Читать книгу Employee Resource Group Excellence - Robert Rodriguez - Страница 15

There has been much fanfare about turning “employee resource groups” into “business resource groups.” The thinking goes that ERGs cannot just be the “food, flag, and fun folks” who are primarily focused on the social aspects of employee resource groups. Organizations want ERGs to have a broader value proposition. The goal is not to eliminate the social aspects of employee resource groups because we still want them to celebrate over food, waive their diversity flag, and hold events that are indeed fun. But we need to encourage ERGs to also add value in a more holistic way. This broader value proposition is something that I have been advocating for many years as a component of the definition of ERG excellence.

Yet, in my experience, ERGs are not the ones to blame if they do not have a more direct impact on helping an organization meet their goals. In working with thousands of employee resource groups for the past several decades, these ERGs want to have a direct impact on the organization. They are often more than ready, willing, and able to support business initiatives. The real problem exists with the organization itself. Surprisingly, organizations are woefully inadequate at leveraging their ERGs for business impact. This results in employee resource groups being an underutilized business asset still today. We will explore this phenomenon, and how to overcome it, in Chapter 8.