“Show, don’t tell” is an old adage when it comes to writing advice — but it’s exactly what many people teams found to be the secret to helping employees feel like they belong.
Belonging is an important aspect of workplace culture, and sadly a commonly missed one. Forbes cited the 2023 Work in America Survey, which found that 20 percent of all employees don’t feel like they belong in their workplace. The same article noted that in contrast, when employees do feel like they belong, they are more than three times as likely to rise to their full potential.
A sense of belonging makes a big difference, and one of the ways that many tech companies “show” instead of “tell” is through employee resource groups.
Built In Los Angeles found a company that empowers its ERGs to take the reins and “show” employees that they really do belong.
Edmunds started with printed car guides in the ’60s; today, the automotive adtech company is a car-buying marketplace for new and used vehicles.
At Edmunds, what have you found to be the keys required to establish a successful ERG program?
Edmunds’ six ERGs were established as a space for employees to share their experience and build community. A key component aiding the success of standing up these groups was having a clear governance structure, including three main elements.
The first key was drafting charters to articulate each group’s purpose, goals and priorities, all grounded in our company values. This also allowed for alignment of expectations for every contributor involved.
The second was defining leadership teams, which include co-leaders and council members for some groups. To support them, they received various leadership skill-development opportunities. Additionally, the ERGs benefited from having an involved executive sponsor. Support from senior leadership increased engagement, cleared roadblocks and tied efforts to business strategies.
Lastly, another tool provided to leaders was an operating framework that helped the groups develop their strategic plans each year, centered around the following types of activations: cultural awareness, career development, community programming and business initiatives.
“An operating framework helped ERGs develop their strategic plans each year, centered around cultural awareness, career development, community programming and business initiatives.”
What challenges has Edmunds overcome in building its successful ERG program?
One of the main pitfalls our ERGs experienced was serving too much, too fast. Within the first year, our groups collectively hosted over 70 companywide events with hundreds of attendees participating in a variety of activations.
Each ERG team has one or more leaders from across the organization who volunteer their time, experience and expertise. Their dedication is driven by their passion to create meaningful and lasting impact within the communities we work and live in. With that many events and activations, the first year created some bandwidth challenges with our leaders, resulting in one ERG taking a short hiatus.
In response to this opportunity, the ERGs reevaluated their offerings. In partnership with our DEI team, ERG leaders revisited their charter and operating model to identify key priorities and focused on fewer but more impactful programs. They also came together as a leadership cohort to learn from one another as peer coaches, to collaborate on joint events and to gain additional perspectives from such a diverse group of leaders. With this addition, we were happy to see the aforementioned ERG return from its hiatus with an even larger scope than previously established.
DEI Perks at Edmunds
- Dedicated diversity and inclusion staff
- Diversity manifesto
- Mandated unconscious bias training
- Diversity employee resource groups
- Hiring practices that promote diversity
How do you maintain an ERG program and adapt it to meet the needs of employees?
One effective way we measure the continued success of our ERGs is by tracking key metrics. Leveraging both quantitative and qualitative data, we can determine what is working well and what is not for the ERGs year-over-year.
An example of how we measure results is through our engagement survey, in which we ask a variety of questions around our employees’ sense of belonging and our commitment to diversity efforts.
How do you keep engagement high?
We strive to maintain engagement by meeting employees at various interest points because we recognize employees are in all different stages of their growth and development journeys with respect to their careers and DEI awareness and education. This is achieved by close collaboration between the ERGs and their internal and external partners.
Whether it’s facilitating learning sessions, celebrating cultural moments together, sponsoring volunteer events or identifying business-related opportunities, our ERGs open the door for individuals to find an entry point that best fits their own goals as they join the collective journey at Edmunds.
