"If I don't do it who will?" Employee communities in tech
ERGs have been a feature of corporate life for decades, and have evolved into professional and marketable organisations. Computing examines the scale of this evolution and whether ERGs can act as genuine engines of progress to a more inclusive workplace.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), also known as Employee Communities or Affinity Groups, have been around longer than many may realise.
In the 1960s, against a backdrop of simmering racial tensions in the US, Xerox realised that a progressive hiring policy is only the beginning of a truly diverse and inclusive workplace. By 1970, Black employees, along with the then-CEO of Xerox, founded the National Black Employee Caucus, providing support for Black employees and lobbying for an end to the discrimination they were being subjected to.
Marketing the ERG
Fast forward a few decades, and ERGs are the norm in larger enterprises, with the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies offering employees the opportunity to join communities organised around particular identities or characteristics. Indeed, corporate technology marketing is now full of messaging about diversity and inclusion. Computing approached some of these companies for comment.
PayPal was happy to share details of its employee communities. These include those providing support for women, LGBQT+ employees, Black and Pan-Asian employees, those from LatinX communities, military backgrounds, employees with disabilities and those of multiple faiths. A spokesperson for PayPal further commented:
"Our ERGs are a valuable component of our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy. In addition to connecting team members across identities and experiences, they play a critical role in shaping PayPal's policies and practices around diversity, inclusion equity and belonging. They also provide a valuable sounding board for leadership - helping our executives stay in tune with employee sentiment on global external cultural moments and crises, such as racial injustices, and how the company can support employees through those situations."
Adobe For All is Adobe's company-wide vision for advancing diversity and inclusion. Suzanne Steele, VP and MD, UK and Ireland of Adobe, explains how employee communities fit into this vision.
"Our employee networks are instrumental in building community and driving progress for underrepresented groups within Adobe and the wider technology and creative communities. In addition to building communities and positively shifting employee sentiment, in 2021 network members and employees donated more than $470,000 through employee donations and matching grants during cultural moments, in support of 71 non-profit organisations.
"Our employee networks have also helped drive more than 10,000 employee engagements during cultural moments in 2021. This level of participation shows the support they have within the company and the impact employee networks can make to create a real sense of belonging and inclusivity - the ultimate mission of Adobe For All."
These statements highlight the extent to which ERGs have become professionalised. In many cases they have moved away solely from being a source of allyship and support, and now constitute a fundamental pillar of inclusion strategy. Also notable is the extent to which technology companies are marketing their employee communities. Technology marketers are well aware that they are competing for the mindshare of a typically young and values-driven audience, and employee communities can be used to signal these values very effectively.
The same trends are present in employee demographics. As the labour market has tightened, potential employees are becoming more picky about potential employers, and if an organisation doesn't present a culture of diversity and inclusion, it's going to struggle to attract quality candidates.
This marketing of employee communities isn't damaging in itself, provided companies aren't using ERGs as a way to distract employees from systemic inequalities and delay the more challenging, structural work their organisations need to undertake to correct those inequalities.
Value of volunteering
Another objection to ERGs is that they are powered by volunteering. Computing has already discussed the challenges presented to women in particular by their tendency to pick up the glue work that helps to improve workplaces for everyone. Because so much is voluntary, and under-represented groups create safe spaces for themselves, they can end up being zoned off from those with influence and overlooked for promotion for reasons of visibility and commitment. The volunteer heart of ERGs was one of the reasons Deloitte cited when it announced it was phasing out its ERGs back in 2017.
Marina Snegirjova, Marketing Director EMEA Lifecycle Programs at Zendesk and Pride Employee Community Lead sets out her views, and the position of Zendesk, on this tricky question.
"This is how Pride originated. It was minorities who stood up for themselves. Whenever I get to work on something Pride related in my spare time, I think that if I don't do it, who will do it for me and for my community? For my future wife? For people outside of Zendesk? I think that's the mindset that most people involved in ERGs have."
