want to connect with people at work who share your experiences and struggles.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), sometimes referred to as Diversity, Affinity or Inclusion Groups, are a safe space for employees with shared characteristics or experiences to come together as a community and provide support within an organization. ERGs are essentially in-house clubs where employees can meet to discuss relevant topics, set goals of what they’d like to accomplish as a group and host company-wide events related to their mission.
Whether you feel like you need some support from like-minded people, or you’d like to be an ally for other communities, many of us can benefit from participating in an ERG. However, a recent report by WerkLabs found that only 42% of professionals are familiar with the concept of employee resource groups.
So let’s talk about what you need to know about ERGs—the highs, the lows and how you can get involved.
Employee resource groups can vary widely by company. The original ERG was created in the 1960s by Joseph Wilson, the CEO of the Xerox Corporation, who started a black employee forum to fight discrimination in the workplace in response to the 1964 race riots in Rochester, NY.
True to their origins, some organizations reserve the ERG title for historically underrepresented groups, including LGBTQ+, women, Latinx, African Americans and differently-abled employees. However, many companies also recognize identities that aren’t necessarily traditionally marginalized but can still benefit from alliances in the workplace.
In some companies, the ERG label can also be extended to special interest groups, like organizations for those pursuing meditation and yoga, volunteering or environmental sustainability. While these are a bit of a divergence from the program’s traditional roots and aren’t quite as universal from company to company, they can still benefit their members and serve the function of ERGs.
Joining an employee resource group can be a great opportunity to meet new people and contribute to a meaningful cause outside of your day-to-day work. Whether you’re just starting out at the company and looking to make friends or you’ve been there for a while, it can be refreshing to meet colleagues outside your own team and connect with people in varying levels and departments.
It can also give you a chance to gain leadership experience by stepping up and making an impact, from leading discussions to collaborating with the group on new initiatives. The meetings, events and work that you do for the group can also break up your day and give you some intermittent relief from your typical responsibilities.
👉 Participating on the board of an ERG can also give you a chance to try out a different line of business. For example, if you work full-time as an engineer but you’ve always been curious about marketing, this can be your chance to give it a shot.
If the community you want doesn’t exist at your company yet, not to worry! You can be the one to take action and create a space to welcome moms, women of color or whatever group you’d like to connect with.
Set up a meeting with your human resources contact to find out the requirements for starting an ERG at your workplace. Do you have a budgetary ask? Budgeting for ERGs is different wherever you work, so be prepared to discuss your needs and expectations. According to a Mercer study, the average annual budget for ERGs is $7,203 per 100 members, but it varies by company. Make sure to consider your potential costs beforehand—food for events, educational resources, etc.
If the budget you’re offered isn’t sufficient to cover what you’d like to accomplish, you can also fundraise later on down the line, and revisit your ask once your group has had the chance to measure its impact.
Most companies require their ERGs to have an executive sponsor such as a senior member of leadership who’s actively involved in the organization, and some will even assign them for you. Your executive sponsor can be a useful member or ally to help advocate for organizational change for your group and make sure that your requests make it to the decision-makers. While some ERGs prefer an executive sponsor who can identify with the group, it can also be useful to partner with an ally who can bring their own perspective—it all comes down to what your organization democratically decides is best.
Get the word out about your group using all of the channels your company uses—advertise on Slack, Microsoft Teams, your company news feed, a mass email, all-hands meetings or even posters in common spaces. You can usually call on the HR department to help with outreach too. if the company keeps an updated list of ERGs, make sure they add your group, along with your mission, goals and contact information to make you accessible to any prospective members now and in the future.
Decide what kind of group you want to be. Are you gathering in the break room before the workday starts to meet for coffee? Will you be chatting virtually over lunch? After you’ve established that, schedule a regular meeting time for members to discuss relevant topics, plan events for the company and think about what initiatives to pursue as a group.
First, draft a statement to define why your group was made and decide what you’re trying to accomplish.
For example, our African-American ERG at The Mom Project has the mission statement: “To provide support for the advancement of Black and Brown People within TMP. We aim to elevate and add more black and brown voices within the organization.”
It’s enough to just want to create a safe space for a community, but if your group is prepared to invest more time and effort, you can come up with a list of ways to improve your group’s experience in the workplace. You can also include some internal goals for how you hope to benefit your members, as well as some larger objectives of how you plan to influence the company and the industry it’s in.
For example, if you’re running an ERG for moms, you can say that your group aims to bring awareness to challenges that moms face, such as the childcare crisis. This can be further broken down into individual objectives, like convincing leadership to create designated mother’s rooms, subsidize child care costs and offer fertility benefits.
Who’s the group for? How specific do you want it to be? If you’re trying to start a group for moms, would you be interested in opening it up to all parents, or should dads have a separate group? The WerkLabs ERG study found that nearly 70% of respondents prefer that ERGs be overly specialized than more general. But if your company is small or has budget constraints, you might need to start with a broader demographic and then reconfigure as your company grows. Salesforce, for example, started with an Asian ERG, which later splintered into Asiapacforce (cultures from the Asian Pacific region and Southasiaforce (for cultures from the South Asian region) as the program grew.
Brainstorm some ideas for design and writing style to use on posters and marketing materials. You might want to appoint a head of marketing or design to create some style guides once you have your team assembled. In the meantime, however, you can just use templates from websites like Canvas or Evite.
