BOULDER CITY, Nev.–A new abbreviation, ERGs, has been slowly but steadily finding a place in credit unions as a means of not just advancing DEI, but also playing a role in attracting and retaining new employees and helping credit unions grow new markets. But it takes work to get to the payoff, according to two veterans of the process, who have shared their experiences and lessons with credit unions.
ERGs, or employee resource groups, are voluntary, employee-led groups that aim to foster diverse, inclusive workplaces. As attention to the importance of diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) has grown with the credit union community, so, too, have ERGs as a means of advancing DEI by bringing often-overlooked employee perspectives into the decision-making process.
During a virtual Underground Enterprise Xchange dedicated to ERGs and hosted by Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates, two people from organizations with more mature ERGs in place--Laura Sehres, VP-talent acquisition and DEI at PSCU and chair of the CUSO’s DEI steering committee, and Joe Hankey, senior diversity and inclusion manager for CUNA Mutual–shared what they have learned and offered advice to other credit unions and organizations seeking to further build out their own DEI initiatives and ERGs.
Sehres’ and Hankey’s comments are appearing here as part of a week-long series in CUToday.info examining both issues.
Beginning With Awareness
As it began its work Sehres said PSCU focused “heavily on the awareness pillar” and making the business case for why DEI was important to the organization.
In 2019, recalled Sehres, the CUSO took a “big step” in looking at its strategy and structure, including recognizing ERGs were a “clear resource.” As part of that recognition, it brought together all of its ERG group leaders.
“We decided to expand on this journey and really tie DEI to our overall business strategy,” Sehres explained.
That included a shift to BRGs, or Business Resource Groups, and interweaving those within the company’s end-to-end business solutions.
“We created new steering committee roles and really started to embed the BRGs in all facets of our organization,” said Sehres, noting the process included heavily embedding DEI into its entire talent ecosystem and then further into its business strategy. “As I mentioned, DEI is at the foundation of our culture. We also took kind of a stronger stance on embedding DEI into the culture by doing culture listening sessions with our employees and actually creating a role called ‘commitment to change’ on our steering committee. This commitment to change role is all about how do we shift from responsibility to accountability? How do we understand the imbalances that may be in our organization and then really identify those opportunities to correct those imbalances so that we can help our employees to succeed?”
How to Find the Answers
Sehres said the process of finding answers to those questions has included taking steps such as like looking at PSCU’s employee demographics and identifying areas where the company has underrepresented groups and then developing strategies for best advancing representation of those groups.
“The result is we are taking our road map and accelerating our road map so that we can mature more quickly in this space,” Sehres explained. “It is a journey and we do need to remember that Rome was not built in a day. You have to relentlessly keep chipping away at DEI so that we can continue to make year-over-year improvements and advancements as we continue to move this proverbial needle in the DEI space.”
An ‘Incredible Journey’
In describing CUNA Mutual’s approach and experience with ERGs and DEI, Hankey said, “I'll steal that word from Laura (Sehres): journey.
“We are definitely still on our journey and it's been an incredible journey to this point,” said Hankey. “It’s kind of an origin story as well around our diversity, equity and inclusion work. The work was happening very organically previously, but it really sped up for the organization in 2014 when Bob Trunzo became our current CEO and made inclusion a corporate value.
“I just want to call that piece out because I think it's incredibly important from a from a senior leadership perspective that there's that buy-in, that commitment to this work, because it is a journey,” Hankey continued. “It’s not always a linear journey and there will be bumps along the road. We’ve certainly had some successes but also some bumps. But knowing that we have senior leadership on board has been incredibly important for this work.”
Strengthening the Workforce
Hankey said CUNA Mutual has also incorporated DEI into its corporate strategy to strengthen both its current workforce and its future workforce.
“I think a lot of times you hear about diversity, equity and inclusion as an initiative or a program or a department, and we thought early on, yes, all of those things are true. But it's really important that it's something that's shared across the organizations, that there is shared accountability and that it is tied into our future as an organization,” said Hankey.
In recent years Hankey said CUNA Mutual has tailored what it is seeking to achieve with its DEI work, aiming to create a purpose and a vision around the work.
“We believe in fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their best self and thrive,” he told the Underground Xchange. “That's really important and from the purpose perspective, something we hope to embed. Again, it's a journey, but we hope to embed diversity and inclusion and make that a lens, a foundation for everything that we do.”
Not For Internal Use Only
But DEI isn’t just an internal focus with internal benefits, according to Hankey, who said it also brings deeper understanding -- and ROI – of consumers, communities and even its contractors, while also supporting CUNA Mutual’s corporate responsibilities.
For credit unions looking to implement or improve their own DEI efforts as well as implement employee resource groups, Hankey shared that for the first couple of years CUNA Mutual was really focused on training and on “getting everyone on the same page in terms of what we're even talking about around diversity. What’s the definition and then what does it mean for me as an individual employee in the organization? We spent a lot of time there, just with some of those basics, and moved quickly into thinking about why it's important for our organization, why it's important for our customers and why it’s important for that future state that we're all driving toward.”
CUNA Mutual has since built the “equity lens” into its training, he said.
A ‘Giant Wake-Up Call’
While much of that is abstract, Hankey said once the foundation was in place the company has since been able to move on to “operationalize” some of its work by evaluating policies and procedures, marketing campaigns and communications through that DEI lens.
“I think 2020 was in a lot of ways a giant wake-up call for our organization and our diversity, equity and inclusion work,” said Hankey, referring to both the pandemic’s effects on various populations and other social issues that merged. “It really gave us a chance to move from inclusion to belonging.”
Hankey said CUNA Mutual saw a 50% increase in employees participating in its ERGs during 2020.