Giving employees a voice for change

The concept of employee resource groups (ERGs) is a relatively new one in many Irish workplaces. They are usually self-organising groups of employees who share an interest or a background such as environmental activism, gender, or sexual orientation. Many organisations foster their growth and development as a means of promoting greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

"Employee resource groups can help to create a culture that fosters inclusion and open-mindedness while giving a voice to employees for change they want to see implemented in their organisation," says Mercer Ireland senior consultant Helen McCarthy. "These groups allow employees to interact with other employees outside of their immediate teams, develop new skills and gain access to leadership opportunities by interacting with executive sponsors. ERGs can be an effective way for companies to address diversity and inclusion if they are given adequate funding, management and accountability. ERGs can be part of larger strategy in an organisation to attract and retain diverse talent and build brand awareness by offering mentor relationships and development for workers."

One company which has embraced the concept for quite some time is Dell. “Our ERGs are communities within Dell where team members with common interests or backgrounds bring their collective voices together to drive business impact,” says Marie Moynihan, senior vice-president, global talent acquisition. “Our ERGs are one way we demonstrate our company-wide commitment to creating an inclusive culture. We have 14 at the moment at a global level while in Ireland we have eight.”

The Irish groups include GenNext, which facilitates the professional and personal growth of future leaders at Dell; Women in Action, which enables women to grow and thrive by creating new connections, sharing leadership expertise and building a culture that values diverse perspectives; Pride, which was established to improve the experience at Dell for LGBTQ staff members and allies; Planet, which focuses on the environment; True Ability, which strives to empower employees with a disability or those with special needs, their managers, co-workers and those with an interest in disability issues through best practices.

“Their main purpose is to influence the business and have an impact,” says Moynihan. “For example, True Ability got together to ask what the working environment in Dell is like and they looked at the area of neurodiversity. Some 80 to 90 per cent of neurodiverse people have a tough time getting jobs as standard interviews and recruitment processes do not assess for their talents and skills. As a result, we worked with organisations like Ahead to make it easier for them to get in the door here and we have hired 12 people during the last 18 months. I am certain that if not for the ERG pushing that agenda we would not be as far down that road.”

Women in Action

Another example comes from the Women in Action group. “They designed Stem Aspire – the mentorship programme run in partnership with third-level institutes with team members mentoring women in their final year of their Stem degree,” Moynihan says. “This year, we will have about 200 female students on the programme. They are each assigned a Dell mentor who they meet with every two weeks. It’s to act as a bridge between college and the world of work.”

Law firm Matheson has also established a number of ERGs with an overall group advocating for diversity and inclusion across the organisation. "If people are interested in issues they can focus on them and drive and lead initiatives and events and campaigns in relation to them," says Tara Doyle, partner and head of Asset Management and Investment Funds.

“We have a couple of other resource groups which are more issue-specific. Mums at Matheson is a group that drives female talent retention. Retaining female talent can be challenging for professional services firms generally as women try to balance competing career and family demands. The group introduced a coaching programme a number of years ago to help them through that journey.”

A maternity and paternity buddies programme was also introduced. “We are trying to ensure that we support working fathers as well as working mothers and we are taking a gender-balanced approach to the issue.”

The groups have been successful, says Doyle. “They have been very well received. People now know that it is fine to ask for family-friendly meeting times, for example. The groups have been really important for retention and work-life balance. People working for professional services firms traditionally left themselves outside the office. We want people to bring their whole and best selves to work. That’s something the firm wants to support.”

AIB has six ERGs, according to the banks' diversity and inclusion lead, Siobhan Sweeney. "There are groups for women and men, which are about to be joined together, and four others which fall under different 'I matter' headings dealing with family, Pride, ability and roots. So many people in AIB want to be involved in the groups, they are passionate and want to make a difference. A lot of people have really stepped up and they are all doing it off the side of their desks – it's not part of their day job."

Inclusive environment

Sweeney says ERGs help create a trusting, empowering and inclusive environment by providing employees with an avenue to voice their opinions, suggest change and contribute to cultural change. “They also provide employees with a means of availing of support and guidance on personal circumstances,” she adds. “They assist in building awareness across the workplace on diversity and inclusion areas such as IVF, flexible working arrangements and parental leave options. They also promote and embed diversity and inclusion across an organisation through social events, workshops and training.”

ERGs ensure employees have an opportunity to be heard, valued and engaged, she adds. “This may seem like a basic principle, but ERGs really have the capacity to elevate the voices of employees who may often be overlooked,”she points out. “By providing this platform to connect and advance initiatives, the organisation’s leadership can have a better understanding of employees’ needs and wants. ERGs can be a great avenue to solving some key challenges an organisation may face, such as recruitment practices and leadership development.”

And they are certainly not talking shop, according to Marie Moynihan. “An ERG is not about a bunch of people sitting around having a chat,” she says. “We carry out regular employee engagement surveys. These show that ERG members are more engaged. One of the problems with large companies is that people can get siloed into their own little boxes. You have to create mechanisms for them to engage at a wider level and ERGs accomplish that. They often lead to greater career opportunities as a result of engaging with a wider network.”