Figure out what your group needs from your allies so you can clearly communicate your expectations and boundaries. Your allies are there to educate themselves and support your cause, and they want to know how they can best do that.
While it’s often a good idea to include allies in your meetings and discussions, it’s okay to prioritize the comfort and needs of your group’s core members. Decide when to invite your allies and when it’s appropriate to have a closed door. You can make certain topics open only to members who identify with the group, you can make every other meeting open to allies or any other system that works for your group.
Once you’ve had a meeting or two and can accurately gauge interest in the group, figure out who can commit some time weekly or monthly to plan meetings and events. Make expectations for each role very clear so that applicants know what’s expected of them. Representation is also crucial for your ERG to function, so if there’s an abundance of interest in leadership positions, facilitate a democratic decision by holding a vote.
Scope out some organizations that align with your mission and reach out to them about partnering. Partnerships can improve your capacity for outreach and allow you to make a difference in the larger community. Getting in touch with speakers and organizations can also give you more volunteering opportunities and ideas for programming.
While you should focus on making your employee resource group a safe space for members, it can also be helpful to open select events to all employees. Even if your ERG’s regular meetings are open to members only, you can work with your HR team to host company-wide speaker events or organize a volunteer opportunity and give all employees the option to attend. Even if allies are just there to ask questions, listen and learn, they can be influential in moving your initiatives forward and spreading awareness for your cause.
Decide on some metrics that you’ll use to measure your group’s effectiveness. You can record attendance at meetings or events, employee retention rates during the time that you’ve been in operation and survey responses about the organization. It’s also a good idea to track your progress on internal and external goals, like raising money for an organization that shares your mission, instituting policy changes or aiding in employee recruitment efforts. Then you can prepare a quarterly or annual report to show company leadership the value of your organization. This document can come in handy especially when negotiating valuable resources that your ERG needs.
It can be tempting to see other employee resource groups as competition for funding and resources, but employee resource groups are often more effective when working together. Designate someone in your group to talk to HR and other ERG leaders about brainstorming initiatives for the organizations to support one another. If it’s appropriate, coordinate collaborative events with other ERGs to boost attendance and explore issues from an intersectional perspective.
👉 Keep track of when other ERG have their events so you don’t have to worry about conflicts or making employees choose between the two.
Not every company grants a sustained budget to run employee resource groups, and even if your organization does get an annual or quarterly grant, it doesn’t always cover everything that you want to do. But the good news is that you don’t need a lot of money to build a strong community or to make an impact.
Take advantage of activities that will engage your members with minimal to no cost, including:
Operating remotely can pose new challenges for many employee resource groups. While you may be used to gathering in a meeting room and discussing topics face-to-face, remote work means shifting that all to a virtual setting. And although ERGs can be an important source of support during this time, it’s also important to recognize that everyone may have a lot more on their plate than usual.
Take it easy on yourself, relax your expectations and deadlines, and take on only as much as you can handle. Try to get an idea of everyone’s bandwidth so this doesn’t become a stressful commitment for you and your members.
👉 If your group has the time and ability, consider setting up virtual support groups and events geared specifically toward struggles that people might be dealing with right now.
It can be easy to let your responsibilities within the group cut into the rest of your work obligations—especially if you’re taking on a leadership role within your ERG. Set clear boundaries and limits for what you’re able to take on, and be open to asking the rest of your team for help when you need it.
You’re also going to want to talk with your manager about the decision to join or lead an employee resource group, and figure out what that means for your schedule and overall workload.
On the other hand, if you hold a more senior role at your company and manage employees who want to participate in ERGs, try to work collaboratively with them to figure out how to support their efforts.
Just like in any new organization, new challenges may arise as your group grows. As new members come in, they may bring different ideas, perspectives and various levels of participation and expectations. Not to mention a bigger group just means you have to keep track of more people. As soon as you can, try to come up with a process to respond to ideas and feedback from the group.
👉 Be open to making adjustments to your workflow as your organization grows—what works for 50 people won’t always work for 1,000.
Think about succession planning when assigning leadership roles. It’s important to make sure everything is well-documented, from partnership contacts to style guides. You can also try to distribute tasks and responsibilities to several members so that knowledge can be spread out among the team. And when leaders step down from their positions, seek out a replacement to transition in.
Especially during challenging times, employee resources groups have an opportunity to make a big difference within their companies, field and industry.
Here are some examples of some groups that have stepped up:
Reddit, the social news website, recruited its Black People Reddit ERG to write a letter to employees about the significance of Juneteenth, and to provide resources on how to practice allyship and learn more.
While employee resource groups can have a big impact on a company, they’re not a magical fix for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Typically ERG leaders are volunteering their time and effort, and it’s not fair to expect them to solve the company’s problems in their free time.
Some companies have made up for this by compensating their ERG leaders for their work, either with cash bonuses or by allotting a certain amount of their workday to ERG projects. However, some members think that treating ERG leadership as a job can interfere with motivations and that your involvement in the organization should be a passion project for you.
Ultimately, while ERGs can be a good resource for company leadership to suggest changes that need to be made and potential solutions, the real change needs to be made from the top down.
Employee resource groups (ERGs) can be a valuable opportunity to form deeper connections and make a difference at your company. If you’re thinking about getting involved in an ERG or starting one of your own, communicate with your HR department, colleagues and supervisors to figure out the best way to make it work.
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