Why and how to create content with your Employee Resource Groups

In summary:

• Employee resource groups (ERGs) or Affinity groups are voluntary groups formed around a shared interest or common goal
• They tend to focus around diversity and inclusion topics
• They give employees a platform to create connection, share their voices and feel heard
• ERGs provide a content opportunity for both internal communication and employer brand
• Telling the stories of employees in ERGs can be important for fostering inclusion and combatting loneliness
• ERG content can positively impact your employer brand and boost recruitment efforts, especially with diversity recruiting

What are ERGs?

Employee resource groups (ERGs) or Affinity groups are voluntary, employee-led groups with a shared purpose around diversity and inclusion. They are usually focussed around shared characteristics, whether this is gender-, ethnicity-, religious affiliation-, lifestyle-, or interest-based. They might be led and participated in by employees who share those characteristics, as well as allies who wish to support and learn from their colleagues.

The groups may have aims around fostering inclusion in their workplace, providing support, mentorship, guidance and helping with personal or career development. Most importantly, they represent a safe space where employees can bring their whole selves to work and share their experiences and voices without fear of repercussions.

ERGs have been around for some time, with evidence that the first ERG dates back to the 1960s when a group of workers came together to discuss race in the workplace at Xerox. Today, according to TopMBA, ERGs are present in 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

How can storytelling with ERGs support internal communications?

Internal communications should be about reflecting your workforce and helping to tell their stories, as well as strategically engaging employees around key initiatives. By bringing stories from your ERGs into your internal communications content calendar, be more effective in reflecting the diversity of your organisation and you can promoting the activities and initiatives that the ERGs are pursuing.

The biggest opportunity for content from ERGs is that it makes their voices heard and employees from similar backgrounds feel recognised and seen.

As Rebecca Johnson, Global Internal Communications Director at Experian said in our Future of Internal Communications report: “The job of the internal communicator is to create an environment where the individual is most authentic, most comfortable, and most free to communicate in their authentic style.”

Through their activities, ERGs naturally create a sense of community in an organisation. By leveraging employee-generated video and other storytelling content from the ERGs in your internal communications, you can amplify this sense of community and connect more people to them. Creating these connections helps combat loneliness in the workplace, boost productivity and aid retention.

In this way, content from ERGs is a tool to bring people together.

Daniel Callaghan, Senior Employer Brand Advisor at Clyde & Co, reiterated this in a recent interview with us, saying: “To be able to use a tool that can show what different people are doing, what they’re interested in, like outside of their job title I find really important. I’m part of the Parent and Carers network at Clyde & Co where I can meet other parents. Having a 6-month-old helps me connect with people in a similar place to me.”

How can ERG content feed into your employer brand?

Content collated, edited and published from ERGs can have a positive impact on the external employer brand and aid recruitment marketing. By showing a diverse group of people who are openly accepted and comfortable in your workplace, you can project your diversity and inclusion commitments and attract diverse talent.

Matt Sharp, Employer Brand Manager, Amazon, shared his personal experience of doing this in our webinar: ‘Co-Creating with your Employee Resource Groups to amplify their voices’.

He said: “The people within these groups are some of the most genuine, authentic, real voices I’ve met at Amazon and hearing about the work that they do and sharing that externally is particularly important. Giving employees the confidence and ability and tools and resources they need to really share their views and opinions and experiences is hugely valuable.”

Not only is it inclusive, this content performs well. Engagement rates for this kind of content is higher as it feels authentic and representative. Daniel Callaghan, Senior Employer Brand Advisor at Clyde & Co pointed this out, saying:

“More and more research shows that polished and curated videos don’t perform as well, so if you have a tool to create authentic content, the more weight those videos can carry. Employee advocacy and employee voice is becoming more and more important.”

Top tips for creating compelling ERG content

If you can see the benefit of creating content from your ERGs but don’t know where to start, then these tips are for you:

1. Co-create, don’t prescribe. Employees within ERGs are naturally best placed to tell their own stories, so while you can assist and co-create with them, you don’t need to prescribe the content. Instead create an approach to ensure they can be successful in telling their stories.

Matt Sharp, Employer Brand Manager, Amazon, said in our webinar ‘Co-Creating with your Employee Resource Groups to amplify their voices’:

“With employee resource groups they come together to work on initiatives they are passionate about, but don’t necessarily have the communication expertise to get these stories. A lot of the time it’s really just being there as a consultant, providing guidance, and sharing tools and resources like Seenit, so they can create their own Employee-Generated Content and tell their own stories.”

2. Embrace video formats. Our State of Employer Brand report showed that 42% of employees seek video content to get a feel for company culture, leadership and everyday life. Video can show personality and individuality, allowing diverse and unique voices to come across. Helen Kelley, Internal Communications and Engagement Director, Inmarsat, in our Conscious Communications report said:

“Employee- generated video gives us a real way to bring in more employee voices. We’re not constrained by where they are and it means we can foster that sense of a wider international community through the stories that they can tell.”

3. Use your employees’ own networks to amplify the content. Matt Sharp gave an amazing example of this, saying:

“We’ve done a pilot with 1,500 people across the organisation (Amazon) to amplify the voices of people in Affinity groups on their own channels. So far this year we’ve managed to amplify those voices to 40 million externally.”

If you’re looking to get started with Employee-Generated Content but don’t have formal ERGs already in your business, here are three employee groups you could tap into:

1. Womens groups
2. Pride or LGBTQIA+ groups
3. Disability groups

If you’re ready to start a conversation and create authentic content with your ERGs that inspires action, contact us or book a demo to see how Seenit can help.