Have a clear vision of how to run an Employee Resource Group. Focus on the positivity that the group will bring to the company and prioritize what the group message will be for the entire company.

This is the tried and true advice that Stef Hausner, who works at Thornburg Investment, gave during this Cultivators Community event. Stef works to help women find and leverage more professional development resources, much like another panelist Stephanie Trevino, a former employee at KBR, Inc., who developed her own ERG to help women move up in promotional ranks.

Stef and Stephanie highlight the many ways in which females in their respective industries face unequal personal and professional development opportunities, which led them to create ERGs to combat these problems. From tips and tricks to starting an ERG from scratch to tackling tough questions like, “Why are women consistently leaving male-dominated fields once they reach the promotional ceiling,” this event shares powerful insights on how to get involved with ERGs that get things done!

Our panelists discussed losing beloved co-workers to rival companies offering higher salaries to retain its marginalized employees. Leslie Shih, an employee of Russel Reynolds, saw the company had a problem retaining its underrepresented employees and created an ERG to highlight diversity within the company to incentivize employees to stay. Leslie set out to solve this by creating solidarity groups so that all employees could meet their co-workers who were also from underrepresented backgrounds. Creating an engaged community that feels their needs are being heard and, most importantly, met is how an effective ERG works.

Without Employee Resource Groups, this type of vital employee information can lead to losing the best company talent and your favorite co-workers. Tune in for a valuable conversation about how these leaders are working everyday with their ERGs to solve complex internal problems.

Notable Timestamps:

1:53 | We introduce the panelists
5:22 | What are some of the challenges you faced when kickstarting your ERG community?
12:20 | Chris from Guru shares his distinction between an ERG and a Guild
18:00 | What's your ERG's mission/main focus?
27:00 | How have you navigated potential emerging tensions between DE&I core teams and ERG groups?
29:00 | How is your ERG "seen" in the organization?
33:56 | How do you define metrics & data as it relates to your ERG?

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