BOULDER CITY, Nev.–While employee resource groups (ERGs) are still relatively new to credit unions, one CU board member who is an executive with Xerox has shared experiences and lessons learned from that company’s long and pioneering history with ERGs.
It’s also an expertise being leveraged by the credit union in a new financial literacy initiative in partnership with the YWCA.
Speaking to a virtual Underground Xchange dedicated to ERGs and hosted by Mitchell Stankovic Associates, Roni Crichton, associate general counsel with Xerox and a board member with Kinecta FCU, said ERGs have proven to be effective for both employees and the company alike.
Crichton’s comments are being featured here as part of a week-long series on ERGs featuring comments made during the Underground Xchange. Prior stories in this series have included A ‘Clear Resource’ for Building DEI and 2 Veterans of Process Share Lessons Learnedm and Connection With Members, Employees is Goal.
The credit union for Xerox Corporation, the former Xerox FCU, changed its name to Xceed Financial Credit Union in 2008 and is now in the process of merging with Kinecta FCU.
First, Crichton shared the history of ERGs within Xerox, including how the groups have moved from initial resistance by management to being embedded in the company’s corporate governance.
The Origins
“As early as 1965 there were regional, what were then called caucus groups, within Xerox, starting with a Black Caucus group,” said Crichton. “A group of Black managers at Xerox went on a road show to all the different geographic caucus groups around the country and pulled them together in a group, which became the National Black Employees Association, which was initially significantly resisted by senior management at that time. It was just after the Detroit riots, which was motivating to the people forming the group, but not so much to the people in management. Ultimately, we prevailed.”
A decade after the formation of the National Black Employees Association was formed, the Black Women's Leadership Council was created.
“Really, it was an early recognition of the issue of intersectionality in diversity,” said Crichton. “At Xerox, we have since formed numerous corporate caucus groups, now called ERGs. We have an Asian, a Black, a LBGTQ+, a Hispanic, a women's alliance, a young professionals, a veterans group. I am just naming a few of them to show you the breadth of interests that people can have in ensuring that their group is adequately represented, that their group is heard. I think you don't know that breadth unless you have the employees bring it to you. Right now at Xerox, all of ERGs are employee-initiated. It is not up to management. This is from the ground up and is employee-led.”
That grassroots creation, said Crichton, is “really important for sustainability.” She added membership in all of the groups is open to employees who identify with that group as well as allies who support that group’s objectives.
“They are critical to the success of the EGS because, let's face it, the reason we need the ERG is because the people in them are not the people in an equal position of power,” said Crichton. “If they were we wouldn't need this. So, we need allies who are in the upper ranks of organizations, who have access to funds, to other people, who can bring more resources to the ERGs.”
Within Xerox each ERG has an executive sponsor in the C-suite, according to Crichton. The company’s CEO, for instance, is this year’s sponsor of the women’s alliance. Quarterly meetings are held with the executive sponsor who provides feedback and ideas and support as well as internal and external networking support for the group’s objectives.
Expanding ‘Thoughts’
“In in most cases it’s sort of expanding people's thoughts who are in the ERG because they sit at a certain level in the world,” Crichton said. “So, when they're thinking about how much money could we raise for scholarships or something like that and they have a number, the executive sponsor--and this actually happened this year–might say, ‘I think we could do five times that. I'll work my network.’ It changes the thinking and the perspective of the people in those ERGs about who they are, what they can do, how they can network and that's really important.”
Beginning in 2019, each ERG began making a quarterly presentation to the Xerox senior management group.
“That’s important for a few different reasons,” said Crichton. “One, it gives them an opportunity to talk about what their objectives are and to gain concurrence from the senior management. Two, it gives people visibility to that senior management group who would not have it otherwise. They go in and they give stunning presentations. They are tight and people are like, ‘Wait, who is that?’ People get job offers, people get noticed. It changes the whole road map of people's careers and then they can reach down and help other people. So, it has an enormous impact both in terms of achieving objectives and making those objectives joint objectives with the corporation, and moving people into positions of more responsibility so that they can reach back and provide more.”
An Occasional ‘Battle’
Crichton said Xerox’s ERGs collaborate with human resources, although she conceded that has at times been a “battle” depending on the company’s management structure and who holds certain positions. Support for ERGs has improved under the company’s current leadership, she said, but in the past there have been challenges in getting various pieces of information, such as how many black women work for the company, what positions they hold, etc.
“That's critical information, because if you get really broad statistics they're not really necessarily giving you the information that you need,” Crichton said. “Yes, we have this many Black people working at Xerox, but are they all in the lowest ranks? Are they within every organization or do we have pockets of the organization that haven't bought into this? How do I identify that? We talk about progress. So, there's 10% more Black people than there were last year--where are we in the organization? Now we have all of those statistics. They've trusted us to keep that information confidential and when we meet with (management) on a quarterly basis we examine those statistics. We now have a goal, too, and that goal is to increase the diversity on the Xerox board.”
Employee-Driven Agendas
Crichton said not only are the ERGs employee-developed, so is the agenda for those organizations once the ERGs are formed. That includes any activities the ERG might support. As an example, Crichton pointed to scholarships that have been funded for young Black women who have to meet certain requirements in terms of GPA and financial need.
“It's people who wouldn't have access to the things that they need to make that journey without it,” Crichton explained. “They also have a mentorship program for people within Xerox who need to see how things could be done. One of my mentees this year didn't know he had a human resources representative, didn't know there was a place he could go and see where jobs are posted, that that thing even existed.”
Crichton said she spoke with the mentee’s C-suite person about getting the related support in place and making changes. “We wouldn't know that without the mentorship program, without reaching in and finding out how are people struggling,” Crichton said.
Broad Range of Speakers
Crichton said Xerox’s ERGs bring in speakers “on every topic you can imagine,” while fireside chats are held with Xerox senior management at which employees can ask questions. She admitted that at times the questions need to be “tailored,” as they can be a bit provocative, so as to encourage senior managers to continue participating.
Prior to the pandemic, Crichton said Xerox held large, in-person events but it has since moved to virtual events, like nearly everyone else. That includes a fireside chat with the first Black woman to serve on the company’s board.
“When we have these large meetings we make sure that we bring in funding for them from sponsors,” said Crichton, noting the credit union has been among those sponsors. “In return the ERGs feature the sponsors as speakers, promote them and provide networking opportunities for the sponsors to meet with senior Xerox managers all the way up to the CEO. These are ways in which the ERGs make sure that people who are showing support for them, that they're showing support back and we all bring each other along further.”
A ‘Legacy’ Effort
Crichton said one initiative of which she is particularly proud is a partnership with Xceed/Kinecta that also involves the ERGs, and that is supporting a new financial literacy project. The program began with a local YWCA located where there’s a concentration of Xerox employees. The company’s community affairs and philanthropy offices are also providing support.
“We're pulling together financial education that meets the women who are residents at the YWCA where they live with what they need,” said Crichton. “It's not sophisticated finances; it's the finances that can really change lives. We’re setting it up because we had to define success. If they finish a block of classes, Kinecta will set them up with a fee-free credit union account and put a little bit of seed money in it and then they will get some more involvement. A financial advisor at Kinecta helps them realize that when you get a credit card you don't do this, you do that.”
Crichton described the effort as the creation of a “legacy.”
“They can then teach those same things to their families and you change not just that person but many people who follow after them,” Crichton said. “If we do well in the pilot, we will then roll it out nationally with the YWCA. We will provide mentors to those women so that they have ongoing mentorship not just in terms of their finances, but job interviews, all kinds of things that we know how to do, they're going to know how to do.”