By Theresa Bontempo
Employee resource groups are an efficient way to get different groups of people together in the workforce with similar views and backgrounds to offer a unique support system that can improve company morale. There are a wide variety of employee resource groups that can have a heavy impact on staff and give them a sense of belonging and community, especially for groups that are underrepresented.
One of the biggest employee resource groups belongs to women–where femininity rules and allows for leadership, professional development, and even advocacy for women’s rights. Belonging to the women’s ERG can help impact many areas of a small business, franchise, or union where it can help to build connections and give them a voice to step up to the plate for prominent roles with the support system they need backing them.
There are many characteristics of the women’s ERG that can help to build connections and advocacy over their views and rights. Let’s look deeper into the women’s ERG guidebook, how it is run, and what their mission is for women in any professional role anywhere in the country!
What is an Employee Resource Group?
First things first–establishing an understanding of employee resource groups to understand why there are so many for all groups of people!
Employee resource groups can help provide underrepresented groups an opportunity to develop their professional leadership skills with a support team. Image courtesy of Workrowd.
One of the most important things to keep in mind while owning a business is making sure that your staff feels appreciated and safe by creating a positive work environment. This can help improve productivity and retention to avoid high turnover, and employee resource groups are proven to help keep staff long-term and give them a safe space to turn to with people who think or share the same values and beliefs.
Employee Resource Groups: What Are They?
We are living in 2025–so that means that there is no room for discrimination, especially in the workplace. Qualified individuals that come from various backgrounds, gender, sexuality, or even religion are allowed to feel safe where they are working without discrimination. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards are established and enforced at many companies, where they hire qualified people for job positions regardless of their background, religion, interests, sexuality, gender, disability–among many other categories too.
Employee resource groups take DEI ideas and implement them in their own employee-run meetings, events, and more to allow employees to feel at ease when it comes to being in the workplace without the worry of discrimination. The mission of every employee resource group is to give members a place to learn more about the people that they identify with, along with giving them a safe space to discuss their experiences, hardships, and successes.
These groups tend to hold everything from weekly meetings with arranged topics of discussion, cultural celebrations, and leadership development events, among other scheduled outings. This fosters a sense of community, supports diversity and inclusion, and promotes professional development for all types of people.
The Top Employee Resource Groups Commonly Seen in the Professional World
Since employee resource groups are run by staff themselves, there are many that can be started and formed to build a stronger community in the workplace. There are a large number of them that employees can run, but throughout the United States, these are some of the most popular.
The list of employee resource groups includes the following:
- Gender groups - Men, women, and gender non-conforming options
- Sexual orientation and gender identity - LGBTQIA+-specific group
- Race and ethnicity - BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), ethnic, and other cultural groups
- Veterans - Can apply to veterans and active military duty personnel
- Disability - For people with either both visible and nonvisible disabilities
- Religious and Faith - For different religious affiliations and spiritual beliefs
- Generational - People from the same generation can get together to discuss shared experiences and perspectives in the workforce
- Employees with children - Specifically for caregivers, working parents, or even single parents
The Ultimate Women’s ERG Guidebook: What You Need to Know to Get Started at Your Place of Work
A woman’s employee resource group can be started in any business and even be recognized by the company with these essential steps!
Women’s ERGs are essential to give women empowerment and leadership roles while also forming connections with others of the same gender. Image courtesy of Cronus.
The most stressful part about an employee resource group is just getting enough people to join and coming up with ideas to get it up and running. There are a wide variety of methods to go about forming an ERG–especially a woman’s one–that can empower and help women grow professionally and gain more self-confidence in themselves.
Let’s take a look at the ultimate women’s ERG guidebook on how to build connections and lead a successful employee-run group of powerful females!
Define Goals of the Group
One of the most important things to establish for any ERG group is to establish the goals you want the group to be able to achieve. For a women’s ERG group, these goals can consist of a number things, such as fostering a positive environment for women to feel powerful, personal and professional development through mentorships, leadership events, and networking, or even just to create a space to talk about issues and shared experiences with one another to form a tight-knit, trusting community of females.
Overall, the first step is developing a mission statement and the goals you wish to achieve by forming a group of strong, powerful women that includes and supports one another while also working to make changes in the professional world and outside of it too.
Seek Sponsorship from Employer
The thing about ERGs is that they are recognized by the company that you work for and are even sponsored by executives and those in leadership roles. While ERGs are still employee-run–or in some cases even run by the HR department–executives and senior leaders can help show their support by acting as sponsors who can provide funds, software, budgets, and other tools to help ERGs get their start.
