7 survey questions that will help ERG leaders build community engagement

A strategic ERG leader keeps the group’s mission and its members in mind when planning programs, events, and initiatives. In order to build and serve an inclusive community, it’s important to gather feedback from members to assess the ERG’s effectiveness.?

During last week’s LinkedIn Live Show , I was joined by Félix Manuel Chinea , Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Manager at Doximity. Félix is also the co-founder of Doximity's first ERG BIPOC@Dox, and shared with us the importance of setting goals, tracking metrics, and measuring progress.?

“Start off with questions,” Félix says. “Thinking about the mission, how can you best serve your community? What are your community’s needs? What are folks hoping to gain from this effort?” One way to develop this data is to conduct a survey to learn more about what members are missing from the community.?

Here are 7 questions you can ask members to better understand their experience and gather suggestions for future initiatives:

1. What was your favorite ERG activity/program/initiative you participated in within the last 12 months and why??
2. What was your least favorite ERG activity/program/initiative you participated in within the last 12 months and why??
3. What activity/program/initiative(s) would you like to see our ERG hold in the future??
4. What topics would you like to see covered in future activity/program/initiative(s)?
5. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your membership in our ERG?
6. What do you hope to get out of your experience as an ERG member?
7. How can our leaders improve communication within the group?

Keeping questions concise and as few as possible will result in more responses and thoughtful answers.?

The qualitative and quantitative data you receive from these surveys will inform which metrics your ERG should continue tracking over time, such as membership participation, satisfaction, retention, and any other data that shows how the ERG assisted with DEI and HR objectives.

Once you’ve gathered this data, it’s time to create an action plan.?

“If you’re asking people to answer questions, you’re asking them to trust you and believe you’re going to do something actionable,” Félix says.?

Your action plan can look like bringing in guest speakers, hosting a virtual Lunch N Learn, or creating a more streamlined communication strategy. As the ERG leadership team makes these changes, it’s important to share with members a summary of the survey results and what members can expect from the ERG moving forward in order to build trust.?

ERG leaders can then take these survey results and share them with company executives, DEI leaders, and the HR department to show the impact the ERG has on employee engagement and creating a sense of belonging.?

Deploy this survey every 4 to 6 months with similar questions to measure progress and get realigned on your goals for the year.?

Are you interested in building a mission-focused and engaging ERG at your organization??

In a few weeks, Perfeqta is launching our Building a Best-In-Class ERG Toolkit . This toolkit is a self-paced course for ERG leaders who are looking to:

• Engage and retain members?
• Align with company leaders and get buy-in, creating a mutually-beneficial relationship
• Advocate for recognition and compensation from company leaders
• Align with other departments in the organization so the ERG can support the company’s overall DEI goals
• Define the purpose of an ERG and communicate the value to company leadership, ERG members, and the greater community

If you’re an ERG leader, or HR and Talent professional who wants to be notified about the launch of Perfeqta’s ERG Toolkit, be sure to join our waitlist and we’ll send you updates !?

And watch the recording of my LinkedIn Live Show with Félix Manuel Chinea to learn more about building a sustainable ERG.?