EDI Case Study resource 2025
Spotlight on employee resource groups (ERGs)/networks/ inclusion groups
“Inclusion groups have had mixed results and impacts, in part because we weren’t clear when setting them up about their purpose and how they can make a contribution – we’re in the progress of resetting the groups” – IHPN member
Many of the organisations we spoke to were trying something new with regard to employee reference groups – having learned a lot over the past few years.
- Acacium Group realised that it had lots of groups, but with differing levels of engagement and impact. The plethora of groups had become time consuming and sometimes created problems in terms of prioritising actions between the groups. The Group has now switched to having one single underrepresented group – this not only helps reflect intersectionality, but it’s also a more inclusive approach that creates a community to address underrepresentation and prioritise action, rather than different coalitions of interest. It also creates a space for allies to participate without having to align with a specific protected characteristic.
- A large global management consultancy still has separate groups – including groups for women, the LGBTQ+ community and underrepresented ethnic groups. However, the groups are led, created and driven by the group members, with no steer or terms of reference from the business. This has led to other groups emerging including Veterans, Introverts, and Family Life. This approach means the groups can focus on what they think is important to them – whether that is just sharing and networking or whether that is pushing for change. It has required the business to be open to taking some risk – the groups might say or do things at times that the business might have done differently, but even that is an opportunity too for them to create what is valued rather than mandated.
A key learning from the Mining Remediation Authority (350 staff, £300m budget) is that employee networks can become genuine resources for the organisation but it takes more than booking a meeting room or sending a zoom link and sending a diary invite.
The Mining Remediation Authority have invested in building their networks effectively including:
- How to run a good network training and how to engage people training for each of the Chairs of the networks.
- Assumed half a day per month commitment from each Chair as part of resource planning and managers are strongly encouraged to support their staff to attend.
- Each network has a small budget which they can spend as they see fit – the Women’s Network for example have used this for having a speaker/webinar on imposter syndrome having done a survey on barriers to leadership. The budget enables the networks to have autonomy to focus on things important to them and create engagement and learning opportunities for all colleagues. to benefit fromAs the networks have matured, the larger networks have ‘sub committees’ so that smaller numbers of member can focus on specific topics and themes – increasing impact but reducing the time burden on the overall committee. The Women’s committee has sub committees including – women’s equality and empowerment, women’s health and women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This means the committees can start to do more of the doing and less of the talking. The networks also all have an executive sponsor , who proactively work with and support their relevant Chairs and networks and also create a direct line to our leadership team to share and discuss lived experiences and issues.The EDI lead –works closely with the Networks – the networks have full autonomy but she provides some support. She will support with any actions the networks or groups feel they need to make them more impactful. She also works with the Chairs to understand what the networks are focusing on to align it with the overall inclusion plan (the bigger impact the organisation is working towards) and vice versa.
- The goal is to create inclusive communities rather than spotlight excluded groups. This includes a thriving men’s group which focuses on the specific challenges of men in the workforce, including mental health, suicide, and other men’s health issues like prostate cancer and feeling reluctant to access healthcare for physical health issues. The group runs events including ‘walking football rounders’ and have regular ‘fuddles’ – meet ups with some food and coffee so they can have an open chat.
- Because a wide range of staff at all levels attend the networks naturally – if someone has a good idea it can easily be implemented directly without a huge bureaucratic sign off process. For example, a member of the health and safety team was in one meeting when someone mentioned the issue of having plasters for different skin tones. It was then easy for the health and safety team to immediately start buying the different type of plaster, no budget implications or major plan needed – a small and simple action that immediately boosted inclusion.
“We used to do lots but we need to balance the capacity of the networks – this is an area where ‘less is more'”