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As companies look for different ways to improve office morale and worker retention amid a widespread engagement crisis, they’ve turned to employee resource groups, or ERGs.
These groups can focus on anything: shared lived experiences like affinity groups for Black and Latino workers, hobby clubs for workers who like knitting, or phase-of-life support groups for parents and other caregivers. They’re run by employees, and intended to provide additional support and camaraderie to workers with common interests.
Leading an ERG is considered an extracurricular activity by many companies, something that employees do in their spare time and for their own enjoyment. But as ERGs have grown in influence, some companies are taking those leadership roles more seriously, and compensating them accordingly.
It’s up to every CHRO how they want to engage with ERGs. But here’s a peek into how three different big companies are compensating their employee leaders, and why they decided to take the leap and offer various rewards for their ERG chiefs’ work.
Microchip company Micron, for example, offers their ERG chiefs stock options, while insurance company Allstate “pays” their employee leaders with time devoted to their resource group. And Software company Autodesk gives its ERG leaders and co-leaders a $10,000 bonus annually for their extra responsibilities.
“I see ERGs as a part, if not extension of, my team and our ability to scale what it means to belong at Autodesk,” Maxim Williams, Autodesk’s vice president of culture, diversity, and belonging, who leads the company’s diversity and belonging team, tells me. “It’s not just volunteer work, it’s not something that is extra.”
Read the full story here.
Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion
Today’s edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.
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Watercooler
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False promises. A report shows that 40% of companies put up fake job postings within the last year, in part so that burned out employees falsely believe that more staffing and help is on the way. —Sydney Lake
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Mom tax. A new study shows that working moms earn a lot less than working dads and lose out on around a half million dollars over the course of their career. —Orianna Rosa Royle