10 Benefits of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and How They Contribute to Business Objectives

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are fantastic for building community and fostering inclusion at work, but their impact extends far beyond that. ERGs directly influence important business goals, like improving employee retention, attracting top talent, and driving innovation.

However, ERG leaders often struggle to clearly show this impact to senior leadership. If you've ever found yourself explaining why ERGs matter to skeptical stakeholders, this blog is for you.

Below are 10 powerful ways ERGs support your organization's broader business objectives, along with real-life examples you can use to illustrate their value clearly.

Why ERGs Are Essential to Your Business Success

Employee Resource Groups are more than just internal communities. They’re business strategies that drive real results.

When ERGs thrive, your employees feel more connected and your company becomes more inclusive. In consequence, your business benefits from stronger innovation, happier employees, and a better brand reputation.

Simply put, when you strategically support your ERGs, you’re making a direct investment into your company’s overall success and long-term growth.

So, how exactly do ERGs support key business goals?

10 Benefits of Employee Resource Groups: How ERGs Support Your Business Objectives

When ERGs are aligned closely with your company's strategic goals, their impact becomes impossible to overlook. 

Here are 10 practical examples that clearly demonstrate how your ERGs can directly enhance your organization’s performance, culture, and overall success.

1. ERGs Help Create Inclusive Company Policies

Company policies can quickly become outdated. ERGs help ensure that policies stay relevant by providing valuable perspectives from diverse employee groups.

By including representatives from minority-based ERGs in policy review committees, companies gain invaluable insights. These representatives can shed light on lesser-known challenges faced by diverse groups and identify unintentional biases within existing policies.

Several companies have demonstrated the power of diverse voices in policymaking:

• Takeda Pharmaceuticals collaborated with its LGBTQIA+ ERG to develop transgender-inclusive policies.

• Molson Coors offers 52 weeks of parental leave regardless of gender, thanks to input from ERGs.

  
  

Similarly, involving Women's ERGs in drafting maternity and family leave policies provides a crucial perspective. Through their lived experiences, ERGs offer invaluable feedback that can transform outdated policies and pave the way for the creation of inclusive, future-proof guidelines.

By incorporating diverse voices, companies can ensure their policies are inclusive and effective.

2. ERGs Improve Workplace Accessibility

Employees with disabilities understand firsthand the barriers they face. ERGs let employees provide direct feedback and help your workplace become accessible to everyone.

For example, Labcorp’s Disability ERG identified accessibility issues and worked directly with leadership to implement better technology and signage.

Employees with visual or hearing impairments can be offered valuable insights, leading to the implementation of text-to-speech software, audio signage, and closed captioning.

This kind of inclusive approach creates a wider talent pool and strengthens a company's reputation.

3. ERGs Drive Product Innovation

ERGs bring diverse viewpoints to product development that result in products that better meet customer needs.

Many companies, like Ingredion, a leading global ingredients solutions company, leverage their Business Resource Groups (BRGs) to significantly impact business processes and product innovation. Ingredion tapped into the expertise of its Disability BRG to transform a decades-old product into a portable version, enhancing user experience and accessibility. 

In the banking sector, partnerships with minority ERGs provide invaluable insights into the challenges faced by underserved communities. This knowledge empowers banks to develop financial products that cater to these specific needs. 

Similarly, healthcare companies rely on ERGs to guide their efforts in achieving health equity. ERG members play a crucial role in ensuring clinical trials reflect the demographics of the communities they serve. 

4. ERGs Enhance Customer Service

Service companies can leverage Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to solve challenges with greater effectiveness. By bringing together diverse perspectives, diverse ERGs can greatly improve customer interactions by understanding cultural nuances and language barriers.

For example, ERGs can highlight the importance of having customer service representatives who speak multiple languages. 

Takeda Pharmaceuticals exemplifies this by connecting the voice of the employee with the voice of the customers they serve. Their approach included inviting people from the community, organizations, and non-profit organizations to discuss inequities faced by Black and Brown communities.

Mass General Brigham’s LGBTQ Resource Group introduced pronoun stickers and buttons and stickers to employees, staff, patients, and visitors. This initiative, initially a grassroots effort, gained strong leadership buy-in and commitment and became a priority for the entire organization.

5. ERGs Strengthen Your Marketing Efforts

ERGs offer insights and guidance to marketing teams. A small, homogenous group may struggle to create meaningful messages that resonate with this audience, but an Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) can act as valuable focus groups, providing feedback and insights.

ERGs can also serve as guides for creating culturally sensitive and inclusive content.

They can help ensure marketing campaigns reflect racial diversity and include representation of all body shapes and sizes. 

For example, ERGs catering to millennials or Gen Z employees can be sounding boards during new product launches and branding exercises. They can provide feedback on language, color choices, and styles. 

Additionally, ERGs can offer insights into the most effective communication channels, potentially leading to more targeted marketing efforts and reduced spending.

Several companies have embraced inclusive marketing practices. 

Good American, Dove, and Barbie are all excellent examples. At Takeda, their Takeda Resource Groups (TRGs) review the translations of marketing materials in multiple languages to ensure clarity and contribute to a superior customer experience for underrepresented groups.

6. ERGs Attract Top Talent

Strong ERGs make your company attractive to talent who value inclusion and belonging.

Conversely, companies that abandon their inclusion efforts during challenging times send a clear message: inclusion is not a priority. This can alienate top talent who value DEI initiatives and wouldn't want to work for a company that doesn't prioritize them.

