Employee Resource Group Toolkit: Building & Sustaining Engaging Workplace Communities

Written By Molly Shunney

Whether you are an aspiring or experienced ERG leader, this tool is your go-to resource for how to create an impactful community. 

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ERG Toolkit Directory

🔰Introduction
🔰A Typology of Workplace Communities
🔰Employee Resource Group: Defined
🔰You want to start an ERG in your organization
🔰You are an ERG leader and you want to increase engagement
🔰You lead a thriving ERG and want to sustain engagement
🔰Final thoughts

Community carries a lot of weight. When we say community, what comes to mind first? You might think of a recreational team you’re on, a singing choir you’re in, or the neighborhood street where you live. We think about community differently because we experience community differently. Before we go any further, let’s clearly define what we mean by community. Communities, at their core, bring us together and give us a sense of belonging. But, it’s more than that. Cultivate defines community as a group of motivated people, organized around a common interest, moving in a strategic direction. 

When we call out workplace (or internal) communities specifically, we’re talking about communities at work. While the category we’ll be focusing on is Employee Resource Groups, workplace communities aren’t exclusively ERGs– we see workplace communities as Center of Excellence teams, communities of practice, learning groups, and much more.

Instead of immediately working on formal community artifacts like a purpose statement or goals, it’s important to take the time to inspect and shore up the foundation your community rests on: What type of community are you actually building? What is the organizational context that can inform your community’s reasons for existing? What theory of change is driving you to create and improve your community?

A Typology of Workplace Communities

Before we dive into all things ERG, let’s review the following typology of workplace communities. Note that many communities are hybrids, so you may identify with multiple areas of typology to make up your own custom set of qualities. Oftentimes, ERGs are most popular as the support communities & communities of interest, but our hope is that all ERGs (and all workplace communities) eventually evolve into change communities. 

Community of Practice
Built around the desire for common practice.
Project management community, Six Sigma community, cross-functional engineers group

Support Community
Built around the need for support related to some aspect of shared background or experience.
Leadership Development Learning cohort, Women in Tech group, Veterans ERG, New Managers Network

Community of Interest
Built around a shared interest in investigating & discussing a specific topic.
Innovation brown bag group, Cloud computing enthusiasts, Design thinking meetup group

Social Community
Built around opportunities for fun and relationship-building among colleagues.
Running club, Happy hour group, Employee softball league, Book club, Toastmasters

Change Community
Built around the desire to drive change in alignment with a common goal or shared conviction
Climate action group, Agile change champions, Skunkworks group, Disability advocacy ERG

Employee Resource Group: Defined

Employee Resource Groups are dynamic workplace communities created by employees to bring together people with a shared interest, passion, culture, or life experience. While Employee Resource Group is the most common name for these types of communities, you might also hear them referenced as Affinity Groups, Business Resource Groups (BRGs), Employee Business Resource Groups (EBRGs), or a company-specific name.

In this toolkit, we’re going to share everything you need to know when it comes to creating, managing, and sustaining your ERG community.

What value do Employee Resource Groups bring to the workplace?

We’ll often hear leaders and managers talk about how important it is to unleash their team’s full potential. Building meaningful and engaged communities is one way to get there.

With more minds and hands working together, our communities empower us to accomplish more than we ever could on our own. Together, communities mobilize in response to crises, create space for critical dialogue, collaborate on solutions to specific problems, and convene members from around the world to celebrate a shared passion. 

ERGs are no different and have a unique ability to add a more meaningful dimension to the average employee experience. As humans, we are multifaceted and crave to be seen & appreciated for the well-rounded beings we are. Sometimes at work, we can get pigeon-holed into being “that engineer that works on cool, new products” or the “subject matter expert for this one tool no one else knows how to use.” But we are so much more than that.

When people feel like they can bring their whole selves to work, it can positively impact overall employee engagement, well-being, and organizational commitment to the company. When people experience a real sense of belonging at work, have access to opportunities to develop, grow their careers through mentorship, and contribute directly to the company goals through something like ERG initiatives– we see a real difference in how they show up to work each day.

What types of Employee Resource Groups exist?

