What I learned by leading Insider Inc.'s Employee Resource Groups
The Insider Inc. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) include Hue, Rainbow Group, & Women’s Group, and were established in 2017. When I first started joining ERG meetings, my group participation was minimal, I viewed the monthly meetings as an opportunity to see how folks in other parts of the organization were facilitating panel discussions and brainstorming sessions, and to compare those processes to what we have on the Tech & Product team.
My interest in the position of Lead for the ERGs was sparked out of curiosity. I wanted to hear and learn more from other members of the BIPOC community. In addition, I knew that this was an opportunity to better understand the DEI initiatives in other parts of the organization and to bring best practices to the Tech & Product team.
I took on the Q3 ERG Lead role at the end of Q2. Initially, I was not sure that the role was for me, but Melanie Naranjo, VP of People & Culture, helped me realize that my organization, communication, and facilitation skills would be beneficial to leading panels and events hosted by the ERGs. As the Director of Program Management, I am responsible for ensuring that our work is as frictionless as possible. She also assured me that I would not be alone in this role and that I would have the full support of the People & Culture (P&C) and Employee Experience (EX) teams.
The Insider Inc. ERGs were established back in 2017 and have had various leads since then. How did you make this role your own?
My day-to-day job involves being a Scrum Master, which means I believe in being a servant leader, empowering others, creating opportunities, and building frictionless processes.
Lean Coffee is an agenda-less, yet structured, format where participants can bring up any topic they would like and those topics are then prioritized based on audience votes and discussed in time boxed increments. I worked with the EX team to bring this structure to the ERG monthly meetings and received very positive feedback on both the format itself and the conversations it generated.
Mentorship and resource sharing are the foundation of the ERGs and were topics that came up quite often in the Lean Coffee meetings. Having previously run a departmental mentorship program for the Tech & Product team, I worked with MoMo Lamping, Manager of Culture & Employee Experience, to create Insider’s first company-wide mentorship program. This company-wide program promotes interdepartmental collaboration, resource sharing, and career development.
What advice do you have for companies looking to establish their own ERGs?
Find ways to distribute ownership. You cannot have a group run by employees without the support of the company and vice versa. There must be a mutual respect in order to effectively implement initiatives.
Be the change you want to see. it is somewhat expected for certain folks to want to have the solution presented to them but not be involved in the decision making or even the validation of those solutions. It will always be easier to just present the problem, but challenge those folks to also participate in the solution as well.
There is no such thing as “we achieved this'.' No product is ever ‘finished.’ It will take continuous improvements, commitment, time, and most importantly, actionable feedback from the users to better assess what is and what isn’t working.
Acknowledge that we can always do better and find ways to improve.
How has your involvement in the ERGs impacted your every-day work? What is your proudest accomplishment?
When I reflect back on 2020, which has to be the most challenging year for many folks for a variety of reasons, the thing I am most proud of is just how much I was able to learn from my partners on the P&C and EX teams who supported me as the ERG Lead.
Being the ERG Lead has been extremely impactful to my work. It led to our Chief People Officer, Margaret Bowani, nominating me to lead the Insider Committee whose mission is to make Insider Inc even a better place to work by focusing on existing policies and creating new ones.