Is your organization ready for Employee Resource Groups?
You might be wondering: who do I talk to and how do I see if and when the organization I work for is ready to take the leap into creating and supporting Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)?
The question of “readiness is important” because there are plenty of organizations whose leadership may not feel or be “ready” to support ERGs. If a leader shared they weren’t sure if they were ready for ERGs with me, the first three questions I would ask:
What does ‘not ready’ mean?
What steps can we start to take to help lay the foundation for these groups? OR What steps do we need to take to help us get to a place where we would feel more “ready”??
If we are considering ERGs, but unsure if now is the right time, are we able to bring in a consultant to help us get this off the ground?
We don’t get ready to leave the house by just waiting around and hoping someday we’ll be ready to go out. Nope. We start collecting what we need to go out (the clothes we want, the shoes that are appropriate for the occasion, sunscreen, sunglasses, wallet, keys, mask, sweater, etc.). So as you look internally at your organization and want to get ready to “go outside” (i.e., start an ERG), here are questions you can pose (and start answering) to prepare for the journey:
Asses the current size of the organization to see if there are enough employees to host ERGs. There’s not magic number but an organization with a minimum of 100 people is probably the smallest size of an org to start an ERG. If the org is smaller than 100, but you are still wanting to build affinity spaces I would consider starting with broader DEI council (doesn’t have to have that name or title).
Internally, who (could be an individual, but preferable a team) has capacity to take on managing a new program?
How will requests that come through ERGs be managed?
What will be the order of operations for those requests to be heard, considered, given feedback and returned?
How will leadership, who hears those requests, be prepared to hear feedback?
What kind of training, consulting, or support might they need to understand and hear requests and be willing to make changes?
Is the organization prepared to build a budget that will support the work of ERGs? The budget can be a starting place, it’s not the end all be all. It’s important for leadership to understand that they will need to devote funds to supporting this aspect of employee engagement, leadership, and professional development.
Does the organization have positional leaders who are interested in and able to speak with their peers and those higher up in the organization about the role sponsors play in ERGs?
What role will sponsors play and what will communication look like?
There are many more questions within each of these, but these are a jumping off point as you evaluate the feasibility of ERGs within your organization’s current culture.
If you’re looking to test the waters and see if ERGs are right for your organization, I hope you’ll consider reaching out or looking to see if the ERG Toolkit could be a good fit for you. I designed it so that those at the very beginning stages have a roadmap for building relationships and know the steps you’ll need to take to reach out and start this journey.
