At our final Virtual Roundtable of 2023, featuring Charles River Laboratories, we used our career strategy and support model to highlight the many ways in which Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) support career strategy.
The model helps us see the true value of ERGs in an organisational context:
- Strategic Alignment. It’s essential to integrate careers with a business’s talent strategy and ERGs help to showcase talent that may not get a chance to shine. They’re also great for highlighting obstacles that get in the way of employees who want to progress their careers, such as outdated recruitment processes, or fixed leadership mindsets and behaviours.
- Career Proposition. Defining and communicating a compelling career proposition is vital. ERGs have a big role to play here. They can be essential in helping organisations channel the employee voice and understand what the key priority areas for change are, from the latter’s perspective.
- Career Framework. This is all about having a suite of processes, models and tools to communicate different career options and help individuals to succeed. An ERG is an excellent forum in which to explain and get feedback on such resources, for example the organisation’s career types model.
- Opportunity Marketplace. It’s vital for businesses to make growth opportunities visible for all. The organisations that we work with tell us how difficult it is, for large parts of their global employee population to identify and access opportunities, without the help of ERGs.
- Development Conversations. From the stories that emerge through ERGs, organisations can create employee personas. These are helpful for managers to use in having more engaging conversations with employees. ERGs can also highlight the additional resources and supportive relationships that will benefit an employee’s career development.
- Enablers for Personal Agency. Individuals need to be able to take ownership of their careers through tools, information, events and in the connections they make with others. ERGs give them the chance to open up opportunities to meet those they may not otherwise have met, including senior people in the organisation.
Right at the centre of our model is the career experience. ERGs create the opportunity for their members to talk freely about their stories, get support and understand what the business is trying to do to help them on an everyday basis. They create a space to surface issues that, at an individual level, may seem too challenging or risky to raise. It’s vital that this input is listened to and that the ERG sees action that reflects their feedback. In this way the career experience is improved and the organisation benefits from the release of previously untapped talent.
Great organisations have a culture that devotes thought, time and resource to effective ERGs. The dividend is a clear and direct connection between the value of ERGs for employees and organisation alike. This is much more than a good thing to do – it really helps the business by enhancing talent attraction, identification, performance and retention.
If you’d like to find out more about our career strategy and support model or our upcoming Virtual Roundtables in 2024 including how to attend, please contact info@careerinnovation.com. We would love to have you join us!
