Setting up ERGs for Success.

If you are setting up from scratch, consider creating an appeal for champions from within the organisation to come forward. Groups led and formed by passionate champions (instead of by members of the senior leadership or People team) will feel more natural, informal and relaxed.

Once you have champions, set them the task of helping you to generate volunteers, and welcoming new members with casual get-to-know-you meet-ups (virtually or in person) as the group/s form, led by the champions, over a number of weeks.

2. Give Strategic Direction

Whilst micro-management can quickly stifle a group, lack of direction can be just as demotivating. Clear, strategic direction can be a vitally important success factor in the success of your groups.

If you have strategic goals that you want your groups to help with, from your EDI Health Check results for example; recruitment, improving retention, creating successful apprenticeship programmes, improving employee engagement, or simply broadening the organisation’s cultural awareness, it’s important to give these to the group.

Give them in the form of strategic direction, rather than a list of “things to do”.

It’s also important to make sure that both the organisation and the group are clear on expectations.

If you’ve already got your data using the Powered By Diversity EDI Health Check, you’ll have 140 data points about diversity, equality and inclusion at your organisation to choose from. Use your results to set strategic direction for your EDI groups.

We had a big learning curve the first time we formed D&I groups. They all came together really enthusiastically, but without any direction from the leadership level.
Fairly quickly we had a list of 20 - 50 requests for change and ideas - from each of our five groups. That put us in the awful position of having to tell them we were sorry but the budget wouldn’t even cover ten percent of what they had asked for.

Stan CIO & Powered By Diversity Collective Member.

3. Chill First

Encourage groups to meet informally in sessions where they get to know each other and build trust. Allow groups to get to a place where they can talk openly in a relaxed atmosphere, before they are asked to start discussing initiatives.

It’s amazing how a slice of cake will tempt people away from their desks.
Having a drop-in coffee morning rather than a formal meeting is also a great way to bring people together for an informal chat and grow the community organically. That’s how our first meetings started.

Rather than an agenda, I used my own experiences to encourage a safe and open place for discussions. Having allies involved, helped not only the allies to understand what challenges were being faced, but they could also then be part of the solution.

Whilst it can be daunting turning up not knowing what to expect or running your first EDI group session, remember, like minded people will want to join. At the start they’ll be looking for guidance. Over time they will become active participants.

Carol Johnson Founder of internal EDI group ‘Women in Tech Not Just Code’.

4. Budget for Success

It’s a good idea to allow the groups some budget, starting at the forming stage, so that they can get together in a more neutral, less formal setting.

Later, they can use the budget for running and catering events, booking venues, attending ticketed events and paying diverse speakers.

Investing in these groups will also have the benefit of showing them that their work and dedication is valuable to the organisation and that their input is going to be taken seriously.

We strongly recommend sending at least some of your Champions and EDI volunteers on the Powered By Diversity Ambassador Certification program to get them feeling sustainably confident in every area of EDI. Armed with the language and tools they need to lead EDI change, companies who have invested in their EDI groups in this way find that their groups are more engaged and take their (voluntary and often unpaid) EDI role more seriously.

5. Sponsor them at Leadership Level

Appeal for an executive (most senior) level leadership sponsor for each group that forms.

The executive sponsor should be personally engaged with the group topic because they will need to act as advocates and should be accountable for helping the group to succeed.

The task of executive sponsorship may involve apportioning budget for events or initiatives, helping the group to present ideas to the executive board or the wider business, or getting ideas in front of the people who have the power to decide on them. Executive sponsors may need to lend their own positional power to influence the discussion, so a personal passion for the topic is fairly key.

In our experience of working with clients at different stages of their D&I journey, the difference of having an executive level sponsor or not can be crucial in effecting real and impactful change.

We see first-hand the benefit that active involvement from senior leaders can have on D&I groups that are putting the effort and time in, but struggling to get the ball rolling.

As we know, most meaningful change must be driven with a top-down approach, and executive level sponsors have the influence and platform to realise this change and accelerate your D&I journey.

— Cynthia Davis CEO and founder of BAME Recruitment.

Ensure that the agenda of the group is always their agenda.

