You’re Opening ERGs Up to Everyone. How Do You Do It Right?
The first Employee Resource Group (ERG) was developed in response to race riots and served to create a formal, organization-sponsored space for Black employees to discuss discrimination and advocate for a fair work environment. ERGs for other groups followed, and the purpose of ERGs grew and evolved.
Today, organizations often sponsor ERGs for female employees, Black employees, Latino employees, veteran and military-affiliated employees, LGBTQIA+ employees, and employees with disabilities. And ERGs today are often described as places for groups of employees to find and build community, discuss work experiences, identify common challenges, and propose and advocate for solutions. Many organizations also utilize ERGs as a way to retain and develop talent, implementing group-specific professional development, offering executive sponsorship and mentorship programs, and looking at ERG heads as future organizational leaders.
But in today’s environment, ERGs are under fire. Critics of ERGs describe them as unnecessary, exclusionary, and discriminatory; they argue that ERGs offer employees who share certain characteristic advantages in terms of professional development and career advancement, and that employees who do not share that characteristic are denied those opportunities. In response, some organizations have shut their ERGs down.
Other organizations have taken a different approach, keeping their ERGs going but making them open to all employees.
If an organization does make ERGs open to everyone, we recommend reminding everyone of a few core principles:
The focus of an ERG is tied to a specific group’s experience
ERGs are designed to promote connection, community, learning, and growth
ERGs are formal, organization-sponsored spaces in which all expectations from an organization’s employee handbook are in effect
We also recommend articulating clear behavioral expectations for participation:
Inclusion – Everyone should feel seen, heard, and valued. Everyone should be reminded that they are welcome in the ERG and that they can and should participate and share their perspectives, thoughts, and ideas.
Respect – Don’t be a jerk. Verbal and physical attacks, discriminatory language, and harassment are unacceptable.
Be Present – Show up on time and stay focused. Pay attention to the group and avoid distractions (ex. turn off phones, shut laptops, etc.).
Active Listening and Empathy – Listen to understand, not to respond. When another participant is speaking, focus on what they are saying and seek to understand their experience; avoid focusing on your own response, which will cause you to tune out and miss what’s being said.
Curiosity and Vulnerability – Start from a position of not knowing and engage with questions. Every participant should acknowledge what they do and do not know, and they should focus on engaging with new or challenging ideas with questions (ex. “I had never heard that before. Can you share more about that topic?”) and not with negation (ex. “There’s no way that’s a thing. You can’t be serious.”). The goal is productive discussions, not arguments.
Accountability – Assume best intentions and hold each other accountable for impact. Call out bad behavior and seek to understand what was intended. Apologize for words or actions that have caused harm, even if your intention was positive.
Confidentiality – What’s said here, stays here; what’s learned here, leaves here. ERGs are spaces for employees to be vulnerable and share personal experiences; participants should maintain confidentiality (ex. what another member said about a recent interactions with a coworker) while sharing overall learnings (ex. how to practice bystander intervention effectively).
ERGs have the potential to be transformative spaces for all employees to come together and build community, but only when the ground rules are clear and everyone knows what is expected of them. Setting clear behavioral expectations is the best way to set everyone and every ERG up for success.
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