Dow, No. 89 on the 2023 Fortune 100 Greatest Corporations to Work For®, shares worker useful resource group suggestions that most worth to staff and the group.
Worker useful resource teams aren’t new innovations, however they’ve taken on further significance in recent times.
As a central pillar of many variety, fairness, inclusion & belonging (DEIB) methods, these teams received the highlight amid the social upheaval of the post-pandemic period. In 2023, as many corporations are pulling again on DEIB initiatives, worker useful resource teams (ERGs) deserve a more in-depth look.
Can these networks proceed to drive change for companies within the coming decade?
Corporations like Dow suppose they’re essential for future success. Alveda J. Williams, Ph.D., chief inclusion officer at Dow, outlined seven worker useful resource suggestions to enhance any group in a session for our 2022 For All™ Summit:
1. Set up your worth proposition
It’s essential to be specific about what you hope your ERGs will accomplish.
“Worker useful resource teams are supposed to be a useful resource for the worker,” Williams shared. However how can these teams even be a useful resource to your group?
“ERGs are an ideal place to get the voice of the worker,” Williams stated. “They supply a possibility to assemble market info, market analysis, and in addition drive firm priorities.”
When you could have readability on what you need your ERGs to perform, these priorities show you how to make different necessary selections.
[Hear from more inspiring leaders at our next For All™ Summit May 7-9, 2024 in New Orleans]
2. Construct a sturdy governance construction
ERGs will need to have a voice inside the group and participation from the best ranges of management on the firm.
For Dow, ERGs are embedded within the inclusion and variety (I&D) governance construction which consists of three distinct councils:
- President’s Inclusion Council. All worker useful resource group govt sponsors and different senior executives on the firm kind this group to set company DEIB technique.
- Senior Leaders’ Inclusion Council. All individuals leaders at Dow are required to take part in at the very least one ERG. This council brings collectively purposeful, enterprise, and regional leaders throughout the corporate to floor alternatives and challenges in executing the corporate’s DEIB technique.
- Joint Inclusion Council. This council options the worldwide chief of every of the ten ERGs working at Dow and ensures ERG members have a platform to trade greatest practices, collaborate on enterprise work, and assist inform companywide coverage and programming.
This three-tiered construction permits Dow’s ERGs to have a seat on the desk and provide suggestions whereas making certain participation from prime enterprise leaders throughout the group. “All of them work in live performance,” Williams stated.
3. Insist on measurement and accountability
How will you measure the affect of your ERGs? At Dow, probably the most scrutinized quantity is workforce participation. Greater than half of all employees at Dow (54.6% in 2022) take part in at the very least one ERG.
To trace participation numbers, Dow has arrange a digital ERG device to precisely measure participation, which it defines as the proportion of staff who’re signed up for a number of of the ten ERGs.
Workers can entry the device to be taught extra in regards to the ERGs, view a calendar of occasions world wide, and most significantly, to enroll to hitch any of the obtainable teams.
“At any level, we are able to see how we’re transferring, … if there are components of the organizations which can be transferring slower than others, how every ERG is performing, how we’re doing with individuals chief participation,” Williams shared.
For accountability, Dow ties ERG participation to the way it pays efficiency award bonuses.
“All 3,000 individuals leaders in our firm are held accountable collectively,” Williams stated. Dow units cheap year-end aims and it measures progress.
4. Discover strategic alignment
What can ERGs take accountability for that additionally has a tangible affect on the group? Dow offers strategic path to the ERGs by way of an annual ERG agenda. In 2022, ERGs have been tasked with selling well-being, serving to recruit the perfect new expertise, supporting the corporate’s “decarbonize and develop” technique, accelerating provider variety, and different necessary firm objectives.
“Discover a north star, in order that [your ERGs] really feel linked to the higher goal of the corporate,” Williams stated.
5. Enhance engagement and activation
There are numerous causes that staff don’t take part in ERG programming, Williams stated. The perfect corporations ask, “How do I take away the boundaries?”
“If there’s any person that’s operating a producing plant that wishes to be part of an ERG, however they’ll’t merely due to the character of their job, how can we assist with that?” Williams defined.
To energise ERG members, Dow brings collectively 500 staff from 30 international locations — all ERG individuals — for its EMERGE convention. Attendees join with senior leaders, community with each other, take heed to insightful audio system, and take part in volunteer actions in Houston.
By reaching out to those 500 hyper-engaged staff, Dow is ready to faucet into their networks and use them as worker advocates.
6. Supply advocacy and motion
ERG members must be empowered to advocate for points that matter to them.
Williams gave two examples of how this has occurred at Dow:
- The Girls’s Inclusion Community pushed for stronger parental go away insurance policies and have been profitable in getting Dow to supply 16 weeks of paid go away for any new mother or father, no matter gender.
- The Veterans Community helped set up a coverage at Dow the place individuals who achieved a rank of E6 or increased within the navy could possibly be thought-about to have the equal of a bachelor’s diploma.
Be sure that ERGs are consulted as you’re employed by way of massive adjustments to individuals insurance policies, expertise and recruitment methods, and extra.
7. Connect with enterprise success
The final tip from Williams: Make sure that ERGs have a direct affect on enterprise outcomes.
Even at a B2B firm like Dow, there are many alternatives for ERGs to recommend services that drive income.
By means of a partnership with Underneath Armour and Dow’s LGBTQ+ ERG, Dow’s know-how is now within the mid-sole of Underneath Armor Delight Assortment footwear. “It is a chance to not simply construct enterprise, however a possibility to display visibly our advocacy for LGBTQ+ individuals,” Williams stated.
One other instance got here from the World African Affinity Community, the place members shared how they wrestle to search out merchandise for his or her hair at retail shops. By listening to ERG members, Dow began to see alternatives.
“We’ve received chemistry experience,” defined Williams. “What can we do to develop textured hair care options?” These questions led to new merchandise and income for the corporate, revealing the ability of asking ERGs to take part in business-critical conversations.
Williams emphasised the significance of serving to staff join ERG participation with future success for the enterprise.
“There’s a purpose that we wish you to be engaged,” she stated. “There’s a enterprise case.”
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