"However, there should be company support, whether it's a dedicated diversity inclusion workstream, where it's in the job title to work on those issues, or a really strong collaboration and senior support with the audit function such as HR people, legal, the benefits team and so on. I do not think that it is possible to run it solely on volunteer work because that would cause people to burn out. We are lucky in Zendesk to have a really tight collaboration with our Diversity and Inclusion team that reduces overheads on myself, who has a day job and then volunteers with interviews and speaking opportunities and running some of the things for the community.
"I might be informed of a speaking opportunity where I get to build my personal brand. It might be a regular connection with the CEO, and an opportunity to have a different level of discussion that I wouldn't be exposed to normally in my day-to-day job. It might be additional training specifically developed with our external partners for minority groups."
Executive reach matters
None of the unintended negative consequences of ERGs are inevitable. As Snegirjova emphasises, running or belonging to an employee community can bring real benefits to those involved, and they can provide a vital space for individuals who might be encountering challenges when it comes to bringing their whole selves to work.
"I do believe that ERGs play a very important role because not every minority has its voice for the time being and it's on allies to support them, so these voices create those spaces because sometimes minorities don't feel empowered to come out and empowered to be themselves."
It is the wider business that determines whether or not ERGs can genuinely help to make that business more diverse and inclusive, according to Chris Wood, Founder and Executive Director of LGBT Tech, a US-based non-for-profit organisation that develops programmes to support LGBTQ+ communities and educate organisations and policy makers on the unique needs of LGBTQ+ individuals both working in and using technology.
"It's really telling when a company forms a DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] group and puts no money behind it. That is asking the employees to go ahead and be the voice for the company around that diversity. Most people that join those groups or create those groups are very passionate about it and are looking to take that on and it's important to recognise that, but that is very distinct from the situations where a company says that they want to create a group, but that group is completely responsible for all the training and education."
"As a leader, if I were to look within a company, I would ask how a group is funded, how much it's funded and why, and does that group have the autonomy and the ability to go out and find the resources for the company and purchase the resources for the company that would be needed in order to improve the improve the space for all?"
Marina Snegirjova echoes this point by emphasising the significant executive reach of the Pride community at Zendesk.
"We have made a much closer partnership with the Diversity and Inclusion group that helps us to advocate with the HR or benefits teams for their particular needs or escalate questions to the senior leadership and company. It's also about building the culture and the community, running internal events to educate colleagues and allies right from the basics of why we march every Pride month to the more specific aspects of subcultures with the LGBQT+ community."
"It also touches on external events collaborating with partners like Out Leadership. For us it builds our brand as a diverse and inclusive company but also makes sure that our partners have access to our speakers and our knowledge whenever they need us."
The importance of corporate culture in determining the outcomes that ERGs can help to bring about is also raised by Debbie Irish, Head of HR for HP UK & IE, who said:
"For these initiatives to have genuine impact, we recognise that they can't just be employee-led. Our Impact Networks are fantastic examples of partnership and collaboration with senior management working bottom-up and top-down to enact change. This creates a culture where people recognise that they can come forward in a safe and welcoming environment to share their ideas and learn from others.
"As a direct result of establishing our HP Pride network, we formed the UK Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Board as a taskforce to consolidate a culture where we nurture and grow ideas around retention and the attraction of new talent. To date, we have 120+ Business Impact Networks in 32 countries which are open to all employees, representing: Women, Multicultural, Early Career, Black / African American, Disabilities, LGBTQ+ and more."
Engines of Progress
The role of ERGs have evolved from their original twentieth century incarnation - as have the challenges they aimed to overcome. ERGs have proliferated and diversified their activities, become more organised and more professional. They've learned to market themselves and in turn some companies have learned to market them.
The critical factor in whether ERGs succeed in amplifying voices which may otherwise go unheard, and function as an engine of progress in terms of establishing a more inclusive working culture, is the degree to which executive leaders support and engage with communities. If done well, ERGs can become crucial building blocks in a more diverse, inclusive and healthy working culture.
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