What is Program Planning, and why is it important for ERGs? It’s important to think of the ERGs at your organization as part of an entire program. The most successful programs provide their ERGs with a framework within which to operate, creating an environment of consistency and support to help them flourish. Creating a program that encompasses all of your ERGs is crucial to ensuring their success.
Once ERG Leaders are made aware of an overarching program design, they’ll understand where their ERG fits within the wider organization, but more critically, see a program structure that they can emulate within their own groups. Following a standardized approach to program planning at your organization will give ERG and Group Leaders the freedom to play within the framework, and create more opportunities for success.
Program Planning Approaches
As a Program Administrator or leader within your organization, one of the easiest ways to build out a program plan that covers all facets of your ERG program is to start by looking at a calendar. Identify major events, awareness days/months, or other dates and initiatives that are important to your organization as a whole. Ensure any relevant DEI work that is taking place across the company is accounted for in this plan, as some companies see their DEI teams hosting larger-scale company-wide events while asking their ERGs to provide supplemental and smaller scale events to support that work.
Once your calendar (program plan) is sketched out (and it can be a rough sketch!) it’s time to share your plan with all interested ERG & Group Leaders. Ensuring that your Group Leaders are aware of what’s being planned will in turn, help them plan activities and events within their own groups. ERGs should undertake a similar approach to program planning, once they know the overall program direction, they can then develop their own program plan for initiatives within their group. Being aware that an event or awareness day is happening can inspire ERGs to “piggy-back” onto what is already being done, creating opportunities for cross-promotion, intersectionality and amplification.
Consider meeting with your ERG or Group leaders on a regular basis (ideally monthly, or quarterly at minimum) to align on plans and encourage ERGs to collaborate where possible. ERG leads and members can experience programming fatigue if there is too much activity always going on; this can be avoided by understanding where there may be overlapping content planned (and instead of working separately, working together to amplify the impact), or identifying opportunities for intersectionality and chances for multiple ERGs to work together on an initiative. If possible, invite your more well-established ERGs to act as mentors for newer groups, and share best practices for planning activities and managing groups.
Next, we recommend building out your program plan in your Employee Groups site. Create a new Program Calendar on a quarterly basis (longer can be unwieldy to manage), and start to block out some of the important dates and events using concepts and drafts. Using this visual format, you should easily be able to identify where there are gaps, or where there may be too many things happening at one time. Your Program Calendar is visible to your ERG Leaders, so they can take a look at some of the bigger picture elements and identify where they can also join in.
Program Plans are never set in stone, and while the temptation might be to outline an annual plan and stick to it, we find that evaluating and finessing a plan on a quarterly basis is the most effective use of time.
What About Events?
Event planning is usually a high priority for ERGs, and there are templates and processes that Program Administrators can establish to make the experience easier for ERG leaders and participants. Start by creating programming templates to help your ERG leaders plan events. The template could include an outline for the event details, identifying key participants, communication plans, budget guidelines, etc. Ensure you set clear guidelines for the template’s use to streamline the approval process and avoid bottlenecks that can slow the planning process down. If your groups can easily collaborate with other groups across the organization, they can help and learn from each other to host successful events while being able to share the workload and eliminate some potential for burnout.
Pro-Tip: If your ERGs are using the Employee Groups budgeting tool, Group Leaders should link their spending requests to related events so that all costs are accounted for and an accurate cost per attendee can be calculated.
Awareness Events
Key awareness dates such as International Women’s Day, or Black History Month, can help to contribute to your program plan and provide content to engage employees. Program Administrators and ERG leaders should consider how they can tactfully leverage key awareness dates for events and initiatives and then focus on consistent communication throughout the rest of the year to keep people engaged through content and knowledge sharing. Don’t just host an event and disappear. Think about how you can keep your members engaged all year long!
Focus on the power of storytelling. Encouraging ERG members to share personal stories in your Groups’ spaces can be a great way to get your members to engage in different cultural awareness dates. Look for opportunities where employees can learn from others in the organization and understand their diverse experiences and perspectives to create meaningful connections.
While awareness events and activities can be the bread and butter for most ERGs, when it comes to designing an ERG program, don’t forget to keep the most marginalized members of that group in mind and design content and activities to benefit those individuals. If those individuals see benefits there is a good chance that other, less-marginalized individuals will see benefits too.
Programming Suggestions
Stuck for ideas when building your program plan? Here are a few suggestions for content, events and activities to get you started:
- Host employee-led panels sharing stories and unique perspectives
- Engage members through volunteering by partnering with local nonprofits in support of the marginalized communities your ERGs represent
- Create cookbooks with recipes submitted by employees, or host an auction selling crafts made by employees
- Create and regularly share content in the form of discussion posts, newsletters, blog posts, etc. intended to educate employees on the issues that matter to your ERGs and their members.
- Formalize mentorship opportunities for ERG members
- Encourage the adoption of “always on” programming such as book clubs, regular polling of members, Tip Tuesdays, photo sharing, content recommendations, member spotlights, etc.
- Host events that include elements of career/professional development
- Host local meet-ups in conjunction with larger company-wide events.
- Host unstructured coffee chats for ERG members and create a safe space for casual connection
- Host “listening tours” with employees and ERG members as a way to engage in targeted, meaningful conversations about what to prioritize in each ERG’s programming
- Get creative! Some folks have seen success with creating t-shirts branded for their ERGs to create awareness for the ERG and get others interested in participating - swag & apparel can be used to incentivize participation if there's a budget to support it.
- Host ERG days/Diversity Day where employees across your organization can get to know and join ERGs that they are interested in (career fair style)
- Bring ERGs into your DEI roadmap for the year and partner with them on planning events (e.g. Lean on your LGBTQ+ ERG to collaborate events during Pride Month)
- Host fireside chats with executives for your ERG members
- Executive Sponsors often have a personal or professional connection to the ERGs they represent; encourage them to be authentic in their communications to help drive engagement.
- Maintain regular communication and intentional meetings between executives, ERG leads, and the business to ensure alignment and support. Alignment with HR and Legal may be especially important to avoid conflict tied to contentious or sensitive issues.
- Regularly review engagement stats for your ERGs. If there are unexpected peaks or valleys, they may require further input from your Program Administration team.