ERGs can be leveraged throughout the recruitment and onboarding process. By showcasing ERGs during recruitment, candidates can experience the company's culture and commitment to employee well-being firsthand. This can give your company a competitive edge over other offers. 

During onboarding, provide access to ERG platforms where new hires can explore and join groups they identify with. Additionally, pairing new employees with ERG buddies from similar backgrounds can ease the transition into a new organization. 

These strategies, powered by ERGs, can help attract and retain top talent, ultimately propelling your company towards success.

7. ERGs Boost Employee Retention

ERGs improve employee satisfaction and reduce turnover by fostering a strong sense of belonging.

A study by Teleskope found that ERG members stay 50% longer at companies than non-members, significantly reducing turnover costs.

Considering that employee turnover can cost companies 1.5 to 2 times an employee's salary, ERGs play a significant role in reducing employee churn, directly impacting the bottom line.

A McKinsey study highlights that ERGs help create a sense of belonging at the workplace. This combats feelings of isolation, a major factor for employees leaving a company.

8. ERGs Enhance the Employee Experience

ERGs give employees safe spaces, support professional growth, and bridge the gap between employees and leadership.

An ERG for LGBTQ+ employees can provide a safe space to discuss challenges and celebrate identities. ERGs can also contribute to professional development. 

For example, an ERG for women in tech can host mentorship programs or workshops on salary negotiation, which can boost the morale and productivity of women employees.

ERGs act as a bridge between employees and leadership. ERGs can channel concerns and ideas upwards, ensuring all voices are heard. An ERG that supports mental health provides a safe space for open conversations about mental health, which in turn improves employee well-being and helps leadership understand employee needs.  

A study even found that ERG members were rated as high performers 89% more often than non-ERG members. ERGs create a more inclusive and engaging work environment, ultimately benefiting both employees and the company.

9. ERGs Improve Brand Reputation

ERGs signal a commitment to inclusion. This resonates with modern clients, who increasingly seek to support brands that align with their values. 

Consumers want to feel seen and heard, and ERGs demonstrate a brand's effort to understand and cater to a wider audience. This fosters a sense of loyalty that goes beyond traditional marketing tactics.

For example, an ERG focused on LGBTQ+ employees could host a panel discussion on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace, generating positive media attention and showcasing the company's progressive values. 

ERGs can also amplify a brand's message through community outreach. A veterans' ERG volunteering demonstrates the company's commitment to social responsibility and community engagement. These efforts paint a positive picture of the company as a whole, strengthening its brand reputation.

10. ERGs Drive Smarter Problem-Solving

When a variety of viewpoints are considered, companies can make more well-rounded decisions that avoid blind spots. Diverse teams are better at considering all angles of a problem, which can lead to more effective solutions. Employee resource groups (ERGs) contribute directly to this strength. 

An ERG focused on accessibility might identify potential oversights in a new product design that the general design team hadn't considered. This could be anything from color contrast issues for users with visual impairments to challenges navigating the interface for users with motor skill limitations.

By bringing these concerns to the table early, the ERG helps the company develop a more inclusive and successful product.

ERGs can also provide valuable insights into market demographics that the company might be missing. An ERG for employees of Latin descent could offer suggestions on how to better tailor marketing campaigns to reach that specific audience. This could involve using culturally relevant language and imagery, or identifying media outlets frequented by that demographic.

By leveraging the diverse experiences and perspectives of its employees, a company can improve its marketing strategy and reach a wider customer base.

Aligning ERGs with business goals unlocks their true potential. Diverse voices become engines for growth, innovation, and a competitive edge. By embracing inclusion in decision-making, companies empower ERGs to deliver measurable business impact.

How Teleskope Helps Your ERGs Deliver on Key Business Objectives

To unlock these benefits, ERGs need effective management tools.

Teleskope makes managing ERGs effortless and impactful by:

• Simplifying global ERG management: Easily oversee global, regional, and local ERGs from a single platform. Manage memberships, track attendance, streamline events and save you valuable time.

  
  

• Integrating budget management: Clearly allocate and track your ERG budgets at every level. Automate approval workflows and measure ROI, so you can use your resources more strategically.

  
  

• Delivering real-time analytics and reporting: Quickly showcase your ERG’s impact on employee retention, engagement, and performance through intuitive dashboards and detailed reports. Prove your ERGs’ value to leadership effortlessly.

  
  

• Enhancing employee engagement and inclusion: Boost participation with anonymous joining options, multilingual support (14 languages), and easy-to-use mobile access. Everyone can participate comfortably and actively.

  
  

• Integrating seamlessly with existing systems: Connect Teleskope with your existing HR systems, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. Create a smooth workflow and eliminate confusion from disconnected tools.

  
  

With Teleskope, your ERGs can directly contribute to company goals. Schedule your Teleskope demo today to see it in action!

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

1. How can companies measure their ERG programs’ impact on business goals?

   
   

Beyond basic participation, track essential ERG metrics such as membership growth, event attendance, survey engagement, and turnover rates. Metrics tied to employee retention or performance can show how your ERGs directly improve business outcomes. Learn more here.

2. What common ERG management challenges do companies face, and how can they be solved?

   
   

Key challenges include finding ERGs, managing membership manually, scaling globally, and tracking impact. Solutions involve adopting centralized ERG management platforms that streamline membership, events, and data tracking. Read about overcoming ERG challenges here.

3. Are there best practices for structuring ERGs?

   
   

Yes, successful ERGs have clearly defined structures aligned with organizational goals. This involves distributing responsibilities among multiple leaders and establishing committees for events, finances, and communication to avoid burnout and maximize impact. Learn how to structure ERGs effectively here.