How ERGs Improve Company Culture and the Bottom Line

SThree has a long history of prioritizing inclusion in the workplace. We’re especially proud of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which continue to flourish, grow and impact even more people both inside and outside of the company.?

Over the past two years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in ERGs at SThree due to the rise in social justice awareness and our employees’ desire to take meaningful action. Since August 2020, we’ve introduced seven new ERGs including LGBTQIA+, Women’s, African American, Unidos, Parents, AAPI and Salute (Veteran and Military). We’re not alone. A recent Sequoia survey found that 40% of companies now have ERGs, a 9% increase from last year.

As an organization, we’re committed to strategically supporting our ERGs today, while developing a long-term vision for future programs that impact our global business at every level. I thought I’d share a few examples of what has worked for SThree and give you a glimpse of where we plan to go.?

Start with Your Culture: SThree has made many intentional changes to its culture in support of DEI. Most recently, we named Dawn Fry as our first U.S. Head of DEI. She’s been instrumental in growing and improving both DEI and the ERG program by building a strong team. I realize not every company is in a position to have a dedicated person in this role. But, if you can find someone with a passion for the work try to find the resources to support them.?

In a short time, the group has elevated the culture here in the U.S. in a number of ways. Most impactfully, through a series of surveys and focus groups that provided valuable employee insights around DEI and ERGs. They've been feeding their knowledge and experience to the larger SThree organization. One outcome is the creation of our female leadership cohort. This group of 30 women from sales and specialist functions receives six months of mentorship and leadership training from our global team.? We’re also incorporating inclusive physical spaces such as mothers’ rooms and gender-neutral restrooms in our offices.

Take Action on Equity: As specialists in STEM recruitment services, we know how important it is to increase diversity in the sector, and how the industry still has a long way to go. A Pew Research study found Black and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented in STEM. It also revealed that, while women are the majority of workers in health-related jobs, they fall short in other professions such as the physical sciences, computing, and engineering.?

As a company, we need to lead by example. Our TA teams are tapping the ERGs to help improve diverse hiring and are also helping us actively recruit interns from underserved communities. For instance, the African American ERG made recommendations around connecting with HBCUs, community colleges, and local organizations. We’ve also made significant headway in diversifying our U.S. leadership team, which is now 50% women, and we plan to achieve a 50/50 gender split across all sales levels by 2024. This is not only good for company culture, but research shows it makes good business sense. A McKinsey & Company study found that companies with more than 30 percent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where the percentage ranged from 10 to 30.

We’ve also found formal policies and procedures very effective. A few recent changes we’ve made include the introduction of salary bands for sales roles, which help reduce bias, and we now have HR overseeing promotions to increase fairness.?

Listen to Your ERGs: Our ERGs want to make substantive change and we definitely value their input and welcome it in many capacities, including policy development. An example of where this was incredibly important is when we reworked our employee benefits package. The leadership team was really excited about the results – it was such an improvement for our employees. Upon review of the new policy, the Parent ERG, LGBTQIA+, and Women’s ERG came together to make recommendations around parental leave. We collaborated to make these thoughtful adjustments and now our benefits are even better.

Give Them the Freedom to Shine: At SThree, we trust our ERGs to determine how they want to structure their groups, run their meetings, and develop their programs. The result has been a wide range of initiatives that have informed and inspired many people at SThree, as well as in our local communities. Here’s a small sample of what they’ve recently accomplished:

• Held a pronoun and salutation inclusivity training
• Introduced an employee spotlight program during months that celebrate Hispanic Heritage, Women’s History, and Black History
• Organized fundraisers for UrbanEd, SOS Cuba Movement, Young Black & Lit, and The Trevor Project?
• Created a Black History social media and communications campaign
• Conducted an LBGTQIA+ virtual drag race featuring some of our most senior leaders
• Ran a Juneteenth workshop focused on explaining and contextualizing white privilege
• Updated harassment policies across the business
• Created a “Through my Eyes” panel discussion that allowed employees to share their views

Provide Meaningful Support: Freedom doesn’t mean being completely hands-off. Our program is designed to have a designated group member (or several) that take on a leadership role. We provide them with a great deal of support including an external development training program that empowers them to lead an ERG, which can be a daunting responsibility. It helps them understand how to facilitate group work, develop discussion topics, structure meetings, plan events, and more.? We also hold quarterly get-togethers to talk about their goals and how to link back to SThree’s business goals.

Connect ERG and Business Goals: The connection between ERGs and the business is important to SThree. To that end, we look for ways to link our DEI and ESG work back to the business. Since we’ve strengthened the DEI work and grown the ERG program, we’ve seen reduced turnover, higher productivity, and increased engagement and creativity.

One exciting proof point came from our 2021 Q4 employee engagement survey. We included specific questions focused on how U.S. employees viewed DEI. The score revealed that 71% of them were DEI promoters. To put that into perspective, when compared to categories such as general engagement and health and wellness, DEI scored at least 10-30 points higher. We believe the ERGs directly influenced this positive reaction.?

Develop a Roadmap for the Future: Over time, what were once informal affinity groups organized around common interests and backgrounds evolved into the ERGs of today. While ERGs have buy-in from the executive team, and support from HR and can educate and influence the company at different levels, there’s so much more that can be achieved.?

Business Resource Groups (BRG) take ERGs even further by driving value through improved product innovation, customer service, leadership training, recruiting and retention, employee satisfaction, and brand recognition. BRGs not only bring programs to the company and community but they’re actively brought into important conversations and decision-making by leadership on everything from marketing and product development to recruiting and HR policies.

I’m proud of the work we’re doing at SThree around DEI and inspired by our ERGs and all they’ve accomplished. If you have questions or want to share a different approach or perspective, I’d love to hear from you.