What are the best practices for creating inclusive and diverse ERGs?

Get clear about the specific outcomes you want to achieve with the ERG. Do you seek to build community by creating psychological safety for members of the group? Do you want to gain business insight or innovation ideas from the members? Do you want the ERG to take action to become advocates for the group it represents? By determining, up front, how you want the ERG to impact the organization and the members, you set the future membership up for success.

From my limited experience I found that empowering the ERG and its members to define its purpose goes a long way to make sure you have an ERG which is effective and useful for its members and the organization. Alignment to diversity strategy, values and culture is important but having the ability to drive changes and make suggestions to these will make members of an ERG engaged and effective. They will have the opportunity to shape and influence organization wide initiatives.

I think as Meloney mentioned an important part of empowering an ERG is to foster a safe place which is truly open to suggestions and work from its members. Promoting the ERG to staff and encouraging its work by having senior leadership support their work or attend events is essential. It sends the message that senior leadership supports the ERG, its mission and iys members and is not just another box to tick. Find out what platforms employees engage withe the company on and in addition to the formal email communication, intranet, learning calendar engage employees on social media and other platforms. Embedding ERGs and offering information on their work as part of staff onboarding and orientation helps to make new hires aware of ERGs.

People will only join if they believe your organization fully supports the ERG, and there will be no repercussions for them. When I started the African Heritage ERG at a large, global organization in the sciences industry, many people were apprehensive about joining. Many employees told me that they were concerned that their colleagues might not approve of their participation. Start by getting executive sponsorship, and make it clear to potential participants that the organization fully supports the ERG.

This is a key component of ERG sustainability. Being a local leader of a LGBTQ+ ERG and national leader of a Women's ERG I know first hand the role of organization and delivering value comes into play. Often times the individuals who run these ERGs are volunteers with little to no structural and strategic support. If you can create organization, a communication cadence and leverage the data you have to create value add sessions it will be easier to articulate the successes. This is an area I partner with organizations around to provide support, and materials and creating a value prop for their ERGs.

To maximize the value of the ERG, seek ongoing feedback and input from your stakeholders. Find out what resonates with your members by simply asking. Ask sponsors and other leaders for their insights about the impact of the ERG, and solicit support to continue to elevate the value.

If an ERG does not offer meaningful activities, events, development to its members it will not take off. There has to be a meningful value proposition. Collaborate with members of the ERG to establish the KPIs to collect data on and evaluate to get continuous feedback on the work and effectiveness of the ERG. Empowering ERG staff to co-create will go a long way in engaging them and helping the ERG grow, evolve and adapt.

As the Chicago non-profit partner lead for LinkedIn's LGBTQ+ ERG Out@In, I network with Chicago based organizations in our mission to advance economic opportunity for local LGBTQIA+ people. It sometimes takes persistant outreach through multiple channels and reaching out to multiple contacts to establish a relationship with an external partner. Once you connect, convey your ERGs value proposition and how you might collaborate to achieve each other's goals. At Out@in we offer LinkedIn profile coaching sessions to job seekers, fundraise, organize speaker panels and more. If it's not the right fit, ask for referrals or warm introductions to their contacts at other organizations who might benefit from what your ERG has to offer!

By building a solid internal and external ERG network, you can keep the group fresh and build in innovative ideas and experiences for your members. Additionally, you create a support network for yourself and your ERG members.