Recruiting Connections Podcast: Creating Impactful Employee Resource Groups

In today's increasingly remote work environment, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have become a vital component in fostering connection, collaboration, and a sense of belonging among employees. ERGs are employee-led groups that bring together individuals who share common interests, backgrounds, or characteristics, providing a platform for support, networking, and professional development.

Our recent podcast episode featuring Kimberly Stephan Tate, Career, DE&I Employee Resource Group Consultant, and IQTalent's Chris Murdock delves into the importance of ERGs and their impact on company culture and performance.

One of the key benefits of ERGs is their ability to bridge the gap between remote employees, promoting a sense of community and camaraderie that can have a direct impact on job satisfaction and performance. Research has shown that employees are more likely to be engaged and productive at work when they feel connected to their peers.

In addition to fostering connection among employees, ERGs also play a crucial role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) within the workplace. As Kimberly Stephan Tate explains, "ERGs can help create a more inclusive culture by providing opportunities for employees to learn about different perspectives and experiences."

Driving Change Through ERGs: Insights from Kimberly Stephan Tate and IQTalent's Chris Murdock

Chris Murdock: Where does a company start? You saw an opportunity to leverage the LGBTQ pride ERG as a launchpad. Let's get into the tactical side. How does a company go about identifying where to start and making sure everything's resourced properly?

Kimberly Stephan Tate: The very first thing is getting educated. Getting educated on how really investing in diversity, equity, and inclusion actually impacts your bottom line in a positive way. It's really getting educated and understanding where. Women and people of color can be disadvantaged in the workplace. Harvard Business Review did an article a couple of years ago about if you only have one woman in your final slate of candidates, she statistically has no chance of getting hired, right?

Chris Murdock: Yes. At least two.

Kimberly Stephan Tate: That's right. If you have two, her chances of one of them getting hired go up to 79%. The same thing is true of people of color. If you don't have anyone or if you only have one, you have no chance. But if you have two people of color, Their chances go up by 193%. So it's all about education, understanding what is working against the people in your company or the potential candidates that are women or people of color.

The second thing I would say is to start small and build a strategy. Think about who your company wants to be when it grows up. What is your commitment to your people? What strategically do you wanna do? How do you wanna impact the culture? How do you wanna impact your hiring decisions? Three. It's building a framework. So if you want to have employee resource groups, what does that charter look like? How do you educate people on what an ERG is? What is it not? Right? And then thinking through making some small baby steps, growing it organically, and then don't feel like you have to go at it alone.

There are a lot of people that do diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting, myself included. Reach out to somebody that really has done this before and modeled it over and over again so you're not spending weeks, months, or hours reinventing the wheel when there are proven tools already out there to help you get started.

Chris Murdock: One of the things that will happen pretty quickly if you don't have a strong company culture and you're trying to put some ERGs in place, I think you're gonna find that out pretty quickly about your culture. You may think you've got a good culture, you may think you've got a clear mission statement, and you may think you've got a clear value set.

But you might be wrong.

Kimberly Stephan Tate: And you know what? You're so spot on. Culture is everything. So millennials and Gen Z tell us that I need to work for a company that aligns with my value system. They're not just going and applying to every job out there.

They're really being meticulous and looking at a company's value system. What are the leadership’s principles? Do you say something externally about LGBTQ people? Do you say something about people of color? And by the way, do you not just say something, do you do something? Do you have action? And I think that's a real shift in our culture because lots of companies thought they had DE&I programs, and they got caught with their pants down.

When we started to really talk about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a lot of people, it was just your mouth talking about how you value DE&I, but it wasn't really embedded in your business. And so I think incredible intentionality must be there, or you're not going to be an employer of choice.

And if you do get new hires, they're not going to stay very long.

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