How much time do you have? There are tons of ERGs out there, and not all organizations will have similar ERG portfolios. That’s because ERGs are often started by individuals (or a group of individuals) who feel particularly passionate about a certain topic and see a need for communal space and/or company-wide education. Here are some common ERG types with examples of active groups:

1. Women; Women@YT ERG

   Read more about Archana Ajith, an Android engineer on the YouTube Main App team and YouTube’s internal Women@YT Global Summit Co-Lead. 

2. Mental Health; Mental Health ERG at Clockwise*

3. African Americans; BLACC ERG at Amplitude

4. Parents/Caregivers; Families@LinkedIn ERG**

   Did you know LinkedIn is one of the first companies to go on record that they’ll be compensating their ERG leads?

5. LGBTQ+; LGBTQ+ ERG at Shopify*

   In Shopify’s 2019 Sustainability Report, they spoke to their 2x expansion of ERG groups and engagement of over 1800+ employees

6. Veterans; Veterans ERG at Maxar Technologies**

7. Sustainability; Planet ERG at Dell

   Dell believes that innovative companies have sustainability embedded into their DNA. Read more about how the Planet ERG became their largest ERG, with over 60 chapters and 9,000 employees.

8. Disabilities; ABLED at Medtronic*

9. Multicultural; Multicultural ERG at SThree*

10. Young Professionals; Emerging Professionals at TDS

    This Emerging Professionals group hosts many engagement points for members including community outreach projects, low-cost professional headshots, and professional development seminars.

11. LatinX; LatinX at IDEX Corporation*

12. Asian Pacific American; Asian Pacific American ERG at Accenture

13. Native American; Native American Council ERG at Corning

    NAC sponsors The Falling Leaves Festival, an interactive Powwow, that attracts nearly  2,000 attendees every year!

14. Faith / Interfaith; CHAI, an ERG for Jewish Employees at American Express

*Leaders from these ERGs or companies have participated in our Community Accelerator
**Leaders from these ERGs or companies are members of our Cultivators Community

Which companies already have Employee Resource Groups?

ERGs aren't new - they've been around for decades. 90% of Fortune 500 companies have them in some way, shape, or form. What is relatively new is the behavior of sharing visibility into an organization's internal mission regarding ERGs or affinity groups. This change is because employers are now providing more transparency into ERG-related initiatives. After all, employees & customers are actively demanding to see more demonstrations of companies' commitment to DE&I.

The data on ERGs show a clear correlation between company size and ERG infrastructure, and it’s mostly large organizations that make up The DiversityInc Top Companies for Employee Resource Groups. The companies on this list are assessed with a few factors in mind, including:

• Whether ERGs have formal charters

• Racial/gender breakdown of groups

• Percentage of top executives who are sponsors of groups

• Whether ERGs are used for recruitment, on-boarding of new employees, talent development, marketing, mentoring and diversity training

• If the ERG’s success is measured through retention, engagement, talent development and other contributions to business, such as focus groups, client interactions, marketing ideas

But, DEI leaders in smaller companies shouldn’t be discouraged by the norm. We wrote about this recently in a blog post, Are Employee Resource Groups Only For Big Companies? Short Answer: No.  While most small companies haven't historically invested in ERGs, some standout examples are managing to offer multiple ERG options to serve employee populations that are a fraction of the size of those listed above.

The point is, it doesn’t matter what kind of company you work for. All companies can benefit from empowering their people to create workplace communities, like ERGs, inside of their organization.

You want to start an ERG in your organization.

This is exciting! The early stages of workplace community building can be a fun and engaging part of the process. Here are three things to consider as you get started.

1. Get support

While many companies lately have been forthright about their commitment to building workplace communities amongst their employees, you may still find yourself in a position where you need to make your case. Perhaps you can sense a tinge of hesitancy from your supervisor who is already concerned about your workload, or you’ve witnessed a colleague face barriers to this sort of thing in the past. Whatever stands in your way, here are a few tips.

There's little out there that beats a good story. Fill your arsenal with the types of workplace communities you know exist out there. Weave those narratives into your pitch so that you feel confident and credible. Storytelling is a "fundamental human experience that unites people and drives stronger deeper connections." Consider sharing examples that are both emotionally impactful & relevant to what's happening in the world.

