Employee Resource Groups Are The Corporate Diversity Solution You're Looking For
Since George Floyd's murder, I keep seeing posts on LinkedIn from DEI and HR professionals with some variation of this: "All of these CEOs are contacting me asking me what they can do..."
Establishing, supporting, and funding Black Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) is the solution those CEOs are looking for, as explained in detail in this article by Aiko Bethea, Equity Consultant.
From the article:
“In the past, ERGs were primarily a support network for people with shared identities, but now organizations rely on them for recruitment, retention, marketing, strategic guidance, and other business functions.”
That means ERGs are contributing directly to the bottom line.
Park Road Studios has a solution that will enable your company’s ERGs to be even more effective in supporting the mission of the organization, while making meaningful, lasting impact on corporate diversity.
The Corporate Talk Show
You’re already familiar with this.
This is the kind of show you and your C-suite executives are always trying to be interviewed on, whether it’s CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC or any other media outlet.
You want to be featured on these shows because you understand the power of video as a tool for thought leadership, recruiting, and advancing all kinds of corporate initiatives.
The Talk Show As A Tool For Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
I'm not talking about a talk show on diversity, I'm talking about a diverse talk show...one where the experts featured each week reflect the diversity of our world.
This is a tool that your company can use to achieve its business objectives more effectively and at a lower cost than what you're already doing.
Here’s How It Works
Your company can host its own industry-specific talk show that features diverse experts from your workforce every week who have been historically denied an opportunity to sit at the table and contribute.
Here’s a preview of what that can look like:
From Aiko’s article:
“Funding conference attendance is another potential form of compensation. Conferences for Black employees, such as the National Black MBA Conference, AfroTech, or the Corporate Counsel for Women of Color Conference, provide Black employees a way to feel less isolated, develop their network, and receive leadership and development training that speaks to their specific experiences.”
If you really want to leave a legacy of lasting change, creating a talk show that opens doors and unites us is one way to do it.
YouTube already has an audience waiting for you.
YouTube reaches more 18- to 49-year olds in a week than all cable networks combined.
Can you see how your company’s talk show could also help your recruiting and retention goals?
“Top leadership needs to proactively request direct input from Black employees on their concerns — and then act on those concerns. No matter how much data is collected, there is no substitute to having first-hand, transparent, and open conversations with Black employees and then heeding their guidance.”
Might your corporate talk show help with your leadership pipeline by providing a means for your Black executives to get the visibility that, if we’re being honest, they’ve been historically denied?
And as the episodes accumulate, your corporate talk show will prove to be a tremendous mentorship resource by providing career guidance and insights from senior level executives just sharing their stories and dispensing the advice that they wish they’d not had to learn the hard way.
That kind of mentorship resource is a tool for both retaining existing employees, as well as attracting new talent from the outside.
Recruiting Is Expensive
And losing great talent is even more expensive. This is especially true at the executive level.
If you want to recruit, retain, and promote more Black executives or more women executives or more Latinx executives, this is how you do it sustainably, with integrity, and in a way that costs less and is more effective than what you’re already doing.
This is not about charity.
This is about making the easy choice to do the right thing when the right thing also happens to be really smart business.
[RELATED: How Companies Can Really Support Black Lives Matter]
You Don’t Need CNN or Forbes or Bloomberg
Park Road Studios can help you start realizing the benefits of your own corporate talk show right away.
Owning your own media platform is much more effective and significantly less costly than trying to rent time on someone else’s.
When you decide you want to really make progress on corporate diversity and, in a broader context, social equity, Park Road Studios can help you do it.
[RELATED: How To Make Lasting Change By Supporting Black Businesses]
