Ten tips to accelerate an ERG's impact in its first year

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are critical to employee engagement and are good for business — especially in today’s shifting environment. But what if your organization is just getting started? Whether you're launching your first ERG or looking to grow a newly formed one, the path forward can feel uncertain.

For 25 years, Catalyst has been advising global organizations about how to plan, launch, grow, and evolve ERGs. At ENERGIZE 2025, we gathered five ERG leaders to share insights about their journeys and top tips to set up new ERGs for success.

Adrienne Figur, Partner/Principal, EY, used a multifaceted approach to recruit members for her BRG focusing on the Jewish community.

“We leverage the firm's collaboration resources, like Teams, to share information,” she said, and leverage a regular newsletter and QR codes to make joining easy.

Personal referrals are also important: “We've been trying to have leaders walk the halls in the office to connect one on one with people and create that personal touch,” she explains.

Another integral way to raise awareness about a company’s ERGs is to integrate it into employee onboarding. “It allows that person on day one to start thinking about ‘Where might I find my community or communities with EY?’“

When Brian DeMartino, Global HR Operations & Support Services Manager, Bechtel, created a BRG for employees with disabilities, he made sure to also open it to caretakers and allies, “recognizing that the network was going to be broad, and disability touches so many different things,” he says. ERGs should be open to all to broaden membership, encourage cross-collaboration, and operate in a legally sound way. “Some of our most engaged members have been our allies,” Figur notes.

Involve ERG members in helping determine the group’s activities to increase attendance and engagement. Figur explains: “When we solicit feedback on what areas we should focus on, to understand what our members and prospective members are seeking, that helps us drive the programming. And when you do that, it drives interest, and they're more likely to show up--and not just show up but also raise their hands to help.”

One way to grow an ERG is to facilitate the organization of new chapters. Provide resources and guidance while also recognizing that each location might have different needs.

Dana Ponciroli, Business Communications Manager, Syensqo, started a women’s ERG and explains: “We've provided resource guides and networked leaders with other regions to share best practices. We encourage specific sites to start their own chapters with the support of the global network so they can accommodate their employees, shift workers, local interests, and really localize activities.”

Ahmad Sabbarini, Managing Director, Technology Risk, EY, found that his MENA-region ERG needed to evolve as it grew. “At the beginning, it was four of us that had a unified vision, but then we added more people that had different ideas for activities,” he says. “You need the senior people to open doors, but it's so crucial to maintain that energy and bring in young people, and enable their ideas. Don't try to take your idea and push it on them. We take their idea, include it in our mission, and move on.”

Starting an ERG can be overwhelming, but Ponciroli advises that you don’t have to wait for a big event – what’s important is creating community. “We started at one site and didn't wait to have one big, splashy, perfect event. We just found reasons to get people together and start having a conversation: We had a book club, we had a cultural potluck event. We created opportunities for like-minded, passionate people to come together and talk and decide how we're going to help women achieve their full potential.”

For long-term success, ERGs need to cultivate support and collaboration within their organizations at all levels. When he started his ERG, DeMartino focused on building a network of champions. “And from there, we formed our first global board at the beginning of last year,” he says. Ponciroli adds that within that supportive circle, roles and responsibilities need to be defined: “Make sure there's clarity, everyone knows how they can help everyone else, and have specific asks for your executive sponsor.”

Creating and nurturing an ERG can be time-consuming and frustrating, but be patient, and be resourceful when you face a challenge. DeMartino advises: “If it doesn't happen overnight, don't panic. It may take time for that fire to catch.”

Sabbarini says that in his experience, “When a door closed, something opened up. If somebody left the firm, we found another Middle Eastern North African person that wanted to jump in. When we ran out of budget, we found financial support from EY. It takes a village. When we couldn't do something, we raised our hand and asked for help, and somebody raised their hand and helped us.”

The number of events and the number of members in an ERG aren’t as important as the value members get. Catalyst’s Executive Director, US, Kelly (Kleinkort) Montes, has worked with many ERGs and observes: “There's so much excitement when you first launch, and there's all of this ambition to do all the things, and what I find is that often when ERGs focus on quantity over quality, that typically leads to burnout.”

Sabbarini says that the founders of the MENA ERG agreed that “even helping one person in our community is a win. Don't define a win by numbers and by quantity. Define it by impact.”

To garner and keep organizational support, ERGs must demonstrate impact. Sabbarini says that measuring impact is “going to sustain you. I think you would find that every ERG touches your workers' lives and well-being every day. Just find a way to measure it.”