Yes, groups will eventually come up with ideas to help ensure the organisation is always inclusive, but if Diversity and Inclusion groups get the feeling they only exist to serve you, their enthusiasm will soon dwindle.

Do establish a cadence for two-way updates - agree with the group who will provide updates, to whom, and how often.

Working with inclusion and diversity groups from exec level, enables groups to have their collective voice heard by an ally who has the opportunity to sponsor them to make change.

Utilising your position of privilege (even if that is just the privilege of your position as exec) to empower and drive change is the most important thing you can do. Listen, encourage and take feedback on board regularly.

What business leaders say and do has a pronounced effect on others and even more so when they lead diverse teams. Teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report that they are high performing and 20% more likely to say they make high-quality decisions (HBR). The hard work was getting to know my inclusive-leadership shadow, blind spots and working to make adjustments to foster inclusivity and belonging.

Kate Head of Communities & Partnerships.

6. Agree On What Success Looks Like

The Powered By Diversity EDI Health Check is a super simple way to get 140 data points about Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in your organisation. Using this rich, diagnostic data to agree collectively on some data points you’d like to improve over the period - and when you will re-measure - is a great way to set up your Diversity and Inclusion groups for success.

It’s important that achieving success is seen as a joint effort - not the sole responsibility of the D&I group/ ERG. Sustainable, cultural change requires whole organisational engagement, a D&I group is unlikely to be able to achieve this alone.

Whenever I’m working on a transformation or change management project, the first thing I do is bring key stakeholders together to define our goals and articulate how we will measure success against those goals. Without this alignment, everyone will swim in their own direction, wasting valuable time and resources, and ultimately creating confusion and lack of progress.

A diversity and inclusion project requires the same level of diligence, if not more. Besides process and protocols, it also requires change of attitudes, behaviour and culture. This is hard work. So you’ve got to make sure everyone agrees on what success looks like up front.

Robin Zaragoza Founder & CEO, The Product Refinery

7. Ask for help

If you’re still working on creating diverse teams more widely in the organisation, diversity groups can be called upon to give their perspectives on your outputs; from job adverts to TV adverts, products, packaging, press releases and copy.

Remember, your group is made up of individuals with preferences and unique perspectives - ensure you are looking for, and valuing this when asking for help. Be mindful not to ask your diversity groups to speak on behalf all people with their characteristics - your aim should be to work towards having diverse teams creating your output, rather than falling back on a small minority in a diversity group to provide feedback on someone else’s output.

Diverse perspectives are needed to ensure that representation is authentic and reflects those that work for you, or the clients that you want to attract.

Representation matters from the very beginning of our lives. As a child I was regularly reduced to ableist tropes that upset and scarred me. Years of work as an adult have seen me acknowledge these hurts, hurts that caused me to internalise ableism. Hurts that caused me to believe that I wasn’t pretty enough, perfect enough, or just enough, as is.

All people want is to feel seen and heard. This is why a diverse team, that you can work with to create authentic outputs, is so important.

Liz Wright Paralympic Athlete and Founder and Editor of Conscious Being, the online magazine for disabled women by disabled women.

A lot of organisations, from SME’s to large corporations, are getting nervous about their ‘D&I’ strategy, or lack thereof, which creates a climate of fear around these topics that easily slips into division and resentment.

Asking for help, admitting you don’t have all the answers (or resources) and reaching out to Diversity and Inclusion groups for their opinion or thoughts is a sign of strength, and a company willing to listen and improve.

Be mindful, however, that this is emotional and intellectual labour - so just like you would hire someone to do your auditing, marketing or IT, you should hire/pay someone (or a research panel) to make sure your outputs are culturally inclusive and representative

Tzeitel Degiovanni Consultant & Gender theorist

8. Expect Rejection

Be prepared to face rejection. Your Diversity and Inclusion groups are actually their diversity and inclusion groups - a place for support, collaboration, shared experiences, allyship and meaningful change - not a free focus group to be leaned on constantly.

Yes, you may need help from your Diversity and Inclusion groups, but avoid asking them to educate you and the rest of the organisation. Instead, ask them for help with something only they would know, such as what the hiring process was like for them, what appealed to them about the company, organisation-specific recommendations on how life at work could be improved, or how as an individual they can be better supported. With the right support from the highest levels of the business, diversity groups will more than likely begin to tell you what they want to do.