Executive and senior leaders helping to contribute to a women’s ERG group can be a big benefit since it shows their utmost support for female rights, plus it allows them to build a community with strong, confident people where they feel as if they’re treated equal to men in the workplace.
Elect Leaders of the Group
Something that every ERG has to do is elect leaders to organize meetings, events, activities, and other aspects of the group for it to run successfully. Many leaders end up being the ones who initially started the group, but there can also be a voting system to elect women into certain positions within the ERG to give its members the opportunity to feel like their voice and vote matters and is considered.
It’s important for the leaders of the women’s ERG to have a number of qualifications to be an effective person in charge. They should have good communication skills to let members know when meetings and particularly important events are coming up, and offer group members moral support and empathy. Organizational and project planning skills are also crucial to keep the group on a strict schedule that aligns with their mission statement and inspires other women to want to join the influential meetings and events that this particular ERG can offer.
Recruit Members to Support Your Cause
The most important part of any ERG is to be able to efficiently recruit and keep members coming back. For a woman’s ERG–along with the support of executives and senior leaders backing the group up–recruiting members can be as simple as posting flyers around the building, sending emails internally to staff members, or even promoting it through other company meetings as an announcement beforehand.
Another method that seems to work very well is to have an informal event to encourage staff to stop by to talk to the leaders of the group to see what it’s all about. Not only can this raise awareness of the group in general, but it can also help to build connections and get people in any company–no matter the size–familiar with each other and more comfortable. This could be a great tactic to get everyone on the same page about what the goals of the group are, build social connections early on, and help make new members ease their way into the meetings and events without feeling anxious.
Set an Agenda For the Quarter or Up to a Year in Advance
As stated before, organizational skills for leaders of any ERG are essential–especially with the busy life a woman can have! One of the most important things for leaders to establish is setting an agenda full of activities, weekly meetings, and events in advance to give members time to see what they can and can’t attend according to their schedule.
It can be tough to try and plan activities and events so far in advance, but it can be a reason why so many members stay in the group. By setting up an agenda that is full of events for the next quarter or up to six months or a year can be beneficial to see what fits into every member’s schedule. It can also simply be emailed to members or made as an announcement to entice new people to join with goal expectations and how the impact of the group can and will be for the company.
Content Management Systems and Digital Signage: How Shift Can Improve Any Women’s ERG
Women’s ERG groups run more smoothly with digital signage to help organize their meetings and events!
Sometimes trying to find the best way to present meetings and announcements that get members of any women’s ERG group involved and engaged is key. A content management system can be exactly what your group needs–and Shift is a top choice that many businesses and franchises use to encourage employee engagement.
What is Shift?
It can be tough to engage staff in a meaningful and effective way–and sometimes emails and posters on a bulletin board aren’t eye-catching enough. Shift is a great option for many employers to use as it is a content management system that can broadcast announcements, send out reminders for meetings, and even highlight staff achievements using digital signage.
Shift’s main goal is to help employers–or even leaders of a women’s ERG–to build stronger connections with their staff members or co-workers. It can help increase engagement by allowing employees to feel recognized and appreciated for their work, while also highlighting important events coming up, and even increase retention.
Shift’s Unique Features to Improve Women’s ERG Meeting, Events, and Activities
Shift has so much to offer businesses to help improve the productivity, engagement, and retention of its employees, but what exactly can it do for a woman’s ERG? There are a bunch of unique features that this content management system can offer to group leaders and members using digital signage in a bright, eye-catching way.
Some of Shift’s most unique features include:
- Boost employee engagement through recognition and appreciation
- Celebrate staff birthdays, work anniversaries, and other achievements
- Show training videos
- Employee spotlights
- Interactive polls for staff to anonymously complete
- Expands internal communications
- Allows staff to retrain and re-skill in key trainings
- Helps leaders learn more about staff
- Encourages employees to do work harder
- Increases productivity
A Women’s ERG: Start a Group to Initiate Change and Build Meaningful Connections
Women are an important part of society and they can be just as strong as a man can be. A women’s ERG is a prime example of how women can better themselves and initiate changes within the company that they work for to gain more recognition for the things that they do, along with gaining more confidence and talking in a group that makes them feel supportive.
Consider using Shift and the tips in this essential women’s ERG guidebook to start building connections with other female staff and make a change!