Have a pulse on how your ERG objectives align with overall business goals. By doing so, your ERG will be in a better position to influence business processes like recruiting, career development, product launches, and marketing strategies. By combining forces, you can further your colleagues’ sense of belonging.

Get curious about your senior leaders and identify an executive sponsor who might have a special interest in your ERG-related initiatives. Find out how executive sponsorship works at your respective organization. In some organizations, like Ford, for example, management is responsible for assigning executive sponsors. In other companies, the sponsor is chosen by the Employee Resource Group members. As the ERG leader, it also helps to clearly outline and communicate your expectations of the executive sponsor role & responsibilities. In what ways can your executive sponsor best support the ERG as an influential advocate & mentor?

2. Set a clear purpose

Strong communities know exactly who they are, why they exist, and what they have to offer, so that’s what you should focus on defining when you choose to start building an ERG. Once you critically examine your foundation and context, you can clearly articulate your community’s strategic direction and get ready to accelerate.

Purpose (and value) are the cornerstones of your community: the pieces that must be in place before you can make intentional decisions about nearly every other aspect of your community's identity, experience, structure, and leadership. For workplace communities, the purpose has to be contextualized to align your foundation with your organization's mission and goals.

A community purpose statement is a clear, concise way to introduce your community to others while also serving as a type of rubric to guide future decisions about the community.To accomplish these goals, your purpose statement should describe all three aspects of your "community formula":

Let’s try a quick 10-minute exercise:

💡Identify six keywords/phrases to incorporate in your community purpose statement
💡Next, speed draft three versions of a community purpose statement
Here’s an example from a participant in our Spring 2021 Community Accelerator cohort: Our Families ERG strives to connect caregivers, fostering a community of shared experiences and knowledge while supporting work/life harmony and career growth.
💡Draft a new version of your community purpose statement from your three-speed draft versions

*Activity! Download the Purpose Activity PDF

3. Recruit members

Now that you have buy-in & a way to articulate your community’s purpose, it’s time to find the people who will bring your Employee Resource Group to life. These people will be your community’s DNA! So, it’s important to make a valiant effort to reach as many potential community members in the organization as possible.

Start your recruitment strategy with a recruitment plan. Your recruitment plan will include some high-level decisions about how employees can become members, along with your notes on specific strategies for finding the right people to join your movement. Here are three questions you can ask to help set a foundation for your plan:

💡How might you raise awareness about your ERG throughout the organization?
💡How might you make it easy for people to join, apply, and/or nominate potential members?
💡How might you maximize the diversity of your potential member pool?

*Activity! Download the Member Recruitment PDF

You are an ERG leader and want to increase member engagement

1. Onboarding new members

Onboarding for any organization is a critical part of the employee experience. Why? Because it sets the tone. 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years if they had a positive onboarding experience. When you craft a positive onboarding experience for your new ERG members, they feel welcomed into the community and more comfortable starting to form connections with their fellow members.

Here are a few questions you can consider when designing an onboarding experience:

💡What is the purpose of the onboarding experience from the members’ perspective?
💡What specifically should new members walk away with by the end of the experience?
💡What benefits can existing community members gain from onboarding new members? 

*Activity! Download the Design New Member Onboarding PDF

2. Get to know your members

A community isn't a community without people, so it’s important to focus on your current members, exploring their needs and their journeys into and through the ranks of your community. 

You’ll have a tough time improving engagement if you aren’t sure what your members want/need. A great way to take inventory of current members is by interviewing them. It might sound obvious, but it’s an underused and often skipped-over approach. A few tips for your interviews:

💡Be prepared – write & rehearse your introduction and questions in advance
💡Be curious – ask questions with an open mind & follow where the conversation leads
💡Be accurate – listen carefully & capture details without infusing judgment

Here are a few sample questions:

❓What is at least one thing you would like to gain from participating in this community in the future?
❓Describe your ideal forms of interaction with the community. (How would you prefer to connect with other members?)
❓What do you personally get out of participating in the community/what value does it provide to you?