9. Help Them Form

Sometimes forming groups can feel awkward, especially if it’s a peer group without hierarchy and with lots of members.

It can feel directionless and groups can quickly turn into talking/ moaning shops, where members can leave meet-ups feeling demotivated - rather than inspired.

It’s an idea to ask the groups to prepare something for the executive leadership team to see within the first three months.

It can be anything from “our observations of life at work here” to “recommendations for how we can improve x, y or z”.

A task like this will give the group a focus, but will also afford them the important time they need to properly form.

Never under-estimate the power of asking questions! Ask for input into everything and be prepared to guide and direct conversations, especially if things are drifting away from the answers you are looking for.

Before launching That Works For Me, we had a Facebook group where we sought opinion on everything from stats on members’ own working styles through to our colour palette for our logo. People were so engaged and loved sharing their views. Still now they love that they contributed to the making of our business!

Jess Heagren CEO and Cofounder That Works For Me

You can also suggest that your groups plan talks, reviews industry statistics or reports, and discusses successful inclusion/ equality efforts at other companies. They could also recommend diverse speakers and suggest - or even run - events.

Other valuable questions to ask D&I groups are:

• How can we make this business more attractive to prospective employees?

• How can we increase internal engagement with what this business is trying to achieve?

• How can we make you feel more satisfied with your career?

10. Allies Are Important

People who do not have a particular protected characteristic or difference, but still want to support the group are often called allies.

I have never been in a group where allies were not warmly welcomed. I am a white, heterosexual, non-disabled man, but I am also a husband, a father and a manager. I attended the meetings of all of our women's groups as well as our race and ethnicity, parents and LGBTQ+ groups.

The things I learnt in the groups where I was an ally opened my eyes; there were so many daily challenges faced by people I was working alongside, that I simply had no idea about.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that becoming aware of those challenges completely changed the way I worked - and lived.”

Robert, IT Project Manager

Allies can be an important success factor for diversity and inclusion groups by helping to increase the population’s general awareness of the challenges faced by different groups, which is an essential step in helping to reduce, minimise or eliminate them.

Showing up is the first step, but it’s important to remember that being an ally is more than just listening. Being a true ally is an active process. It’s less about saying and more about doing.

Recently we have seen an increase in people publicising they are an ally to a minoritised group or groups of people. This is fantastic, but for allies to contribute to culture change, they need to take an active role in challenging harassment, discrimination and bias. For example, being a race ally means more than not being racist, it means actively being anti-racist.

There are many ways to show allyship, from addressing inappropriate behaviour, to ensuring inclusive practice - it doesn’t need to be confrontational. However one key point to remember is that being an ally does not mean speaking for people or taking on a ‘saviour’ role - this isn’t about you raising your own profile and it definitely is not a trend.

Being an ally can be a valuable reverse mentoring experience in recognising privilege, even the most inclusive colleagues can grow from active listening to the lived experiences of minoritised people and taking their lead in making changes. A great starting point, the website Be an Ally offers the following list of Do’s and Don’ts of being an ally to any minority group

Sarah Mohammad-Qureshi University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor

STEMConnext was originally created for Women in Tech but in order to be fully inclusive and to encourage male allies as well as support all minorities in STEM careers, we dropped the byline women in tech and became a fully inclusive network, demonstrating how diversity and inclusion benefits all.

Gill Cooke Founder, STEMConnext

What if we’re too small or not diverse enough to form D&I Groups?

For small businesses, creating groups may be difficult for obvious reasons.

Find diversity and inclusion champions within your business and team them up with champions from a few other businesses in your local area to form joint groups - or reach out to larger businesses and ask whether your champions could join up with their groups.

If you run a larger business, why not reach out to smaller businesses in your area and ask if their champions would like to join your group/s. Encourage your champions to attend local diversity and inclusion meet-ups and events.

With the right support from the highest level of the business, a D&I group can, in itself, have the benefit of giving its members a sense of belonging. This can be a significant step creating an environment where employees feel more included in, and engaged with the business as a whole.