*Activity! Download the Interview a Community Member PDF

3. Embrace the power of rituals

Ritual design is complicated. So, let’s start with well-known rituals that already exist. The Holi Festival of Colors, for example, is a festival of love that celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The ritual here is throwing color– a symbol of goodwill. During most sporting events, teams experience the ritual of a team huddle before the game begins–a symbol of teamwork and unity. At a wedding, one might experience the ritual of cutting the cake– a symbol of two individuals becoming a unit. Can you think of more rituals like this that exist in your everyday life? If you already have an established Employee Resource Group, can you think of any rituals that exist in that community? 

Kursat Ozenc and Margaret Hagan of ritualdesignlab.org define a ritual as an act, done in a particular situation and in the same way each time, that has been imbued with symbolism and meaning. 

How does this relate to communities? According to Ozenc & Hagan, “when you practice a ritual that others have practiced before you — or that others are practicing at the same time as you – the actions make you feel connected to them.”  It makes you feel like you are a part of something bigger than yourself.

Even the smallest rituals can be powerful ways to reinforce your members' feeling of connection to the community. You can design your own ritual moments by choosing an occasion, identifying a specific emotion, and aligning symbols and actions that can tap into that emotion.

These are just three ideas for increasing engagement, but it will take more creativity and experimentation to find what works for your unique community. 

You lead a thriving ERG and want to sustain engagement

1. Create a data strategy

A fundamental part of increasing engagement is knowing how to measure engagement. As an experienced ERG lead, you have probably already experienced the frustration of measuring engagement among members. One of the many important tasks of a community manager is collecting, analyzing, and using data to make strategic decisions that best serve your community members.

Your approach to collecting, analyzing, and using community data moving forward should be grounded in your community's purpose and value. You'll also need an understanding of practical constraints like access and resources for data collection/analysis. Use the activity below to start building your data strategy.

*Activity! Download the Build Your Data Strategy PDF

Once you've built a data strategy with a comprehensive understanding of the data collection and analysis available to you, it's time to make a more mature infrastructure for hosting that data collection in one place.

2. Make the case for compensating leaders

As of September 30th, 2021, Autodesk announced that it will be paying its ERG leads. Now, these ERG leads will receive $10,000 or the local currency equivalent each year.

We think this movement has only just begun.

ERG leaders are cause-driven advocates who willingly take on additional responsibilities that impact the success and culture of their respective organizations–and we think it’s about time they were paid for it. Sustaining ERG communities (and their value to the organization as a whole) requires acknowledging that it takes work (and a lot of it) to be an integral part of the community-building process. Learn more about our take on making the case for paying ERG leaders. 

Want to join the bandwagon? Check out who else is on it.

3. Stay curious

Never. Stop. Learning. One of the best ways to sustain your ERG & help it survive the test of time is by constantly learning how others are approaching similar problems. If you’re running a Women’s ERG, it might be helpful to see how the Women’s ERG at Slack creates community. If you’re running a mental health ERG, join an online community specifically built for leaders like you. Maybe you’re just curious how other ERGs are operating– there’s so much useful information out there. Our advice? Look for content that highlights & features real people leading real ERGs.

Your curiosity may lead you to in-person events at some point. Here are a few conferences for you to keep top of mind:

• ERG Council Conference 

• EmERGe

• National ERG Conference

• National Diversity & Leadership Conference 

Last but certainly not least, if you are at the point of sustaining your ERG community, it might be the perfect time to invest in your own professional development. We created a 4-week cohort-based online course called the Community Accelerator, designed to help leaders like you build thriving communities, create lasting impact, and drive positive change within their organizations. We run this program twice a year & have alumni from incredible, global organizations like Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Alcon, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, Medtronic, and more. We’d love for you to join us.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re a new ERG leader or have been doing this thing for a while, the same fact remains: creating, maintaining, and sustaining a workplace community is hard work! But, with this toolkit, we’re excited to see you hit the ground running no matter what stage of ERG leadership you’re in. 

Bookmark this page, and come back as much as you’d like! If you have any questions along the way or want to dive deeper into some of the strategies we’ve shared here, don’t hesitate to give us a shout in the comments!

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